Exhibition – initially planned for September 2021 – pushed to next year due to continued pandemic uncertainty
The Istanbul Biennial has announced that its 17th edition, originally scheduled to open in September 2021, has now been postponed to 17 September 2022 (running until 20 November).
‘The 17th Istanbul Biennial, its curators and participants continue to be affected by the pandemic and its life-altering consequences,’ organisers said in a statement. ‘In consideration of the gravity of the ongoing health crisis in many regions around the world and the uncertainty of the coming months, the decision to reschedule was taken by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) in agreement with curators Ute Meta Bauer, Amar Kanwar and David Teh, partners and participants.’
The exhibition’s curatorial team – Bauer, Kanwar and Teh – was announced late last year. Commenting on their exhibition at the time, they said: ‘Rather than a great tree, laden with sweet, ripe fruit, this biennale seeks to learn from the birds’ flight, from the once teeming seas, from the earth’s slow chemistry of renewal and nourishment. There may be no great gathering, no orchestrated coming together at one time and place; instead it might be a great dispersal, an invisible fermentation. Its threads will be drawn together, but they will multiply and diverge, at different paces, crossing here and there but with no noisy culmination, no final knot. It may begin before it is to begin and continue well after it is over.’
