The Istanbul Biennial is a

contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...

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, exhibiti ...

that has been held biennially in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, since 1987. The Biennial has been organised by the

Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts ( Turkish: ''İstanbul Kültür Sanat Vakfı''), abbreviated İKSV, is a not-for-profit arts organization based in Istanbul to promote classical music, theatre, jazz, and plastic arts. The İKSV was fo ...

(IKSV) since its inception. Istanbul Biennial plays a crucial role in the cultural life by bringing together local and international artists to initiate a productive conversation for a wide range of audiences, such as art professionals, students, as well as pensioners.

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 Vasif Kortun (born November 6, 1958) is a curator, writer and educator in the field of contemporary art, its institutions, and exhibition practices. Kortun served as the founding director of several international institutions, including SALT (instit ...

. 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 Gezi Park is an urban park next to Taksim Square, in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district (historically known as Pera). It is one of the last green spaces in Beyoğlu and one of the smallest parks of Istanbul. In May 2013, plans to replace the park with ...

. 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:

*1995 - ''Orient-ation – The Image of Art in a Paradoxical World''. Curator:

René Block René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name (Renée being the feminine ...

*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; ; 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 The 1984 Summer Olympics (offici ...

*2003 - ''Poetic Justice''. Curator:

Dan Cameron Dan Cameron (born February 12, 1956, in Utica, New York) is an American contemporary art curator. He has served as senior curator for Next Wave Visual Art at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), an annual exhibition of emerging Brooklyn-based artists ...

*2005 - ''İstanbul''. Curators: Charles Esche and

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

Hou Hanru Hou Hanru ( zh, s=侯瀚如, t=侯瀚如, p=Hóu Hànrú; born 1963) is a Chinese-born art curator and art critic. He is based in San Francisco, Paris and Rome. He was artistic director of the National Museum MAXXI in Rome, Italy, from 2013 to ...

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

Adriano Pedrosa Adriano Pedrosa (born 1965) is a Brazilian curator. He is the artistic director of the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) and curated the 2024 Venice Biennale. Career From 2011 to 2014, Pedrosa was responsible for the artistic programs at SP-Art ...

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 exhibit ...

*2013 - ''Mom, am I barbarian?'' Curator: Fulya Erdemci *2015 - ''SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms''. Drafter:

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (born December 2, 1957) is an Italian-American writer, art historian, and exhibition maker who served as the Director of Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea in Turin in 2009 and from 2016 to 2023. She was al ...

*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''. Curator:

Nicolas Bourriaud Nicolas Bourriaud (born 1965) is a French curator and art critic, who has curated a great number of exhibitions and biennials all over the world. Career Bourriaud was the Paris correspondent for '' Flash Art'' (1987–1995) and the founder and ...

*2022 - (postponed 2021 biennial) ''Untitled''. Curators:

Ute Meta Bauer Ute Meta Bauer (born 1958). She is an international curator, professor of contemporary art and the director of the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) in Singapore. Early life and education Bauer was born in 1958 in Stuttgart, Germany. She studie ...

, Amar Kanwar and David Te *2025 - Curator:

Iwona Blazwick Iwona Maria Blazwick OBE (born 14 October 1955) is a British art critic and lecturer. She is currently the Chair of the Royal Commission for Al-'Ula’s Public Art Expert Panel. She was the Director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London fro ...

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
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''.

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