After the 9th International İstanbul Biennial...

2005, November

The 9th International İstanbul Biennial organized by the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts and co-sponsored by Abdi İbrahim İlaç, Aygaz and Opet ended on October 30th, 2005, Sunday.

For one and a half month since its launch on September 17th, the Biennial converted Istanbul into a massive artistic platform as the major artistic event in the whole of Turkey. The exhibitions of the biennial were visited by approximately 51,000 people. The İstanbul Biennial was very popular among students, as well: 16,000 visitors were students.

The 9th International İstanbul Biennial was made possible by the sponsorship of Abdi İbrahim İlaç, Aygaz and Opet, as well as:

• 46 international institutions among which the major were the American Center Foundation, Mondriaan Foundation, USA Secretary of State, USA Consulate in Istanbul, Open Society Institute, The British Council and the Italian Culture Center,

• Akbank Culture and Arts Center, Alkim Paper, Borusan Holding, Canan Pak, Co-Production, dDf, Proje 4L Elgiz Contemporary Arts Museum, Exsa Export, Finans Insurance, Henkel, Mavi Jeans, Mudo, Philips, Platform Garanti Güncel Arts Center, Sema and Barbaros Çağa, Tefken Holding, Tim Group Project Management and Turkish Jockeys Club as Special Project Sponsors to some of the artistic projects in the Biennial,

• and the contributions of 43 leading business corporations in Istanbul as Biennial Sponsors.

• A technical team of 80 people collaborated for three months in the preparation of the biennial exhibitions at 7 different venues.

• Almost 6,000 art-lovers participated in the guided tours of the biennial that were organized three times every single day during the entire event.

• Among the visitor groups that participated in these guided tours were the employees of Ankara Foundation for the Education and Protection of Mentally Insufficient Children, Ankara Transparan Art Gallery, Garanti Bank Photography Club, Association in Support of Contemporary Living, Foundation for Mentally Disabled Children, Turkcell, Alarko, Nestle, Building Industry Center and representatives of the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum in Germany and the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands.

• Also among the visitors taking the guided tour of the biennial were students from Galatasaray Highschool, Kadıköy Anadolu Highschool, Bilgi University, Kocaeli University, Mimar Sinan University, Istanbul Technical University, Robert College, Afyon Kocatepe University, Dokuz Eylül University, Edirne Fine Arts Highschool, Isparta Süleyman Demirel University.

• Since October 2004, the 9th International İstanbul Biennial hosted a great number of foreign and Turkish artists, academicians and curators in the 9B Talks. 2,500 participants were present in the 13 different 9B Talks.

• Approximately 3,000 visitors, mostly university students, used the “Reading Zone” in the Hospitality Zone of Antrepo No: 5, in which Revolver,  the  major European cultural and artistic books publisher, introduced over 3,000 books, periodicals, DVDs, LPs and biennial publications from around the globe.

• Almost 600 foreign press members and over 2,000 critics, curators, museum and art gallery managers visited the 9th International İstanbul Biennial. The total number of foreign visitors exceeded 7,500. 

Only second to the Venice Biennial in Europe, the 9th International İstanbul Biennial appeared often in the foreign press coverage.

• Representatives and correspondents from such distinct papers as the New York Times (USA), Wall Street Journal (USA), La Republica (Italy), Washington Post (USA), Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany), Le Monde (France), Le Soir (France), Corriera della Serra (Italy), Kathimerini (Greece), Ha’aretz (Israel), Il Manifesto (Italy), Volkskrant (Netherlands) and Südedeutsche Zeitung (Germany) visited Istanbul on the occasion of the biennial.

• Foreign press members, some among them critics from Art in America (USA), Art Forum (USA), Art Press (France), Frieze (UK), Domus (Italy), Art (Germany), Parachute (Canada), Parkett (Switzerland/USA), Bidoun (USA) and Art News (UK), conveyed their impressions of the 9th International İstanbul Biennial to their readers back in their countries.

On September 16th, 2005, the Wall Street Journal published a special edition that focused greatly on the biennial and hence, the many faces of the city of Istanbul.

The leading French daily Le Monde published a special article on the biennial under the heading “Arts in the Istanbul Biennial now forcing the limits of Europe”.

• Producers from ARD (Germany), RAI (Italy), Deutsche Welle (Germany), TVE (Spain), VPRO (Netherlands), SVT (Sweden), NRK (Norway) and Fuji (Japan) TV channels prepared TV programs covering the 9th International İstanbul Biennial.

• In addition, managers from the Documenta XII, Sydney, Venice and San Paulo Biennials as well as BoD members, curators and collectioners from world-renowned museums such as MOMA / Museum of Modern Art (New York), Tate Modern (UK), Centre Georges Pompidou (France), Chicago Modern Arts Museum (USA), Carnegie Museum of Art (USA), Athens Modern Arts Museum (Greece) found a chance to closely examine the artistic works exhibited in the Biennial and to meet some of the Turkish artist in person.

• The 10th International İstanbul Biennial will be in Autumn 2007.

[ June, 2005 ]
The 9^th International İstanbul Biennial

[ October, 2004 ]
The conceptual framework of the 9th International İstanbul Biennial was announced.