The Istanbul Basis For Tradition and the Arts (IKSV), which runs the Istanbul Biennial, has rejected recommendation to nominate Defne Ayas, the Turkish-born, Berlin-based curator, who was chosen unanimously by a panel of worldwide specialists as the perfect candidate to organise the following version of the exhibition.
As an alternative, the IKSV appointed Iwona Blazwick to organise the present, which opens in September 2024, although Blazwick was a serving member of the advisory panel tasked with selecting a curator for the biennial on the time of her choice, elevating questions on conflicts of curiosity on the highest ranges of the muse. The incident additionally highlights the challenges of working cultural establishments in President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey and the hazards of self-censorship.
President Erdoğan prolonged his twenty years in energy after profitable the nation’s presidential elections in Might. His victory was met with fears from members of Turkey’s inventive group who’ve confronted intimidation and a clampdown on their freedom of expression beneath his rule.
Blazwick is the previous director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London and now serves because the chair of the Royal Fee for AlUla’s Public Artwork Professional Panel in Saudi Arabia.
After they have been knowledgeable of Blazwick’s appointment, three members of the biennial advisory panel resigned. Blazwick has additionally now resigned from the panel, in line with the IKSV. She declined to remark.
Opaque choice course of
On the finish of January, the Istanbul Biennial advisory board met to evaluate the proposals of 4 shortlisted curators, together with Defne Ayas, who had been requested to stipulate their concepts for the following biennial. Ayas is an skilled curator who has organised reveals in politically delicate contexts; she beforehand curated the Gwangju Biennial in South Korea in 2021 with Natasha Ginwala, the Moscow Biennale in Russia in 2015 and the Baltic Triennial in Lithuania in 2012.
Following discussions, the board members—Iwona Blazwick; Yuko Hasegawa, the director of the twenty first Century Museum of Modern Artwork, Kanazawa, Japan; Agustín Pérez Rubio, an unbiased curator primarily based in Spain and a former museum director; Selen Ansen, a curator and artwork historian primarily based in Istanbul, and the Turkish-Armenian artist Sarkis who lives in Paris—unanimously chosen Ayas.
Regardless of this, the IKSV, which additionally oversees the Turkish Pavilion on the Venice Biennale, rejected the board’s advice.
Critics imagine that Ayas was judged too dangerous by the muse. They cite her curation of an exhibition by Sarkis for the Turkish Pavilion on the 2015 Venice Biennale. A listing accompanying the present included an essay written by Rakel Dink, the widow of the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink who was assassinated in Istanbul in 2007. In her textual content, Dink made a passing reference to the “Armenian genocide” to explain the ache of her individuals. Following a criticism from the Turkish authorities, which denies that the genocide passed off, {the catalogue} was withdrawn. Ayas and Sarkis then positioned all remaining copies right into a coffin which Sarkis lined in colored glass and remodeled right into a sculpture (Respiro, 2015).
Sarkis’s Respiro (2015), seen right here on the Turkish pavilion on the Venice Biennale in 2015, is presently on view at Arter in Istanbul, which is funded by Koç Holding, the primary sponsors of the Istanbul Biennial
The IKSV declined to say why it had rejected Ayas and it has declined to publish the record of advisory board members on its web site, because it has completed for earlier editions. Till contacted by The Artwork Newspaper, the muse additionally declined to substantiate that Blazwick was nonetheless a serving member of the biennial advisory board when she was appointed to steer the following version, and it has declined to say whether or not Blazwick, who has served on the board for 4 consecutive editions of the exhibition, had submitted a curatorial proposal for the biennial because the 4 shortlisted curators did.
When Bige Örer, the director of the biennial advised the advisory board that Blazwick had been chosen, Agustín Pérez Rubio, Selen Ansen, and Sarkis resigned. All three have been contacted by The Artwork Newspaper; all three declined to remark.
In a press release to The Artwork Newspaper, Defne Ayas mentioned: “It was an honour to be thought of for the function, and I’m grateful that the advisory board really useful my appointment. I’d have taken nice pleasure in curating the forthcoming version. At this level, I’ve no regrets and need the Biennale success. I hope for the longer term that the nomination and choice processes will likely be absolutely clear and extra consistent with the biennial’s legacy as one of many pre-eminent cultural occasions within the artwork world.”
Turkish response
The choice to nominate Iwona Blazwick was met with robust criticism by Turkish curators, artists and writers who voiced their dismay on social media. One in every of them, Duygu Demir, an artwork historian and unbiased curator primarily based in Istanbul, describes the IKSV’s rejection of Ayas as “self-censorship”. She tells The Artwork Newspaper that the biennial’s essential sponsor since 2007, Koç Holding, is unlikely to have put strain on the muse to make the choice. “If something, Koç Holding has let individuals know it isn’t in settlement with the Erdoğan authorities and we haven’t witnessed any interference at Arter, the up to date artwork museum in Istanbul arrange and funded by Koç Holding.”
Whereas Demir acknowledges the difficulties of organising exhibitions within the present local weather, she believes that necessary work can nonetheless be completed. “We’ve all discovered other ways of utilizing our voice. I lately labored with a Kurdish artist; we mentioned sure photographs and textual content, rejected a number of, and located a manner ahead. The principle factor is that you simply don’t go away these delicate selections to the directors; these are selections that curators and artists must be making. I’m not in opposition to Iwona Blazwick or her observe; she has an ideal monitor document on the Whitechapel and Tate and I’m comfortable to see a girl organise the following biennial. What many people object to is the shortage of transparency on the IKSV.”
Others query how the IKSV can proceed to perform with out clarifying the way it appointed Blazwick. In a press release despatched to The Artwork Newspaper, Sarp Özer, one other unbiased curator in Istanbul, mentioned: “Establishments just like the IKSV must be certain to rules and protocols that may’t simply change in a single day. It’s tough to fathom how the professionals in cost thought the absence of the advisory committee wouldn’t require a correct public clarification.”
The assertion continues: “When Blazwick’s appointment was introduced, Görgün Taner, the final director of the IKSV, mentioned: ‘We’re delighted that Iwona Blazwick has accepted our invitation to curate the 18th Istanbul Biennial.’ Ought to we assume that IKSV has settled on issuing private invites slightly than contemplating totally different proposals? Will it proceed to take action within the years to come back? Cultural establishments are outlined by the readability, consistency, and accountability of their actions.”
“All the considerations raised to this point level to IKSV’s public mandate because the biennial shouldn’t be named after the muse [that administers it] however the metropolis of Istanbul. We hope this dialogue will assist deliver the establishment ahead in direction of a extra equitable, clear, open and trustworthy mode of operation.”
Vasif Kortun, a curator and author in Istanbul, has served on the Istanbul biennial advisory board and has curated two editions of the exhibition, in 1992, and in 2005 with Charles Esche, now the director of the Van Abbemuseum within the Netherlands. Talking to The Artwork Newspaper, Kortun warned of the hazards of self-censorship, and mentioned Ayas was greater than able to navigating the delicate political setting. “There isn’t any finish to it. The second you begin on this street, you by no means know find out how to cease. Coping with a difficult political local weather must be a negotiation. Curators and artists ought to ask themselves: ‘How far can I am going?’; ‘How can I inform this story?’ Defne Ayas is an clever girl who understands the difficult context in Turkey. She is aware of it’s higher to do the biennial in one of the simplest ways attainable slightly than pointlessly scary individuals.”
Kortun provides that “the biennial doesn’t know which geography it’s in. There has not been a single curator from the Balkans or the southern Mediterranean. As an alternative, we’ve seen a succession of white Europeans. I discover the entire thing surprising.”
In a press release, the IKSV mentioned: “The choice on the selection of curator [for the Istanbul Biennial] is made by IKSV and authorised by the Board of IKSV. Regarding the nomination of Ms Iwona Blazwick who’s an internationally famend curator we wish to level out that the advisory board which included Ms Blazwick didn’t appoint Ms Blazwick. The choice to nominate Ms Blazwick was taken by IKSV additional to the non-acceptance of the recommendation of the advisory board by IKSV. It’s to be famous that the advisory board offers recommendation which isn’t nonetheless binding and IKSV might act independently of such recommendation.”
“Ms Blazwick’s work is extremely revered by IKSV as she is an internationally famend curator with vast data of latest artwork and deep data of the context in Turkey due to her expertise within the advisory board from which she stepped down. IKSV presently deemed that it’s a second by which to appoint a world curator to steer the following version artistically.”
