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5th International Istanbul Biennial 1997

Design: Gulizar Cepoglu
Assistant Designers:
Aysun Pelvan, Aysegül Çinici
Photographers:
Cem Akkan, Murat Germen, Ekmel Ertan

These two books, which document the Biennial were organised and designed using two different rationales. The results embody different publication genres;

1. The catalogue; this publication presents the general theme of the Biennial and the participating artists.
2. The report; this publication translates the experience of being there onto the printed page. This is in fact a lived experience transformed into a form of communication.

But the second books go further; it is not merely a document which displays the events and art works, or conveys information through a faithful recording, but it also translates the messages and concepts created by the participating artists in the physical, cultural and social space of the exhibition. These artistic events, productions and spaces are structurally analysed and scrutinised from a curatorial and editorial perspective.

My aim was to experiment with the act of transference, which is the interaction within that space. These places and spaces that became the venues for the Biennial have a history and resonance, and that reflects the choices and personalities of the people (curator, artists, architects, exhibition and lighting designers) who organised these venues, in more idiosyncratic hence dynamic terms.

My experience of the many visits to the various venues of the Biennial, working with the photographer and the curator, turned into an event in itself, and an experience that could be transferred into “book space”.