At the fourth session of “Yeditepe Biennial Conversations” live at Yedikule Fortress, curator Furkan Türkyılmaz describes curating as a practice of establishing a narrative while covering intellectual bond between art and venue in a multi-layered perspective.

The 3rd Intellectual Yeditepe Biennial continues its journey under auspices of Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye, in cooperation with Fatih Municipality and Classical Turkish Arts Foundation as a multi-layered art platform focusing on cultural, historic, and intellectual accumulation of Istanbul. Ensuring visibility of classical and contemporary artworks this year in addition to opening intellectual ground of art to discussion, this year Yeditepe Biennial present a deep area of understanding with its interview series organized as “Conversations”.

“Curator Conversations II” that was the fourth session of the series in question was broadcasted live at Yedikule Fortress that is home to multi-layered history of Istanbul. In the session organized with contribution of Fatih Sultan Mehmet Foundation University Islamic Arts Research Center, curator Furkan Türkyılmaz participated as speaker while Mevlüt Üçpınar assumed the duty of moderatorship. The conversation that was shaped with multiple moderatorships understanding not just transmitted information but also presented a ground of thinking established on conceptual pluralism.

Throughout the conversation, it was emphasized that curatorship is not just a process of planning and organizing an exhibition, but rather an intellectual action that establishes the theoretical framework of art and weaves invisible bonds between the viewer and the work. According to Türkyılmaz, every curatorial touch actually forms the backbone of a narrative. The selection, placement, contextualization and presentation of the work are part of a narrative, and this narrative is not only woven with aesthetic values, but also with cultural, historical and intellectual values.

In this sense, curatorship turns into a multifaceted practice that is shaped considering invisible labor, intention, historicity behind artworks and possible relations of meaning they will establish with viewers. Türkyılmaz emphasized that curatorship is building of meaning and exhibition must create integrity in addition an intellectual theme that will leave its mark on the viewer.

The historical context of Yedikule Fortress, which was selected for the live broadcast, became a powerful element that affected not only the content but also the form of the conversation. This ancient place of Istanbul, surrounded by walls, became not only a background but also the subject of the discussion with its walls carrying the burden and memory of the past. This session, which was not coincidentally organized in Yedikule, was evaluated as a concrete indicator of the connection the biennial established between the classic and the contemporary, the past and the present, and the stone and the idea.

Historic meaning of the venue was frequently emphasized during conversations. Because all curatorship approach requires thinking the venue as more than a mere “place” and as a cultural and historic “memory area”. In this context, Yedikule, becomes an area where meaning of every exhibited work was recreated.

The connection that Yeditepe Biennial establishes between classical and contemporary art was brought to discussion on a theoretical level in this conversation. The idea that the exhibited works are not only aesthetic objects; they are narrative forms shaped by thought, resisting time, nourished by tradition but questioning the current, came to the fore. According to Türkyılmaz, the biennial builds a bridge between the past in this sense. It stands at a crossroads where aesthetic forms from the past are translated into today’s language, and contemporary art reunites with its own roots.

Curatorship is not limited to arrangement of artworks in this context and assumes a function of thought formation activating mental participation of the audience. In this dimension, Yeditepe Biennial goes beyond being an exhibit, presenting a conceptual structure focusing on building mind of art.

One of the important sides of the program is emphasizing triangular dialogue established among curator, artist, and viewer. In the conversation curator was mentioned as a “thought guide” that does not only represent intention of the artist but also opens space to meaning production of the viewer. Examples were given to explain to present how this triangular structure can present a more productive ground when it feeds on themes such as social memory, urban identity, and historic continuity.

The conversation presented that Yeditepe Biennial is an organization where artworks are displayed in addition to being a thought style, an interpretation discipline, and a research space contributing to cultural continuity. In this dimension Biennial is placed as one of the rare activities that penetrate to cultural texture of Istanbul visually as well as conceptually.

This special session that was broadcasted live from Yedikule Fortress collected attention from art lovers with its intellectual depth and presentation integrated with the historic atmosphere. The complete conversation can be watched from official YouTube channel of Yeditepe Biennial.

“Yeditepe Biennial Conversations” series will continue in the coming weeks with new topics, new venues, and new participants. Therefore Biennial will establish an aesthetic bridge between the past and the future while also deepening the bond it established between intellectual production and art day after day.

Click https://youtu.be/xH-7Mc2IVZ4?si=IAT8o2XnovGmrJyj to watch the fourth session of “Yeditepe Biennial Conversations” program.