Istanbul Biennial announces next year’s theme

Details of next year's 14th Istanbul Biennial, a citywide exhibition organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (Ä°KSV), have been announced.

The biennial will be open at venues across Istanbul between Sept. 5 and Nov. 1, 2015, and its title and framework, “Saltwater: A Theory of Thought Forms,” was drafted by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and a number of partners.

“The 14th Istanbul Biennial looks for where to draw the line, to withdraw, to draw upon and to draw out,” Christov-Bakargiev said at a press conference on Sept. 10.

“This international exhibition of art will present new works by over 50 visual artists and other practitioners, including oceanographers and neuroscientists, in a city-wide project on the Bosphorus that considers different frequencies and patterns of waves, the currents and densities of water, both visible and invisible, that poetically and politically shape and transform the world,” she added. 

The press conference included a screening of “Tide Table” (2003) by William Kentridge and an excerpt from “Pink Boat” (1993, video 2014) by Füsun Onur. It concluded with a reading in Italian by Nanni Balestrini of his short novel “Carbonia” (2009-2010, published 2012), also read in English by Christov-Bakargiev and in Turkish by Münevver Çelik from Otonom Publishing.

The Istanbul Biennial advisory board includes Adriano Pedrosa, Başak Şenova, İnci Eviner, Iwona Blazwick, and Ute Meta Bauer.

The preview of the biennial will take place Sept. 3-4, 2015.