Karolina Halatek’s Echo explores light, space, and perception

Echo by Karolina Halatek, located within Istanbul’s renowned Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM), offers a somaesthetic exploration of light, space, and perception. Its open form allows visitors to enter the installation. They can pause and observe the relationship between their body and the space. The shift in perspective, from an external, object-oriented point of view to an inward gaze, creates a new dimension, a new reality in which the viewer becomes the central point. In the context of working with trauma, the body’s memory plays a crucial role. As Gabor Maté notes: ‘People who have experienced trauma often disconnect from their bodies because they are in pain. And yet, true healing requires a reconnection with the body.’ Paying attention to psychosomatic sensations and recognizing them as important, can be a powerful therapeutic tool for accessing deep memories and areas in need of healing.

Echo is installed inside Istanbul’s Atatürk Cultural Center | image by Karolina Halatek

Light, architecture, and sculpture converge in Echo installation

Following Rumi’s reasoning, ‘the wound is the place through which the light enters you.’ Echo evokes a heightened awareness of presence and, like the quantum entanglement of photons, points to a parallel version of reality with infinite potential. Echo was exhibited during Digital Art Festival Istanbul, June 3rd to June 7th, 2026. Karolina Halatek’s works are catalysts for experience. Using light as her central medium, the designer creates site-specific installations that integrate visual, architectural, and sculptural elements. She studied Design for Performance at UAL (UK), Fine Arts at UdK Berlin, and Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland, and took part in Olafur Eliasson’s Institut für Raumexperimente. Halatek is a PhD candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and a visiting researcher at the Lighting Lab, Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen.

the installation explores light, space, and perception | image by Karolina Halatek

an open form invites visitors to enter | image by Ibrahim Boran

light defines the installation’s architectural presence | image by Ibrahim Boran

Echo draws on the concept of embodied memory | image by Karolina Halatek

circular geometry frames the immersive environment | image by Karolina Halatek

visual, architectural, and sculptural elements merge into one installation | image by Karolina Halatek

project info:

name: Echo

artist: Karolina Halatek | @karolinahalatek

location: Istanbul, Turkey 

venue: Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM) | @akmistanbul

event: Digital Art Festival Istanbul 

photographers: Karolina Halatek, Ibrahim Boran

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