Poetry is here, justice will come...
The 8th Istanbul Biennial
By Beral Madra

Editors' foreword

The status of the Istanbul Biennial as one of the most important artistic events worldwide was once again impressively confirmed in this 8th edition. Thousands of critics, curators, collectors, and artists traveled to the Bosporus in order to see this year’s show, which was conceived by Dan Cameron from New York.

It was the first time that we had the opportunity to travel to Istanbul and we were of course – in the context of the online magazine – excited to experience the position of such an event of the international art world in a country where 99% of the total population is Muslim. Even if one is informed as to the Western orientation and strict laicism of the Turkish state and experiences the fact that the atmosphere in some parts of Istanbul is hardly any different from that of Western cities, the Islamic presence in public life is still clearly identifiable.

We were able to speak about this to Beral Madra whilst we were still in Istanbul. As an art critic and curator, she is one of the most influential personalities in the Turkish art world and also a recognized authority on an international scale. Amongst other things, she was coordinator of the first two Istanbul Biennials and curated the exhibitions "Contemporary Art in Traditional Spaces".

We had actually asked Beral Madra to write only a short contribution on the position of this Biennial in the specific context of Istanbul and Turkey. However, she sent us a comprehensive essay, in which she not only responded to our question, but also went into different aspects of the current edition of the Biennial and of Dan Cameron’s concept. This is the reason for which we have decided to publish her text together with the information on the 8th Biennial in our Caravan section of Universes in Universe. Gerhard Haupt and Pat Binder

To the >>> Review

Beral Madra
Curator, art critic, based in Istanbul. Director of the BM Contemporary Art Center.

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