ABOUT ISTANBUL DESIGN BIENNIAL
Taking place since 2012, Istanbul Design Biennial aims to bring together a diverse cross section of design ideas once every two years, exploring a wide range of fields concerning design. Seeding ideas and fostering dialogue and intersections within the creative and academic community, the biennial operates on a network of national and international collaborations with cultural agents, institutions, universities and companies. Using the city as a dynamic space for projects, actions and interventions, the biennial tackles global design problems, brings the notion of design into scrutiny, stimulates critical debate, foregrounds underexplored or overlooked aspects of society and prompts further investigation into and exchange about emerging conditions of the world. In addition to its biennial exhibition and various activities, Istanbul Design Biennial seeks to ensure a long, deep and interdisciplinary conversation that will help rethink the question of design by multiplying the number of voices and assembling an inspirational design archive. Committed to design as a tool for understanding its complex role in today’s society, the biennial as a progressive discussion platform is in permanent transformation.
Istanbul Design Biennial is organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV).
ISTANBUL FOUNDATION FOR CULTURE AND ARTS (IKSV)
Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) is a non-profit cultural institution that was founded in 1973. The general objectives of the Foundation are: to make Istanbul one of the world’s foremost capitals of culture and the arts; to create continuous interaction between national and universal values and traditional and contemporary values via culture and the arts; and to contribute actively to the development of cultural policies.
IKSV was organising a single Istanbul Festival in the 70s, a festival that presented examples of different cultural and artistic disciplines. Over time, groups of events from different disciplines evolved into distinct festivals and biennials. Today IKSV organises the Istanbul Festivals of Music, Film, Theatre and Jazz, as well as the Istanbul Biennial, the Istanbul Design Biennial, Leyla Gencer Voice Competition, autumn film week Filmekimi and one-off events throughout the year. The Foundation hosts cultural and artistic events at its performance venue Salon, located at the Nejat Eczacıbaşı Building. IKSV also organises the Pavilion of Turkey at la Biennale di Venezia and coordinates an artist residency programme at Cité International des Arts, France. Furthermore, IKSV conducts studies and drafts reports with the aim of contributing to cultural policy development.
