Paulina Akbay (*1997, Istanbul) is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, as well as an aspiring researcher and curator based in Cologne, Germany. They hold an interdisciplinary media degree (BA) from the University of Cologne and are currently developing their diploma project at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM). During their studies, they also spent an exchange semester at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (die Angewandte).

Working across photography, film, curatorial practice, and (visual) research, Akbay explores how memory, community, time, place, and imagination intersect with visual culture and broader social processes. Their work investigates how these relationships manifest in spaces, bodies, surfaces, and images, asking how individual experiences become entangled with political, cultural, and ecological structures, and how future imaginaries can be anchored in the present.

Alongside their artistic work, Akbay is developing a research-based curatorial approach centred on visual culture, archives, and interdisciplinary knowledge production. They are particularly interested in socially engaged artistic practices and collaborations that explore how the arts can contribute to new ways of thinking and imagining.