right: MAP Office installation,
Istanbul Textile Traders’ Market
facing page: Kutlug Ataman,
Testimony (2006), film still
Unlike previous editions of
the Istanbul Biennial, Hanru makes a
conscious attempt to avoid falling under
the spell of the city’s more touristic
charms. The 10 Biennial instead maps
Istanbul’s more recent architectural
heritage. The Atatürk Cultural Centre
(AKM) on Taksim Square, the chaotic
nucleus of democratic, secular Turkey,
is a striking example of bold 1970s
architecture, with an idiosyncratically
Turkish twist in its mosaic-like inner
cladding. Having burned down almost as soon as it was built – accident a hybrid Chinese city; research by Rem Koolhaas into the new architecture
or foul play, depending on the extent of your political paranoia – of Gulf cities – while others trace the complex cultural histories of long-
it is currently earmarked for demolition, in line with the area’s reinvention as established cities. A moving series of films and fantastical animations
a business-friendly hotel and conference quarter. Burn It or Not? is Hanru’s by local Roma children, following a residency by Wong Hoy Cheong,
plea to reconsider the future of this icon, both through flaunting its aesthetic illustrate Hanru’s theme of ‘internal globalisations’, in which categories of
splendour and by presenting equivalent case studies of once-important First and Third Worlds are no longer simply a global, but a national divide.
modernist symbols, now suspicious reminders of a colonial or Communist And the idea of collective cultural amnesia is metaphorically presented in
past. Markus Krottendorfer’s forlorn photographs of the now-demolished Kutluğ Ataman’s Testimony (2006), in which he unsuccessfully attempts to
Hotel Rossija (2005) and Vahram Aghasyan’s Armenian Ghost City (2005) rouse memories from an elderly family friend whose Armenian ethnicity
betray the biennial’s optimistic agenda. The ghost of Le Corbusier haunts had been a family taboo.
the exhibition as Erdem Helvacıoğlu’s sound-piece, Memories on Silent If the 10th Biennial stretched its tentacles further than its
Walls (2007), plays a requiem of past AKM concerts. predecessors – with special projects in suburbs and on the city’s Asian
In contrast to the mausoleum atmosphere of AKM, life at the side – it also extended temporal boundaries, boasting a 24-hour presence
sprawling Istanbul Textile Traders’ Market (IMC) – its valuable central in keeping with the reputation of this city that never sleeps. Antrepo
location also proving too tempting for the developers’ immanent bulldozer included Dream House – a series of urban treehouses where it’s possible,
– continues, if not defiantly, then at least routinely. Entitled World finally, to take a kip on a bed of cushions and watch trance-inducing films.
Factory, this exhibition’s literal theme is production and spiralling market Nightcomers, an open-submission short-film festival selected by local
pressures. Highlighting the murky exploitations of liberal capitalism, artists curators, with nocturnal screenings in neighbourhoods across the city, is an
align themselves with activists and protesters, both successful and not. attempt, no doubt, to reverse the lukewarm native reception the biennial
Unsurprisingly, China’s economic model is the one against which other has suffered over its 20-year history.
developing countries are pitted. Ou Ning and Cao Fei’s Da Zha Lan It feels churlishly pessimistic to suggest that Hanru will not succeed in
Project (2005–6) is a moving portrayal of one man’s struggle to resist saving any modernist masterpieces in Istanbul; however, there’s much reason
forced relocation in the face of the coming Olympics, as government for optimism in his unnostalgic reopening of debates around modernism,
banners ironically proclaim ‘In unison the people support the city planning and his demonstration of the possibilities of a global artistic dialogue
project’. Other artists, many working as collectives, propose alternative with local issues through biennial-type exhibitions. While the biennial
modes of production: MAP Office’s videos celebrate an example of occasionally verges on the overly literal, this is ultimately overshadowed by
‘positive capitalism’ in a South China factory, revisiting the aesthetic of the confident, tight curating and urgency of its arguments.
Communist-era propaganda films of happy workers playing sports and Jennifer Thatcher
printing fashionable fabrics.
The largest of the biennial’s sub-exhibitions, Entre-polis at Antrepo,
also uses its location on the banks of the Bosporus, one of the world’s
busiest trading routes, to posit ideas around migration and globalisation,
while contesting the ‘clash of civilisations’ between Western and Islamic
traditions. A pun on Istanbul’s position entre two continents, the exhibition
design in the former warehouse also playfully echoes Istanbul’s labyrinthine
streetscape. Some works discuss future cities – a Second Life visualisation of
189 Artreview
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