Points That Connect Worlds: My Conversation with Hatiye Garip About Accessible Art at the UTOPIA Opening

07/11/2026

Conversation with Hatiye Garip at UTOPIA: About her tactile artwork “Finding the Dots”, accessible art, inclusion and participation.

As part of the opening of our current exhibition “UTOPIA – Breakthrough or Collapse? ” at the Kunstverein Wunstorf, I had the opportunity to host a very special artist talk. I had the great pleasure of speaking with the incredibly talented artist Hatiye Garip about her impressive, tactile work “Finding the Dots”. Also participating in the conversation was Nico Walter, Inclusion Specialist at Lebenshilfe Hannover, who praised Hatiye Garip’s outstanding artistic contribution, which enables people to truly engage with art through her work. It was a wonderful, profound exchange that showed both the audience and me just what a thoughtful, sensitive, and simply outstanding artist Hatiye is.

The Inspiration: A Ladybug in the Viennese Rain

I was particularly moved by the story behind the creation of the work. Hatiye told me that the idea came to her during an artist residency in Vienna. She was watching a little ladybug from her window. In the pouring rain, it looked to her as if the ladybug had lost its spots and now had to go looking for them.

From this poetic observation, she immediately drew a brilliant analogy to Braille, which also uses tactile dots. This gave rise to the vision for an accessible, nine-part comic that bridges the gap between visual and tactile perception.

A Comic You Can Feel

With “Finding the Dots”, Hatiye breaks down the purely visual boundaries of the traditional comic. Visitors to our exhibition are expressly invited to touch the artwork. Every line, shape, and structure comes to life beneath their fingertips. In doing so, Hatiye creates an inclusive space that perfectly aligns with our utopian guiding principle: the journey toward a world accessible to all people.

About the Artist: International Career

Hatiye Garip earned her bachelor’s degree in Visual Communication Design from Istanbul Bilgi University and her master’s degree from Özyeğin University. In her master’s thesis, she conducted an in-depth study of the portrayal of disabilities in illustrated children’s books—a foundation that is evident in every aspect of her work today. Her international career is marked by high-profile publications and awards:

International Publications: Her illustrations have appeared in renowned publications such as The Washington Post, among others. She also writes and illustrates her own books,
Pioneering Work in Tactile Design: She already made a big splash with her acclaimed, accessible comic “The Land of Uncertainty” (supported by the Accessible Comics Collective at San Francisco State University). The work was named “Book of the Month” by the renowned Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration and celebrated in the design magazine It’s Nice That.
Exhibitions: Her works are exhibited worldwide and set new standards for breaking down barriers in the cultural sector.

Visit the exhibition at the Abbey

Experience this extraordinary work and many other visionary comic worlds for yourself—with your own eyes and hands. The exhibition runs through July 26, 2026.