Photo: Elmar Vestner, courtesy the Istanbul Biennial.
The 15th Istanbul Biennial is joining forces with the 36th Istanbul Film Festival to create a film program that functions under the biennial’s title and theme, “a good neighbor.”
Curated by Elmgreen & Dragset, the biennial, which is scheduled to run from September 16—November 12, 2017, explores the concept of homes and neighborhoods, looking at how modes of living within our respective communities have developed throughout the past few decades.
The biennial takes its starting point by viewing the home as a forum for diverse identities, and the neighborhood as microcosms within our globalized world that embodies the challenges faced in co-existence today.
While working on the biennial Elmgreen & Dragset drew inspiration from the selection of ten feature films and five shorts , which will be presented during the Istanbul Film Festival, from April 5—15, 2017.
“This particular selection of films is meant to open the horizon towards the biennial exhibition that is to come,” the artist-duo said in a statement.
All of the chosen films, which include works by Lars von Trier and Jonathan Perel, can be categorized by their varying approaches to the depiction of protagonists within their homes and neighborhoods, free of judgment of whether or not they play “a good neighbor”.
“There is nothing like the medium of film when it comes to visual storytelling, and as we know, good storytelling often includes moral conundrums that are important to understanding who we are and the societies we live in,” the curators concluded.