Exclusive: Here’s the Full List of Artists Participating in the 15th Istanbul Biennial

Curated by Elmgreen & Dragset, the biennale is slated to open on September 16.

Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset are the curators of the 15th Istanbul Biennial. Photo MUHSIN AKGUN IKSV.

From September 16 – November 12, the 15th Istanbul Biennial—which is curated by Elmgreen & Dragset and is centered around the concept of “a good neighbor”—will be staged across six venues in the heart of the Turkish city.

Details about the highly-anticipated exhibition have been released periodically over the past year, initially making waves in April 2016 when the artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset was selected as the 2017 curators. Their appointment was a notable first for the Biennial, which had previously never seen artists moonlight in a curatorial role.

This was followed by the December press conference that announced the theme of “a good neighbor,” where the curators showed off their artistic roots: the pair enlisted 40 performers to question what defines a good neighbor before revealing their chosen theme.

Home is approached as an indicator of diverse identities and a vehicle for self-expression, and neighborhood as a micro-universe exemplifying some of the challenges we face in terms of co-existence today,” Elmgreen & Dragset explained of the curatorial decision.

“Your neighbor might be someone who lives quite a different life from yours,” they add. “The artists in the 15th Istanbul Biennial raise questions about ideas of home, neighborhood, belonging, and co-existence from multiple perspectives. Some of the artworks examine how our domestic living conditions and modes have changed and how our neighborhoods have transformed, while others focus on how we cope with today’s geopolitical challenges on a micro-level.”

As such, the 55 artists and collectives selected for the 15th iteration of the Istanbul Biennial—which artnet News is exclusively announcing—will look at how modes of living within our respective communities has developed throughout the past few decades.

A full list of the participating artists according to venue follows below:

Galata Greek Primary School

Heba Y. Amin
Born in Cairo, lives in Berlin

Mark Dion
Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, lives in New York, NY

Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe
Born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Dayton, Ohio, both live in New York, NY

Kasia Fudakowski
Born in London, lives in Berlin

Pedro Gómez-Egaña
Born in Bucaramanga, lives between Bergen and Copenhagen

Lungiswa Gqunta
Born in Port Elizabeth, lives in Cape Town

Andrea Joyce Heimer
Born in Great Falls, Montana, lives in Ferndale, Washington

Morag Keil & Georgie Nettell
Born in Edinburgh and Bedford, both live in London

Olaf Metzel
Born in Berlin, lives in Munich

Mahmoud Obaidi
Born in Baghdad, lives in Burlington, Ontario

Henrik Olesen
Born in Esbjerg, lives in Berlin

Erkan Özgen
Born in Mardin, lives in Diyarbakır

Leander Schönweger
Born in Meran, lives in Vienna

Dan Stockholm
Born in Thisted, lives in Copenhagen

Ali Taptık
Born in Istanbul, lives in Istanbul

Bilal Yılmaz
Born in Manisa, lives in Istanbul

Istanbul Modern

Volkan Aslan
Born in Ankara, lives in Istanbul

Alper Aydın
Born in Ordu, lives between Ordu, Ankara, Konya, and Istanbul

Monica Bonvicini
Born in Venice, lives in Berlin

Louise Bourgeois
Born in Paris, died in New York, NY

Latifa Echakhch
Born in El Khnansa, lives in Martigny

Candeğer Fürtun
Born in Istanbul, lives in Istanbul

Kim Heecheon
Born in Seoul, lives in Seoul

Mirak Jamal
Born in Tehran, lives in Berlin

Fernando Lanhas
Born in Porto, died in Porto

Victor Leguy
Born in Sao Paulo, lives in Sao Paulo

Klara Lidén
Born in Stockholm, lives in Berlin

Mahmoud Obaidi
Born in Baghdad, lives in Burlington, Ontario

Lydia Ourahmane
Born in Saida, lives in Oran and London

Rayyane Tabet
Born in Ashquot, lives in Beirut

Young-Jun Tak
Born in Seoul, lives in Berlin

Kaari Upson
Born in San Bernadino, California, lives in Los Angeles, California

Kemang Wa Lehulere
Born in Cape Town, lives in Cape Town

Yonamine
Born in Luanda, lives in Harare

Xiao Yu
Born in Inner Mongolia, lives in Beijing

ARK Kültür

Mahmoud Khaled
Born in Alexandria, lives in Trondheim

Pera Museum

Adel Abdessemed
Born in Constantine, lives in London

Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Born in Enugu, lives in Los Angeles, California

Alejandro Almanza Pereda
Born in Mexico City, lives in Guadalajara

Berlinde De Bruyckere
Born in Ghent, lives in Ghent

Vajiko Chachkhiani
Born in Tbilisi, lives in Berlin

Gözde İlkin
Born in Istanbul, lives in Istanbul

Liliana Maresca
Born in Buenos Aires, died in Buenos Aires

Lee Miller
Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, died in Chiddingly, East Sussex

Aude Pariset
Born in Versailles, lives in Berlin

Sim Chi Yin
Born in Singapore, lives in Beijing

Dayanita Singh
Born in New Delhi, lives in New Delhi

Tatiana Trouvé
Born in Cosenza, lives in Paris

Tsang Kin-Wah
Born in Shantou, lives in Hong Kong

Andra Ursuta
Born in Salonta, lives in New York, NY

Fred Wilson
Born in New York, NY, lives in New York, NY

Yoğunluk Atelier

Yoğunluk
Collective founded in Istanbul, live in Istanbul

Küçük Mustafa Paşa Hammam

Monica Bonvicini
Born in Venice, lives in Berlin

Stephen G. Rhodes
Born in Houston, Texas, lives in Berlin

Tuğçe Tuna
Born in Mons, lives in Istanbul

Outside all venues

Burçak Bingöl
Born in Giresun, lives in Istanbul

Lukas Wassmann
Born in Zurich, lives in Berlin

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