Yeditepe Biennial to host visitors for two months

ISTANBUL

The second edition of the Yeditepe Biennial, which will be held for two months between Jan. 7 and March 7 in Istanbul, was launched at a press conference held at Sepetçiler Kasrı on Jan. 4.

The biennial is organized in cooperation with the Fatih Municipality and Classical Turkish Arts Foundation under the auspices of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey.

The biennial, the first of which was held in 2018, is curated by Berkan Karpat, the president of the Artists Association of the Haus der Kunst Museum in Munich.

Stating that the theme of the biennial is “Frame,” Karpat says, “It brings questions about the results of searching ‘outside what we lost ‘inside.’ In European languages, frame primarily has a meaning of limitation and determination. Limitation, when we seemingly talk about a frame, refers to exhibition spaces as ‘White cube’ in art; however, when we pay attention to its social and political uses, it also provides a basis for the debates around the term framework. However, it is hard to say that frame has such a meaning in Turkish. Essentially, the frame is a relatively new use for us compared to the ‘circle.’ It seems that we have now used ‘frame’ as in the meaning of what we used to talk about ‘in the circle of something.’ For this reason, the ‘frame’ points more to a web of relations and a liberation dependent on it, rather than a limitation and constraint. In the context of the image, it has a meaning comparable to the icons that we can only find in the Eastern Christianity tradition.”

The artworks to be exhibited at the biennial are presented in four different venues identified with Istanbul, including Süleymaniye Mosque İmaret (public soup kitchen) Darüzziyafe, Nuruosmaniye Mosque Cellar, Yedikule Fortress and Fatih Glass Cube Gallery.

“All three venues are candidates to welcome their guests at the threshold – though not in the frame - and invite them ‘inside,’ as all three are some ‘intermediate-space,’” says Karpat.

Fatih Mayor Mehmet Ergün Turan, drawing attention to the selected venues, said that the exhibition venues will be opened gradually from classical to contemporary and the first step will be taken with the Darüzziyafe located in the Süleymaniye Mosque, which is under restoration.

Turan stated that Nuruosmaniye Mosque Cellar and Yedikule Fortress also add great value to the exhibition with their historical and fascinating atmosphere and that the newest and digital venue of the biennial will be the Glass Cube Gallery.
“While the works exhibited in biennial can be visited physically, all the works and places participating in the event can also be visited digitally in the gallery,” he added.