> Projects
A look at the 9th International Istanbul Biennale, 2005
Encounter with VASIF KORTUN,
co-curator of the 9th International Istanbul Biennale, 2005
Moderator: GABI SCARDI, curator and art critic
January 2006 – CANGO – Cantieri Goldonetta, Florence
Encounter focused on one of the most stimulating and significant Biennales on the great international exhibitions calendar, the 9th International Istanbul Biennale held from September 16 to October 30, 2005.
Subject of the 9th Biennale, installed by the two prestigious curators, Vasif Kortun and Charles Esche, and unanimously praised by the international critics, was the city of Istanbul: Istanbul as the city of many pasts, where each stone recalls the Byzantine, Roman or Ottoman Empires, Istanbul as a modern, globalized, hybrid city, with 15 million inhabitants, Istanbul as a metaphor, a prophecy, as a reality experienced, as an inspiration with many stories to tell.
What made the Biennale special were two decisive choices, in particular: that of relinquishing the idea of hosting famous names and works with an important impact and, instead, to highlight a concept of art as an experience and a process. This resulted an invitation to almost half of the 53 participating artists to reside and work for several months in the city in order to directly experience the numerous contradictions of the Turkish capital. In contrast to the works created on the site were other works, not directly linked to the context of Istanbul, but nevertheless selected in the context of Istanbul as a paradigm of the world’s great metropolises.
The other significant choice was that of abandoning the stupendous Ottoman sites of the previous editions of the Biennale in favor of ordinary buildings, some of which fallen into disuse, located in the new part of the city; buildings that, while waiting to be reconverted from a point of view of urban requalification, marked the moment of the city’s passage from antiquity into a new era.
The result was “a non-showy, rigorous Biennale,” as Gabi Scardi, the curator, art critic and moderator of the conversation with Vasif Kortun called it, a Biennale in which “a view of the future full of anxiety” emerges from many of the works “in an awareness of the differences that are rarely solved in relationships and correspondences, but more often in contrasts.”
A wide selection of visual material and videos of the artists participating in the 9th Istanbul International Biennale 2005 was presented during the encounter.
In collaboration with CANGO Cantieri Goldonetta, Florence
