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