Great Expectations Great Concepts: Challenge Of The Istanbul Biennial With Popular Discourses Of Global Art World

Abstract

The international mega exhibition Istanbul Biennial, which was first held in 1987, presents an unconventional exhibition model which has been structured with a choreography dominated by the curator's discourse. Within the framework of different concepts and themes determined by the selected curators, various venues specially determined by the curators were used in each exhibition to clearly reveal and characterize the artists' attitudes towards the subject. In this paper, the concepts and titles of the Istanbul Biennial held between 1987-2019 were scrutinized and the themes put forward by the curators for the exhibition were discussed in a certain categorization. This categorization is discussed under the three main headings: 'Global metropolis', 'political and cultural issues and borders', and 'ecology and human activities' and the exhibitions were discussed under these headings. Based on the analysis of these topics a question occurred: "Did the curators try to manipulate the concepts of the themes?" In addition, it has been discussed how much the Biennial titles and topics contribute to the idea of being a part of the global mainstream, which points to the initial founding goals of the Biennial.

Keywords

• istanbul biennial
• contemporary art
• global art world
• exhibition
• curator
• istanbul bienali
• çağdaş sanat
• global sanat dünyası
• sergi
• küratör