The Goal of the Project

Istanbul Biennial prides itself with being the largest presenter of performing and visual arts in Turkey. Its efforts have been instrumental to the growth of new artistic and cultural outlets in Turkey and have also provided a unique platform for international collaborations, both of which are necessary for greater global understanding.

The Biennial has instigated the proliferation of contemporary artists and institutions, and has also been the venue and platform where many artists have had their first major exposures - artists who would have otherwise had little opportunity for international recognition. The objectives of the Biennial also include establishing an open-ended international visual art exchange between artists from different cultures, expanding the horizon of the immense youth population in Turkey by filling the vacuum resulting from the lack of a contemporary art museum, and promoting a world-wise dialogue on mutual knowledge of the culture and history of Istanbul.

The Impact of the Project

The Biennial's significance has a broader impact than many biennials organized in other countries, since it focuses on the surrounding regions such as the Balkans, the Middle-East and Central Asia, thus providing an opportunity for a dialogue between different artistic positions from these regions and the rest of the world. The opportunity for the development of an international cultural network has been secured not only for the Turkish art scene but also for the international artists, curators and art critics.

11th International Istanbul Biennial will be open under the curatorship of What, How and for Whom/WHW; an independent curatorial collective and non-profit organization based in Zagreb, Croatia. The fact that WHW is a collective and non-institutional initiative of four women whose activities are rooted in the social reality of so-called "marginal geography" will be extremely important as a starting point for developing curatorial concept of the next Istanbul Biennial.

The set of issues related to Turkey's geopolitical role as well as the questions of economic paths and routes of migration and commerce are starting points for research not only within the exact geopolitical maps, but from the perspective of artistic production and inter-disciplinary research. The format of the next Biennial aims to overcome and question its representative role -not to negate or abandon it, but rather to profile and strengthen it as a tool that engages in and initiates dialogue, and critically reflects on its own framework.