The Biennial publications can be purchased from the Biennial venues Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum, Barın Han and Müze Gazhane, or from magaza.iksv.org.

17th Istanbul Biennial—Guide

Prepared to accompany visitors at the 17th Istanbul Biennial, held between 17 September 17 and 20 November 2022, this guidebook introduces more than 50 projects in the biennial exhibitions spanning 12 venues in four different regions of Istanbul. With maps and floor plans, the guide offers practical directions to easily navigate the exhibitions, help you get informed about the works as you visit and take a look at the complementary programmes of the biennial. It is designed by Emre Çıkınoğlu in pocket size for easy carrying.

ISBN: 978-605-5275-90-7
Page count: 304
Dimensions: 10 x 15 cm
Language: in Turkish and English
Price: 50 TRY

Editor: Erdem İlgi Akter
Project texts: Erdem İlgi Akter, David Teh, Soh Kay Min, Nepal Picture Library
Venue texts: Elif Kamışlı, David Teh
Film Programme texts: Soh Kay Min, David Teh
Translations: Nermin Saatçioğlu, Münevver Çelik, Emrah Irzık, Can Koçak
Copyediting: Didem Ermiş Sezer, Erim Şerifoğlu, Yusuf Pinhas (Turkish); Melissa Larner (English)
Design and art direction: Emre Çıkınoğlu
Design assistant: Hatice Çavdar

© 2022, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts

Co-published with Yapı Kredi Publications.

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.

Texts by Nabil Ahmed, Nirwan Ahmad Arsuka, John Bell, Rustom Bharucha, Çiğdem Buğdaycı, Övül Ö. Durmuşoğlu, Greg Dvorak, David Harvey, Elif Kamışlı, Amar Kanwar, Michael Marder, Ruth McDougall, Carl Mika, Zozan Pehlivan, Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, David Teh

ISBN: 978-605-5275-91-4
Page count: 356
Dimensions: 16,5 x 23 cm
Language: in Turkish and English
Price: 100 TRY

Publication concept: Amar Kanwar, Ute Meta Bauer, David Teh
Editors: Umud K. Dalgıç, David Teh, Ute Meta Bauer
Publication assistants: Soh Kay Min, Eylül Zeynep Belden
Translations: Erdem İlgi Akter, Ömer B. Albayrak, Münevver Çelik, Nazım Hikmet Richard Dikbaş, Süreyyya Evren, Emrah Irzık, Gökdemir İhsan, Begüm Kovulmaz, Sinem Özer, Melis Şeyhun
Copyediting: Mustafa Aydın, Erdem İlgi Akter (Turkish);
Melissa Larner (English)
Design and art direction: Emre Çıkınoğlu
Design assistant: Hatice Çavdar

© 2022, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts

Co-published with Yapı Kredi Publications.

17th Istanbul Biennial—Poetry Channel

Conceived for the 17th Istanbul Biennial, the Poetry Channel resorts to the minds and words of poets to reach other kinds of 'news' about today. As part of the project, 15 poets were invited to write a poem each month throughout 2021. The poets participating in the project thus produced poems for the biennial that interpreted the course of the world through their own eyes for a year. The poems can be seen throughout the city during the Biennial in second-hand booksellers, coffee shops, restaurants, shops, in print and virtual publications, in Performistanbul's live performances, on bus stops and billboards, and in meetings in various public and non-public venues. A selection from the poems is brought together in this poetry book. Supervised by Süreyyya Evren, the Poetry Channel is inspired by the friendship of Nâzım Hikmet and Faiz Ahmad Faiz, and also includes their selected poems.

New poems by Mehmet Said Aydın, Donat Bayer, Zeliha B. Cenkci, Sevinç Çalhanoğlu, Cevat Çapan, Ersun Çıplak, Devrim Dirlikyapan, Haydar Ergülen, Mehmet Erte, Cem Kurtuluş, Bejan Matur, Mustafa Erdem Özler, Gonca Özmen, Anita Sezgener, Neşe Yaşın

ISBN: 978-605-5275-92-1
Page count: 172
Dimensions: 23 x 16,5 cm
Language: in Turkish
Price: 80 TRY

Poetry Channel concept: Ute Meta Bauer, Amar Kanwar and David Teh
Poetry Channel supervisor: Süreyyya Evren
Editor: Erdem İlgi Akter
Editorial assistants: Eylül Belden, Aslıcan Tüter
Translations: Enis Akın, Erdem İlgi Akter, Süreyyya Evren, Özgür Gökmen
Design and art direction: Emre Çıkınoğlu
Design assistant: Hatice Çavdar

© 2022, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts

A selection of poems are also translated into English and published in a free-access, online edition of the Poetry Channel book.

Optigull and Pesigull: Roads of Poetry

The third adventure in the Optigull and Pesigull series, Opti ile Pesi: Şiirli Yollar (Optigull and Pesigull: Roads of Poetry) was published with the support of the Jan Michalski Foundation from Switzerland, as part of the 17th Istanbul Biennial.

This adventure of Istanbul seagulls Optigull and Pesigull features clues to many biennial projects from Radio Biennial to the Dumpling Post, from the Water Buffalo Festival to Poetry Channel. As the previous books in the series, Şiirli Yollar was written by Yekta Kopan and illustrated by Gökçe Akgül, under the editorial direction of Burcu Ural Kopan. Distributed free of charge at Müze Gazhane, Pera Museum, Barın Han and İKSV Alt Kat during the biennial, Şiirli Yollar presents new guest characters, fun illustrations and an adventurous story. This way, the book creates an opportunity for children to engage more closely with the biennial and the biennial projects.

Available in Turkish only.