18th Istanbul Biennial’s public programme in the opening week features a series of performances, screenings, and live events.

Selma Selman’s Motherboards, at Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, was conceived in collaboration with the artist’s family, and stages the extraction of gold from discarded electronics. At once an homage to Selman’s family business and a meditation on value, the work implicates the extractivist legacies of institutions and markets alike.

Alex Baczyński-Jenkins’ Untitled (Holding Horizon), at Arter’s Karbon space, is a durational dance performance that uses the box step as a vessel for rehearsing a sense of queer intimacy and collectivity, as it swings through memories of raves, funerals, and revolts.

Ahmad Ghossein’s So your heart aches, huh? or The Pit, staged as a monologue, unspools a personal attempt at remaining afloat amid Lebanon’s economic and political collapse, drawing on a self-directed study of hormones such as dopamine and oxytocin as strange alibis for joy.

The films included in the screening programme oscillate between speculative histories, geopolitical fault lines, and the autofictional. Maxime Hourani’s Stones Never Lie unfolds in the forests of Mount Lebanon. The film draws on Louis Auguste Blanqui’s speculative cosmology connecting a failed revolution, echoing the country’s civil war of 1860. Samar Al Summary’s What Goes Up navigates homesickness and displacement against the deadening backdrop of an Arizona airbase. Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s 45th Parallel examines borders and drone warfare through a single fatal bullet that crossed the USA-Mexico border in 2010. Suneil Sanzgiri’s An Impossible Address combines analogue ruin and digital reconstruction to explore shared anti-colonial histories between India and Africa, anchored in the revolutionary life – and disappearance – of Angolan anti-colonialist activist Sita Valles.

A shared hub for gatherings and events: Zihni Han Floor Two

Zihni Han’s second floor is conceived as an open space for the visitors to pause, rest, and spend time together. Rather than adhering to a fixed schedule, it makes room for flexibility and encourages its visitors to collectively determine its rhythm and meaning.

Complementing this setting, a modest library offers a selection of books connected to the exhibition and beyond. Visitors are welcome to browse, borrow from, or add to the collection, allowing the library to grow as a shared resource. A small refreshments corner is also available.

Those interested in organising a gathering, conversation, workshop, or other event in this space are invited to send their proposals to ist.biennial.zihnihan2@iksv.org. The programme at Zihni Han, running from 20 September to 23 November, will be continuously updated and can be accessed via the QR code displayed on site. Proposed events will be scheduled in line with the biennial’s calendar.