Yilmaz Vurucu
Film and video artist, researcher, writer. Subjects of interest include community activation, social inclusion, sustainability, hyper-capitalism, individuality and precaritization, totalitarian systems of thought (cults), and coercive thought reform. My methodology includes ethnographic research, reflection, categorization of common patterns and the creation of what I call “poetic moments of visual exploration through fiction.”

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More about Yilmaz Vurucu

I’ve written and directed award-winning short films and documentaries, experimented with visual techniques and new technologies, produced music videos, TV campaigns and commercials. These days, I use my “superpowers” to give voice to differing standpoints in society: I follow and document the stories of communities and initiatives that strive for change, social inclusion and sustainability. I use use storytelling as a tool that ignites exchange, promotes participation and activates communities. I’m currently active in EU funded projects such as Poseidon (promoting positive energy neighbourhoods in the Mediterranean) and Fair Mobility (focusing on participative mobility planning from a female and gender minority perspective), as well as Erasmus projects such as CHAC (using oral storytelling to discover history from a citizens perspective) and BioYouToon (promoting biodiversity sustainability through comic book creation). I’ve recently completed my artistic research on the language techniques of authoritarian groups and their coercive methodologies on structuring group thinking patterns as part of my masters thesis at the Fine Arts Academy in Vienna, and am currently occupied researching the economic and social relations of nomadic groups (referred to as Yörüks) in Anatolia.

Recent Publications

Reproducing Coercion
Reproducing coercion is my Master’s thesis. It consists of a book and a film: both pieces of work compliment each other and provide a detailed exploration of authoritarian group (commonly referred to as cults) coercive techniques. The films offer visual poetics that support the scientific work and portray the end results of the techniques explored – from the perspective(s) of cult members. The work identifies the characteristics of high-demand groups; explores the parallels between various forms of capitalist ideology and high-demand groups, and journeys into labour, hierarchy, and compartmentalization of the workplace, exploring how systems are reproduced and how they endure through repetition.
The PED Manifesto
The PED manifesto was born out of our experiences while creating positive energy districts for case studies in the DUT-funded PED-ACT project. Through the participation processes we were engaged in, we realized that a crucial part of establishing PEDs was to bring citizens and citizen groups together, to help them develop and initiate projects in their own way. We also realized society exists as part of structures that determine and allow space for courses of actions, so the energy transition requires much more than technical solutions. It requires a holistic approach.

Further Links

Written by Yilmaz Vurucu

Wonderland workshop at Klimacamp 2025

Wonderland Joins POSEIDON project partners in Marseilles

Mies. Shuffle 2020 – Mies.in Wonderland

LET’S SHUFFLE This year has been crazy and eventful. While most of the year was spent at home in lockdown, many creatives where facing challenges of how to produce videos

Quarantine Live Lecture Series Mies.in Wonderland

video channels on architecture

Of Shapers and Spectators (Biennale Screening)

The international video platform for architecture Mies. TV present in cooperation with Wonderland Architecture – an architecture film night in Venice. As a Mies. in wonderland event (part of Movies

list of wonderland projects

the wonderland journey Wonderland started as a wish to create projects, which can improve our (future) lives in the built environment. Our journey started in 2002 in the Austrian county

SUPERfestival is coming on next 12-13-14 October 2018!

After almost three years of SUPER the festival of peripheries – and 23 tours in peripheral neighbourhoods, 7 thematic workshops within the “7 days of Super” program, 10 projects developed

SUPERfestival is coming on next 12-13-14 October 2018!

After almost three years of SUPER – and 23 tours in peripheral neighbourhoods, 7 thematic workshops involving citizen initiatives from the whole city of Milan, 10 projects developed by creative