Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev. Photo by Hafenbar, via Wikimedia Commons.
Curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, whose Documenta 13 (2012) was critically acclaimed, will oversee the 14th Istanbul Biennial (Sept. 5-Nov. 1, 2015).
In keeping with her Documenta strategy of hiring “agents” to advise on the show—and drawing on some of the same personnel—she will, according to a press release, “draft” the exhibition with help from various artists, curators and others. She will “seek the artistic advice of Cevdet Erek, the intellectual rigor of Griselda Pollock, the sensitivity of Pierre Huyghe, the curatorial imagination of Chus Martinez, the mindfulness of Marcos Lutyens, the acute gaze of Füsun Onur, the political philosophies of Anna Boghiguian, the youthful enthusiasm of Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran, the wise uncertainties of William Kentridge and manifold qualities and agencies to come as the process develops.”
“The 14th Istanbul Biennial will embark looking for where to draw the line, to withdraw, to draw upon, and to draw out,” says Christov-Bakargiev in the release. “It will do so offshore, on the flat surfaces with our fingertips but also in the depths, underwater, before the enfolded encoding unfolds.”
Christov-Bakargiev is currently a visiting professor at Chicago’s Northwestern University. She has previously taught at the University of Leeds and at New York’s Cooper Union, among other schools. She was the artistic director of the 16th Biennale of Sydney in 2008, before which she served in curatorial posts at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art and New York’s P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.
No word yet on the artist roster; the exhibition’s “conceptual framework” will be unveiled in the fall.
