Aykan Safoğlu was born in Istanbul in 1984. After graduating from Istanbul Bilgi University, where he studied film, he completed a master′s degree in Art in Context at the University of the Arts Berlin in 2010. He also completed his MFA in Photography at Bard College in New York in 2013. Since 2005, Safoğlu has made several short films and published articles and reviews in various magazines. He has participated in and curated a number of group exhibitions. In 2013, he received the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen in the 59th international Short Film Festival Oberhausen for his short film Kırık Beyaz Laleler(Off-White Tulips). Safoğlu was awarded a 2014 residency at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. He lives and works in Berlin.