The Istanbul Biennale, one of the biggest events in the art world, has been postponed until 2025 following the resignation of its curator, Iwona Blazwick.
The controversy in the art world over this biennale's choice of Iwona Blazwick, a UK curator, to oversee the event has made it "impossible" for this event to open in September, said the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and the Arts, which organizes the biennale. A spokeswoman for the foundation said in an interview that Blazwick resigned after the decision was made to postpone the event, NYT reports.
Iwona Blazwick
The excitement around this exhibition has been building for several months. Before taking on the role of lead curator, Blazwick was a member of the four-person advisory group that reviewed applications for the position and initially recommended Defne Ayas for the position. But biennale organizers rejected this choice and instead announced in August that Blazwick herself would direct the event.
Defne Ayas
Art world insiders suggested that Ayas' candidacy was rejected because her selection was considered politically provocative in Turkey. In 2015, Ayas curated the Turkish pavilion at the Venice Biennale, which was dedicated to the artist Sarkis. And the pavilion's catalog included a brief mention of the Armenian Genocide. Iwona Blazwick, a renowned figure in the world of contemporary art, ran the Whitechapel Gallery in London for 20 years.
After Blazwick’s appointment, The Art Newspaper reported the conditions of her selection, including the removal of Ayas, and Turkish artists began to criticize the organizer's actions.
The Istanbul Biennale, which began in 1987 and is held in various venues throughout the city, has gained increasing prominence since the early 2000s. This event is an opportunity for international curators and collectors to get to know what Turkish artists—many of whom claim self-censorship to avoid upsetting the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his conservative supporters—are up to. This year's Biennale focused on "the role of art after loss and trauma."
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