Foto: Ruth Clark

Wallowland, a major long-term commission for Turner Prize nominated artist duo Cooking Sections, is announced by the Istanbul Biennial 2022, opening on 17 September 2022. The 17th Istanbul Biennial is organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) and sponsored by 2007–2026 Biennial Sponsor Koç Holding.

The programme will be launched during the opening days of the Biennial, with a panel discussion on Friday 16 September, culminating with the first-ever water buffalo festival, on Saturday 17 September 2022.

Wallowland is an expansive and long-term project that aims to help preserve efforts of buffalo herding practices in the outskirts of Istanbul. Despite being a fundamental part of the city’s ecology and culinary heritage, water buffalos are threatened by urbanisation, development and newly-built infrastructure that has profoundly transformed their grazing areas, driving their wetland habitats and the herding traditions that take care of them almost close to extinction. During the Biennial, the Wallowland project will manifest as a public art installation at Büyükdere 35 in the Beyoğlu quarter of Istanbul, opening on Tuesday 13 September with a tasting of some of Turkey’s best-known buffalo milk dishes. The project is designed to continue over the coming years through an ongoing programme of activities.

On Saturday, 17 September 2022, the Biennial will launch the first edition of a new annual water buffalo festival to highlight and celebrate the cultural and ecological importance of buffalo herding and maintaining the herding and pastoralist routes in contemporary society. The Festival will include outdoor tastings, guided walks, and an exceptional music performance by Gülinler, the well-known alternative music band from Turkey. Commissioned by Cooking Sections as a part of their biennial participation, Gülinler will premier a new song dedicated to Istanbul’s water buffalos, alongside other local musical performances.

Cooking Sections have also invited the researchers namely Akgün İlhan, Burçin Çıngay, Itri Levent Erkol, Melisa Bal and Mustafa Avcı, along with the organisation Anatolian Grasslands, to conduct new research on specific topics which will unfold different aspects of the ecosystem in that region.

The research produced for the occasion will underpin the installation at Büyükdere 35, tracking the arrival of the buffalo to the herding regions; the transformation of their habitats and the subsequent ecological effects of buffalo in the metropolitan area of Istanbul. The goal of the project is to support this unique ecosystem and for the historical food traditions to become an FAO Global Importance Agricultural Heritage System.

Cooking Sections address the environmental impact of intensive food production. Established in London in 2013 by Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe, their work uses food as a lens to observe landscapes in transformation, and as a tool for intervention in those very systems of food production and supply. Using site-responsive installation, performance and film, they explore the overlapping boundaries between art, architecture, ecology and geopolitics.