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Architect Mariana Pestana to curate 2020 Istanbul Design Biennial

2019-08-27T19:45:00-04:00

The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) has named architect Mariana Pestana as the curator of the 5th Istanbul Design Biennial. The biennial is slated to take place between September 26 and November 8, 2020.

Pestana, who is based in Porto and London, is a founder of The Decorators, a collaborative practice that engages in public realm interventions. Aside from her work as an architect, Pestana has curated a long roster of exhibitions curated for global institutions that include the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design. Generally speaking, Pestana's research interests lie at the intersection of fiction-based futurism and critical social practices.

In a press release announcing Pestana's selection, the Istanbul Design Biennial’s Advisory Board writes, “Mariana Pestana’s passionate approach will be beneficial to the biennial in many ways, and her critical reflections on contemporary issues and inquiries into fictional futures are q...

Six cutting-edge arts venues to be transformed into interdisciplinary schools at this year’s Istanbul Design Biennial

2018-09-19T20:29:00-04:00

Set to kick off on September 22nd, the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial will bring the city’s multi-layered cultural heritage and dynamic ecosystem of creativity to life. Named a ‘Design City’ by UNESCO last year, the Second Rome provides the perfect backdrop to host the biennial, which has emerged over the years as a crucial center for critical thinking around design in a country increasingly isolated by its political situation.

Given this context, the theme for this year’s edition is “A School of Schools.” Exploring the possibilities of design education in the 21st century, the biennial will take place across six iconic cultural institutions around the city, transforming the various art venues into sites of investigation. The world-class Pera Museum, for example, will become home to the Scales School, looking at the standards, norms, and taxonomies of learning. Another, the Digestion School, where participants can learn about metabolic systems and patterns of consumption, will be held...

Design is the center of the universe at the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, "Are We Human?"

2016-10-26T14:40:00-04:00

The 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial opened to the public this past Saturday, October 22, curated by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley. The curators' full title, “Biz Inan Miyiz? / Are We Human? The Design Of The Species: 2 Seconds, 2 Days, 2 Years, 200 Years, 200,000 Years,” sets up an ambitious meeting of manifesto and provocation, delving into how the human race has designed our world and how design has impacted it in return. I attended the Biennial's opening as part of the student coalition from GSAPP and Princeton that helped with the curators' research.

At the press opening, Wigley ruminated on the meaning of a biennial itself; “Maybe that’s what a biennale is, it’s just a social gathering, for people to share ideas... in a city in which ideas have been shared maybe more than any other city I know.”

Wigley explained the importance of studying humanity's relationship to design: “We literally live inside design, like the spider lives inside the web constructed from its own body.” Colom...

Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley will curate 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial

2015-05-27T13:23:00-04:00

In a press release issued today, the Istanbul Design Biennial announced that powerhouse architectural historians, theorists and educators Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley will curate the 3rd Biennial, taking place in 2016. Both are based in New York City (and happen to be married) – Colomina teaches and is a curator at Princeton University, and Wigley recently stepped down from his deanship at Columbia University's GSAPP.

The Biennial's agenda is to bring together a diversity of ideas and people within the design community to an international forum, and consider global issues from a design-minded perspective. Colomina and Wigley will announce the Biennial's "conceptual framework" in December 2015.

Their selection also continues the Biennial's trend of selecting international architecture figures for its curators – 2012's Biennial was headed by architects and researchers Emre Arolat (Istanbul) and Joseph Grima (Genoa), and 2014's was led by curator and writer Zoë Ryan (Chicago-based). ...

A preview of “The Future Is Not What It Used To Be”, the 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial

2014-10-23T13:58:00-04:00

In the upcoming 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial, "The Future Is Not What It Used To Be" questions the role of design, its relationship to society, and how it can potentially bring change. Curated by Zoë Ryan and spanning all five floors of the Galata Greek Primary School from Nov. 1 to Dec.14, the biennial will showcase a designers' exhibition of over 50 projects that ask who defines the future and how it is defined. But the crucial aspect it explores is whose future could be affected.

In an area of approximately 2,300 square meters at the Galata Greek Primary School, the exhibition will feature more than 50 projects by designers worldwide. The event will also host various creative academic workshops, panels, and film screenings.

N°40 Workoutcomputer by Desireee Heiss and Ines Kaag.

Fruit of the Polish Turkish culinary workshops

Learn more about the event on Bustler!