13th Istanbul Biennial: A Retreat to the Institution
Image: Ayşe Erkmen, bangbangbang, 2013, a crane and a buoy. Photograph: Servet Dilber. Courtesy the artist; Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin; and Galeri Manâ, Istanbul
‘Given the civil hierarchy suggested through the term “barbarian”, one might have expected the stakes in the formation of a “public domain” – made explicit during Gezi – to be at the centre of a critical inquiry focusing on “the role of contemporary art as an agent that both makes and unmakes what is considered public.”’
Tom Snow reflects on the aesthetics of protest that have emerged in Istanbul since May, and questions why the stakes in the formation of a ‘public domain’ were not made more explicit in the 2013 Istanbul Biennial. Visit Afterall Online for this and more specially commissioned content.
