<\/p>\n
\n\tThe current Istanbul Biennial, an ambitious three-part show that recently completed its opening exhibnition, will not stage its remaining programming because the biennial\u2019s curator, Christine Tohm\u00e9, resigned. <\/p>\n
\n\tThe exhibition \u201cwill conclude after its first leg following Tohm\u00e9\u2019s decision to step down due to personal circumstances,\u201d the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), a private foundation that manages the event, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe biennial, titled\u00a0\u201cThe Three-Legged Cat,\u201d was conceived by Tohm\u00e9 as \u201ca three-legged structure to unfold over three years,\u201d with an academic program planned for 2026 and a second exhibition set for 2027. The\u00a0first show ran from September 20 to November 23 across eight venues in Istanbul and received more than 600,000 visitors.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe 18th edition of the Istanbul Biennial\u2014one of the world\u2019s leading recurring contemporary art exhibitions\u2014opened after a year-long delay prompted by a contentious shakeup of its curatorial leadership. In February 2023, the biennial\u2019s advisory board unanimously selected Defne Ayas, now the director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, to curate the exhibition. The IKSV ultimately chose\u00a0Iwona Blazwick instead. <\/p>\n
\n\tMedia reports widely linked the decision to Ayas\u2019s Turkish Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale, which was devoted to the Armenian conceptual artist Sarkis. The pavilion\u2019s accompanying catalogue referenced the Armenian genocide\u2014a subject long contested by the Turkish government, which contends that the mass killings of Armenians during World War I were the result of wartime conditions rather than a campaign of ethnic cleansing.<\/p>\n
\n\tFollowing an outcry from the art community, Blazwick resigned, along with three other committee members. The IKSV\u2019s longtime director, Bige \u00d6rer,\u00a0a<\/a>lso departed and was later replaced by Kevser G\u00fcler. Amid this tumultuous episode, the foundation decided to overhaul its curatorial selection process<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe have witnessed the emergence of undesired divisions in art circles that are adversely affecting artists who had already agreed or might have agreed to participate in the biennial as well as collaborations and partnerships,\u201d the foundation said upon announcing the exhibition\u2019s postponement. \u201cUnfortunately, this situation has made it impossible to hold the Istanbul Biennial as planned.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe IKSV has announced that initial planning for the 19th Istanbul Biennial in 2027 will commence shortly. The foundation will announce the curator for the 19th edition in 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The current Istanbul Biennial, an ambitious three-part show that recently completed its opening exhibnition, will not stage its remaining programming because the biennial\u2019s curator, Christine Tohm\u00e9, resigned. The exhibition \u201cwill conclude after its first leg following Tohm\u00e9\u2019s decision to step down due to personal circumstances,\u201d the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), a private […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-art"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-25 11:19:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}