The İstanbul Biennial, held every two years since 1987 by the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, is meeting with art lovers for the 17th time. The 17th Istanbul Biennial, which we can see from the curatorial text that the art adventure will be different from the previous biennials, will open on September 17 and can be visited in many venues in İstanbul until November 20. Let's take a look at what awaits us.
Andrián Villar Rojas, The Most Beautiful of All Mothers, 2015, Photo Credit: Jorg Baumann
The event was organized within the scope of plastic art exhibitions within the scope of the "International Istanbul Festival" until 1987 and was transformed into a more comprehensive and interactive art program after this date, and started to be organized as the İstanbul Biennial under the general coordination of Beral Madra.
Sam Samore, Magic Bed, 1999, Photo Credit: Serkan Taycan
The İstanbul Biennial was the general coordinator in 1987 and 1989 by Beral Madra and has been coordinated with curators from many different nations until today. The biennial is hosting artists and visitors from different cultures creating a meeting point in İstanbul with this aspect. The artists are included in the exhibition model in the event, enabling dialogue between each other and the audience through their works, rather than a national representation. The exhibited works are determined by the biennial curators and invited artists who will reflect the conceptual framework of that year.
Esra Ersen, The Encounter, 1995, Photo Credits: Muammer Yanmaz, Aylin Özmete
The large-scale event, which arouses great curiosity from visitors every time, creates routes that are open to discovering different points of the city with new artists and their new works around a determinate topic. The works exhibited at different points in İstanbul bring the visitors together physically and invite them to a mentally intriguing dialogue.
Monster Chetwynd, Hybrid Creature Series, 2019
The curators of the 17th İstanbul Biennial, Ute Meta BAUER, Amar KANWAR, and David TEH make an introduction to the conceptual framework of the biennial with the text they published:
‘’Rather than a great tree, laden with sweet, ripe fruit, this biennial seeks to learn from the birds’ flight, form the once teeming seas, form the earth’s slow chemistry of renewal and nourishment. There may be no great gathering, no orchestrated coming together, but they will multiply and diverge, at different paces, crossing here and there but with no noisy culmination, no final knot. Let this biennial be composting. It may begin before it is to begin and continue well after it is over.’’
23 different public and learning programs await us for this year's biennial. It seems that the most intriguing of the works in the program will be the American radical puppet theater "Bread and Puppet Theater". İKSV called on volunteers for an art show before the biennial carried out its work in groups at Istanbul Bilgi University. The team and volunteers made giant puppets using waste materials and pulp and choreographed the performances. Also, the program information can be found on the official website of İKSV.
Bread and Puppet, The image is taken from biennial.iksv.org.
A total of 451,387 people visited the 16th İstanbul Biennial, the theme of "The Seventh Continent", which was held in 2019, in 3 different venues. This year, the biennial will host its visitors in 12 venues such as Metro İstanbul Approach Tunnel Taksim, SAHA Studio, Central Greek Girls' High School, Museum Gazhane, Barın Han, Çinili Hamam, and Büyükdere35.
Let's explore together the 17th İstanbul Biennial, organized by the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts and sponsored by Koç Holding. We know that the event, which was postponed for 1 year due to the pandemic, will host great work and new experiences that will be remembered for a long time and will welcome us. As DENDRO Parquet Flooring Inc., we continue to compile artistic and cultural news and share important information about wood with you. You can visit www.dendro.com.tr/en to access our articles on the developments in art and wooden products.
References:
bienal.iksv.org
