The Istanbul Biennial is a

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic ...

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibitio ...

that has been held biennially in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

, since 1987. The Biennial has been organised by the

Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts ( tr, İstanbul Kültür Sanat Vakfı, İKSV) is a non-profit foundation, based in Turkey. It was founded in 1973 by seventeen businesspeople and art enthusiasts led by Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı The g ...

(IKSV) since its inception.

Format

Istanbul Biennial adheres to an exhibition model in which the curator, appointed by an international advisory board, develops a conceptual framework according to which a variety of artists and projects are invited to the exhibition. After the first two biennials realized under the general coordination of Beral Madra in 1987 and 1989, IKSV decided to commission a different curator for each edition, starting with the 1992 Istanbul Biennial directed by Vasif Kortun. Istanbul's 13th biennial in 2013 was overtaken by political events; its theme was art in public spaces but was forced to retreat indoors after many of the scheduled venues filling with plumes of tear gas and water cannon as police and demonstrators clashed had been tuned into a battleground between demonstrators trying to protect the city's Gezi Park. The 2015 edition presented new works by more than 50 visual artists as well as oceanographers and neuroscientists.

Past biennials

*1987 - ''Contemporary Art in Traditional Spaces''. General Coordinator: Beral Madra *1989 - ''Contemporary Art in Traditional Spaces''. General Coordinator: Beral Madra *1992 - ''Production of Cultural Difference''. Director: Vasif Kortun *1995 - ''Orient-ation – The Image of Art in a Paradoxical World''. Curator: René Block *1997 - ''On Life, Beauty, Translations and Other Difficulties.'' Curator: Rosa Martinez *1999 - T''he Passion and the Wave''. Curator: Paolo Colombo *2001 - ''Egofugal – Fugue from Ego for the Next Emergence''. Curator:

Yuko Hasegawa Yuko Gordon (née Hasegawa; ja, ユーコ・ゴードン; born 23 February 1951) is a Japan-born Hong Kong long-distance runner who competed mainly in the marathon. She represented her country in that event at the 1984 Summer Olympics and the 19 ...

*2003 - ''Poetic Justice''. Curator: Dan Cameron *2005 - ''İstanbul''. Curators:

Charles Esche Charles Esche (born 1962, in England) is a museum director, curator and writer. His focus is on art and how it reflects, provokes and influences changes in society. He lives between Edinburgh and Eindhoven. Career Since 2004, he has been director o ...

and Vasif Kortun *2007 - ''Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary: Optimism in the Age of Global War''. Curator:

Hou Hanru Hou Hanru (; born 1963 in Guangzhou, China) is an international art curator and critic based in San Francisco, Paris and Rome. He is Artistic Director of the MAXXI in Rome, Italy. Biography Hou graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts ...

*2009 - ''What Keeps Mankind Alive?''. Curators: WHW / What, How & for Whom *2011 - ''Untitled''. Curators: Adriano Pedrosa and

Jens Hoffmann Jens Hoffmann Mesén (born 1974 in San José, Costa Rica) is a writer, editor, educator, and exhibition maker. His work has attempted to expand the definition and context of exhibition making. From 2003 to 2007 Hoffmann was director of exhibitio ...

*2013 - ''Mom, am I barbarian?'' Curator: Fulya Erdemci *2015 - ''SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms''. Drafter: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev *2017 - ''A Good Neighbour''. Curators:

Elmgreen & Dragset Michael Elmgreen (born 1961; Copenhagen, Denmark) and Ingar Dragset (born 1969; Trondheim, Norway) have worked together as an artist duo since 1995. Their work explores the relationship between art, architecture and design. Elmgreen & Dragset li ...

*2019 - ''The Seventh Continent''. Curators:

Nicolas Bourriaud Nicolas Bourriaud (born 1965) is a curator and art critic, who has curated a great number of exhibitions and biennials all over the world. With Jérôme Sans, Bourriaud cofounded the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, where he served as codirector from ...

*2022 - (postponed 2021 biennial) ''Untitled''. Ute Meta Bauer, Amar Kanwar and David Teh

Past participating artists

9th Istanbul Biennial, 2005

12th Istanbul Biennial, 2011

The 12th Istanbul Biennial was curated by

and Adriano Pedrosa, and ran from September 17 – November 13, 2011. The shows spanned two buildings at Istanbul's Antrepo.

Group exhibitions

* "Untitled" (Ross) * "Untitled" (History) * "Untitled" (Abstraction) * "Untitled" (Passport) * "Untitled" (Death by Gun)

Solo artists

Past venues

The 2009 biennial took place at three venues on the European side of the city: Antrepo, or warehouse, No. 3 in Tophane; the Tobacco Warehouse, also in Tophane; and the Feriköy Greek School, in Şişli. All of the art selected for the 2011 edition was shown at one central location, in Warehouses No. 3 and 5 next to the Istanbul Modern museum.Susanne Fowler (September 15, 2011)
Istanbul Biennial: One Location, Many Attitudes
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New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

References

External links

* {{Coord missing, Turkey Contemporary art exhibitions Culture in Istanbul Turkish contemporary art Art biennials 1987 in art 1987 establishments in Turkey Recurring events established in 1987