The 5th Istanbul Design Biennial has opened to the public, both digitally and physically. Curated by Mariana Pestana with Sumitra Upham and Billie Muraben, the Biennial brings together different formats of display under the theme Empathy Revisited. The biennial launches with interventions in a range of exhibition venues, outdoor spaces in Istanbul and digital platforms.
The 5th Istanbul Design Biennial brings together ideas and projects that seek to define a new role for design based on empathy. "As a mediator of emotions and feelings, design is presented here as a practice that takes care as its main purpose. Designers adopt sensitive, diplomatic, sometimes therapeutic functions, with the aim of connecting us with one another but also with the world around us, with other species, with microorganisms, soil, water and even the universe."
The 5th Istanbul Design Biennial is organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) under the sponsorship of VitrA and with the support of Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The projects displayed in the exhibition venues will be open to visit until 15 November 2020; while the interventions in the city, research projects and video series will continue to evolve until 30 April 2021, and beyond.
Mariana Pestana noted that, “The current restrictions around social distancing became an opportunity to reappraise the standard model of the biennial and rethink our relationship with the environment. I believe that design can help us do exactly that, empathically. The new format of the 5th Istanbul Design Biennial proposes a completely new mode of engagement as we look into how design mediates our relationships with non-human subjects."
5th Istanbul Design Biennial’s opening video can be streamed on İKSV’s YouTube channel. The biennial will continue to evolve digitally and physically for six months with newly commissioned projects.
News via Istanbul Design Biennial
