English
Between the 17th of September and the 13th of November, Istanbul gets ready to celebrate, with the Istanbul Biennale 2011, a gathering of the best contemporary artists, art theorists, and international public in the name of seeing, and contemplating art and creation.
The Biennale is organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and the Arts (IKSV) which since 1987 has been successfully running this event now considered to be one of the most important, exciting arenas for the world of international art. The Biennale has paved the way for an international cultural network covering all spheres of art, and has been a great generator for great cultural tourism.
Today the Istanbul Biennale competes with the most prestigious art gatherings in the world such as the Venice, Sydney and Sao Paolo Biennales. Its creators had the brilliant idea of designing a model of exhibition which is open to a dialogue between the artists and the spectators, which goes by the motto: Contemporary art in traditional spaces, changing the relationship between the artist and the museum – an institution historically accused of being an elitist space.
The geographical situation of Istanbul makes it a connecting point between Europe and Asia; thus a collision the East and West, so it was essential that the project be a place open to transcultural dialogue.
The curator of this year´s Biennale are Jens Hoffmann and Adriano Pedrosa, who have conceptualised the event as a space which will attempt to explore the relationship between art and politics. In this edition, the exhibited works will express a clear political dimension, having been chosen for their innovative part in emerging arts. To these ends, the spaces will be organised around five grouped exhibitions and 45 individuals.
The name Biennale Untitled is taken from the name of the piece by Cuban artist Felix Gonzales Torres, to whom they are paying tribute. Gonzales Torres titled his work Untitled, and placed the rest of the title in brackets. The work of this great artist was shown a year after his death at the Istanbul Biennale, and this year his name and artwork lend the general theoretical and aesthetic concept. There will be screened a film about the Biennale in the section titled “Untitled (film)“, along with ten other films inspired by the links and relations between art and politics.
Curator Jens Hoffmann is a writer who was born in San Jose in Costa Rica in 1974. Throughout his eventful life he´s been involved in various biennales and exhibitions, such as the Lyon Biennale, and the first Berlin Biennale. He has worked at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, amongst many other prestigious museums in both Europe and the United States.
Adriano Pedrosa was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1965. His curation work has incorporated several different exhibitions, and the Sao Paolo Biennale. He writes for specialist magazines, and has edited important artist´s and exhibition catalogues.
For more information http://bienal.iksv.org/tr
Nancy Guzman
The Biennale will be organising various different cultural activities, creating meeting of art and culture. A great way to spend the end of the summer, by renting apartments in Istanbul
Translated by: Poppy
