The Triangle Project

The concept of the Biennial:

Optimism in the Age of Global War

The 10th İstanbul Biennial will not be thematic exhibition in the traditional manner; rather, it will emphasise artistic production based on collective intelligence and the living process of negotiating with physical sites.

The Biennial will focus on urban issues and architectural reality as a means of exposing different cultural contexts and artistic visions regarding the complex and diverse form of modernity.

The current mutation of the global art scene reflects the restructuring of the world order prompted by the inventions and realizations beyond the traditional hegemonic vision of the West. This tendency is naturally the focus of the upcoming İstanbul Biennial.

The unique context of Turkey provides a perfect location and momentum for artistic and cultural expolarations of such an issue. It represent aspiration and optimism- it’s a kind of a realizable utopia. We are living in a an age of globalization and its impact on different parts of the world not only create economic cultural and social progress, but also spread conflicts and wars all over. Facing such a reality, better visions of our life and society driven by the dynamism of modernization and certain utopian idealism are urgently needed. Such endeavours are not only possible. They are also necessary.

As one of the Non-Western Biennial, İstanbul Biennial is now achieving a real maturity. How to re-engage the Biennial to invent new local conditions facing the challenge of globalizations is crucial. It implies continous effort to produce a new locality for more open, complex, multicultural and creative artistic and cultural activities.

The 10th Biennial will more intimately engage itself to the contemporary urban reality by highlighting the interactions between artistic creations and exchange, Articulating the city as a site of production and exchange, the Biennial looks to turn itself into an immense laboratory for artist from both Turkey and all around world to explore such possibilities and even necessities of transformation. The Biennial therefore systematically expreimenttal and committed to the dialogs between the artists and local public. So Biennial, instead of exposing any definite concept, is a platform of imagination, dialogue and production.