The 14th Istanbul Biennial Takes Over the City with the “Saltwater” theme, September 5-November 1
This year the Istanbul Biennial will literally take over the entire city. Expanding to more than thirty spaces and more than eighty participating artists under the curatorship of Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev it will welcome its visitors in a diversity of places including boats, gardens and private residences. Following a historical route and tracing Istanbul’s architectural heritage through the Bosphorus departing from Rumelifeneri, extending to Büyükada through Şişli and Beyoğlu including the Historical Peninsula, the biennial will refrain from handling saltwater as a purely abstract concept and will often make the visitors walk on it. And not only will they be introduced to new art works, but they will also familiarize themselves with objects from the history of marine sciences, environmental studies, underwater archaeology, physics and history of mathematics. Another particular aspect of this year’s biennial is the curator’s decision to establish direct curatorial collaborations with various artists including Cevdet Erek, Aslı Çavuşoğlu, Emre Hüner, Füsun Onur, Elvan Zabunyan and William Kentridge.
Composed of three principal routes, mainly Galata-Tophane-Beyoğlu, Kabataş-Kadıköy-Büyükada and Şişli-Rumelifeneri, the biennial map features some of the following stops: İstanbul Modern, Arter, Salt, The House Hotel, GalataGreek Elementary School, Museum of Innocence, Kaptan Paşa Seabus, Büyükada Public Library, Küçük Mustafa Paşa Hamam, Rumelifeneri.
Photograph: Taken from IKSV , the Biennial Locations page.
Click for impressions from the biennial: Vol. 1, Vol. 2