Istanbul Biennial Names Kevser Güler New Director
The previous director, Bige Örer, stepped down in the wake of Iona Blazwick's controversial appointment as curator.
Kevser Güler. Courtesy İKSV.
Kevser Güler will be the director of the Istanbul Biennial from 15 January.
Güler, who worked as the event's associate curator from 2014 to 2019, will take over from Bige Örer who announced she was stepping down from the role late last month having held the position since 2008.
A spokesperson for the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), which organises the biennial, told The Art Newspaper that Örer's decision was not motivated by fallout from the appointment of former Whitechapel Gallery director Iona Blazwick as curator of the 2024 edition, which will take place from 14 September to 17 November.
Blazwick was named curator in February after the advisory committee, which included Blazwick herself, unanimously recommended Turkish curator Defne Ayas for the role.
Three members of the advisory committee subsequently resigned, as did Blazwick.
İKSV did not share why they had chosen Blazwick over Ayas, but The Art Newspaper wrote 'critics believe Ayas was judged too risky by the foundation' in President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Turkey.
First shared on Instagram in early October 2023, an open letter calling for greater transparency in the appointment of the event's curator has now been signed by 208 artists and art professionals. Signatories include Hou Hanru, curator of the 10th Istanbul Biennial, and artists Hito Steyerl and Michael Rakowitz.
Similarly, Ayas said, 'I hope for the future that the nomination and selection processes will be fully transparent and more in keeping with the biennial's legacy as one of the preeminent cultural events in the art world.'
On 5 October, İKSV shared changes to the process for selecting a curator starting with the 2026 edition. Future curators will be selected from three candidates proposed by the advisory board, and advisory board members will not be eligible for selection, they said.
Later that month, artists Ates Alpar, Bengü Karaduman, Kerem Ozan Bayraktar and Yasam Sasmazer posted on Instagram that they were pulling out of the biennial because it did 'not provide a favourable ground for art production and sharing'. —[O]
