17th Istanbul Biennial—Afterthoughts

The catalogue of the 17th Istanbul Biennial is heterogeneous in its idioms and subject matter. It nevertheless provides a sense of the refrains and the consistency of an ongoing process that the curators Ute Meta Bauer, Amar Kanwar and David Teh call ‘composting’. It does not presuppose linear reading − it is more like a ‘companion’ or user’s guide, not to an exhibition but to the compost. A series of commissioned essays and shorter ‘positions’, in a few cases drawn from existing publications, offer deeper context and theoretical reflection on the Biennial’s concerns and terms of reference. There is no hierarchy among texts, no priority between authors and other contributors. The gathered projects are represented for the most part visually, with a view to articulating connections, intersections and common contexts, conversations already had, conversations still to come. A selection of letters sent weekly to participants by the Biennial’s Exhibition Manager, Elif Kamışlı, registers shifts in the mood, often tense, of a city that could not have been visited due to the pandemic, over more than two years of preparation − a history of unease that is far more than national, as well as municipal, and acutely personal. The book is designed by Emre Çıkınoğlu.