15th Istanbul Biennial to kick off across six venues

The 15th Istanbul Biennial, titled "A Good Neighbor" and curated by the artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset, will take place from Sept. 16 to Nov 12. 

The biennial will be located in the heart of Istanbul, and can be visited free of charge at six venues within walking distance of each other.

Bringing together a variety of artworks dealing with different notions of home and neighborhood, the biennial exhibitions will take place at Istanbul Modern, the Galata Greek Primary School, Ark Kültür, the Pera Museum, an artist collective's studio, and the Küçük Mustafa Paşa Hammam.

The public program of the 15th Istanbul Biennial, coordinated by Zeyno Pekünlü, will kick off during the opening days of the Biennial. In addition to symposia during the opening and closing week, there will be periodic events in which the audience will cook, read, and make music, as well as discussions, debates and workshops around the central theme of the biennial.

Instead of a curatorial statement, the curators have developed 40 questions that guide the process of making the exhibition. These questions were first presented live in Istanbul by 40 performers of different ages, genders and backgrounds in December last year. 

Some of these questions, such as "Is a good neighbor a stranger you don't fear?" and "Is a good neighbor someone who reads the same newspaper as you?" are being used for an international billboard project presented in several cities around the world. 

Two works already on display

The two works from the biennial, Alejandro Almanza Pereda's work and Burçak Bingöl's ceramic cameras, can already be viewed. 

Mexican artist Pereda's work at the Pera Museum is one of the landscape paintings that the...