Wind and Rain from All Directions: Open Call for Wartime Art

The Chinese writer Lao She (1899–1966) used the phrase ‘wind and rain from all directions’ to describe his experiences during the War of Resistance against the Japanese invasion (1931–1945), when he drifted far and wide and waged war with his pen. As writers went into exile and migrated both within China and across its borders, the scope, methods, and audience of literary creation and dissemination – as well as the spaces for writers’ interactions and activities – became starkly different from those before the outbreak of the war. When faced with the turbulent upheavals of war and the rapid fragmentation and reorganisation of the political landscape, artists must find radical ways to reconstruct their lives and cultural practices.

Three quarters of a century after the end of World War II, the world is on fire again. War has resumed its status as one of the defining conditions for living. The concentrated outbreak of global geopolitical conflicts and the continued escalation of strategic rivalry among major powers, compounded by the disruptive technological revolution led by artificial intelligence, have profoundly shaken the relatively entrenched postwar international order. Battlefields are everywhere: not just on the frontlines, but present in financial sanctions, energy disputes, and public opinion, extending even into outer space and the depths of the ocean.

In 2025 alone, more than 240,000 people lost their lives due to war and related violence; an average of more than 650 people per day, largely as a result of the highest number of inter-state conflicts recorded since WWII. This heartbreaking reality does not seem like it will disappear anytime soon. The political theorists Michael Hardt and Sandro Mezzadra describe the present as ‘a global war regime,’ one in which governments and militaries are closely intertwined with capitalist structures. War is no longer a localised tragedy, near for some and distant for others, but a common struggle and a shared condition for all. Understanding the interconnectedness of economic and political warfare is critical to understanding how we live our lives today.

When it comes from a position of care, art has the capacity to integrate the grand, overarching narratives of war with the micro-level, personal narratives of humanity. Artists can attend to how war is lived from within, to the fear and grief involved, to the resilience and the hunger for peace expressed by human beings living alongside destruction. They not only uncover the historical concepts and logical structures that any conflict represents, but also depict the experiences and emotions of the individuals who are swept up in the currents of history.

The 19th Istanbul Biennial invites work and proposals from artists who are living through or have lived through war, and who reflect on it with criticality and care. Art cannot end wars or resolve their underlying causes, but it can open spaces for dissent, doubt, and the imagination of alternatives. Looking at war through art carries a historical responsibility, as well as a practical value, since it can keep in view what official accounts leave out. By setting individual recollections aside – and at times against – the memories that communities and states construct, artists can open up nuanced ways of thinking about life under extreme conditions, and about the questions of courage, complicity, ethics, and endurance that war raises.

While the conceptual framework of the Biennial, which will be shared in December, will simultaneously engage with other discussions, this open call is an invitation into what will become an ongoing research process, developed in dialogue with contributors. Peace cannot be built without looking closely at war: at how it is made, justified, experienced, and remembered. The fundamental purpose of this study of wartime and warzone art is not to study war itself, but to call forth the many ways in which peace is imagined and sought, offering guidance for how to construct more caring ways of living. We hope that this open call will become a space within the framework of the 19th Istanbul Biennial for thinking about war and peace together.

Submission Guidelines

• Project Proposal: The proposal should directly address the themes mentioned in the invitation text and must not exceed 3,500 characters, excluding spaces. The file size must not exceed 10 MB.
• Portfolio: The portfolio should demonstrate the applicant’s previous work and experience. The file size must not exceed 100 MB.
• Online Application Form: iksv.slideroom.com

Note: The open call is open to artists from Türkiye and abroad working across all disciplines. All applications must be submitted in English or Turkish, and all files must be uploaded to the designated fields in the online application form.

Selected artists will be invited for further conversations, either in person or online.

The deadline for submission is 23.59 on 22 November 2026 (Istanbul time, UTC+3).

You can find answers to frequently asked questions below about the open call issued by the curators of the 19th Istanbul Biennial, Liu Ding and Carol Yinghua Lu, within the framework of the theme outlined above, as part of their ongoing research to select the artists who will participate in the biennial.

Frequently Asked Questions