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 (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. 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 *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 *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 *2009 - ''What Keeps Mankind Alive?''. Curators: WHW / What, How & for Whom *2011 - ''Untitled''. Curators: Adriano Pedrosa and Jens Hoffmann *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 *2019 - ''The Seventh Continent''. Curator: Nicolas Bourriaud *2022 - (postponed 2021 biennial) ''Untitled''. Curators: Ute Meta Bauer, Amar Kanwar and David Te *2025 - Curator: Iwona Blazwick

Past participating artists

9th Istanbul Biennial, 2005

12th Istanbul Biennial, 2011

The 12th Istanbul Biennial was curated by Jens Hoffmann 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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''.

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