Esra Sarıgedik Öktem stepped down after the Istanbul Biennial appointed a member of its own board as curator in place of Defne Ayas, the agreed-upon candidate.
Istanbul Biennial
Posted inOpinion
You Can Never Be Complicit Enough for the Turkish Art World
As we consider the rejection of Defne Ayas as the curator of the next Istanbul Biennial, it’s time to examine how genocide denial has long been a staple of the art world in Turkey.
Posted inArt
Istanbul Biennial Asks, Can We Talk?
Spread across a dozen venues, with 500 contributors from almost 30 nations, the Biennial aims to draw in a public estranged by politics and two years of pandemic lockdowns.
Posted inArt
Photographing History’s Silences and Gaps
A former journalist, Sim Chi Yin came to question the primacy of archival sources after realizing the deliberate decisions behind what gets included or excluded.
Posted inArt
At the Istanbul Biennial, Pondering Just How Scared We All Are — or Should Be
In The Seventh Continent, installations don’t so much play off one another as lead to a feeling of fatigue, as one ponders a stream of disparate weighty topics in rapid succession.
Posted inArt
The Istanbul Biennial Examines the Tricky Question of What Makes a “Good Neighbor”
Dealing with themes of surveillance, personal and shared space, and what defines home in film, installation, and more.
Posted inArt
Remembering the Light in Dark Times: Dispatches from the Turkish Art World
Conversations with artists reveal a dark mood, and everyone is focused on one topic: When to leave? Where to go? What to do in the meantime?
Posted inArt
Gathering Gossip and Parsing Truth at the Istanbul Biennial
ISTANBUL — “Gossip,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is “trifling or groundless rumour.” I actually like to think of it as knowledge, but the kind that’s not considered true or rational — at least not yet anyway.
Posted inArt
Chasing Ghosts Through Bathhouses and Cisterns at the 14th Istanbul Biennial
ISTANBUL — Caroline Christov-Bakargiev’s highly anticipated Istanbul Biennial, SALTWATER, A Theory of Thought Forms, is not exactly a straightforward affair.
Posted inArt
Beyond the Biennial, Three Artists Fight Isolation in Istanbul
With the opening of the 14th Istanbul Biennial this September, the galleries are at a clear disadvantage, and from the dozen or so shows open in the city at the moment, it is relatively difficult to find works that resonate beyond their local context. Still, there are some hidden gems outside the most predictable venues.
Posted inArt
Art that Opens Our Eyes to Istanbul’s Political Disintegration
ISTANBUL — The ground was literally shaking as we walked into the dilapidated Rizzo Palace on the island of Büyükada, the biggest of the Prince Islands of Istanbul.
Posted inArt
A Tale of Two Cities: Istanbul Biennial and Istanbul Modern
ISTANBUL — Istanbul has launched a full frontal assault to claim its place amongst rising art centers by hosting the complex and provocative Istanbul Biennial, as well as a massive all-inclusive history of the city’s female artists, Dream and Reality – Modern and Contemporary Women Artists from Turkey at the Istanbul Modern right next door. The timing and juxtaposition of these two shows is not haphazard and should be viewed as twin prongs of an interior exploration and bold emergence.
