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The curator of the Turkish Pavilion on the subsequent Venice Biennale, Esra Sarigedik Öktem, resigned yesterday, 14 August, citing the remedy of her “pricey buddy and colleague Defne Ayas” by the Istanbul Basis For Tradition and the Arts (IKSV) as the explanation, in addition to the must be “vigilant” about “avoiding conflicts [of interest] which will come up.” Öktem is a curator and artwork supplier whose gallery represents Gülsün Karamustafa, the artist and filmmaker chosen by the IKSV for the Turkish pavilion on the Venice Biennale subsequent 12 months.
On 10 August, The Artwork Newspaper reported that the IKSV, which administers each the Istanbul Biennial and the Turkish Pavilion on the Venice Biennale, had rejected the advice of its personal advisory panel, which had chosen Ayas, a Turkish-born, Berlin-based curator, to organise the following version of the Istanbul Biennial opening in September 2024.
As an alternative, the IKSV appointed Iwona Blazwick in Ayas’s place. Blazwick, a former director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London, was a member of the biennial advisory panel on the time of her choice. Her appointment raises considerations about main conflicts of curiosity on the IKSV.
One other potential battle of curiosity was the collection of Esra Sarigedik Öktem to curate the Turkish pavilion in Venice subsequent 12 months. Öktem was chosen by the artist chosen to symbolize Turkey in Venice, Gülsün Karamustafa.
In a put up on instagram explaining her causes for resigning, Öktem addressed the potential battle head on: “Because the skilled consultant of Gülsün Karamustafa, and founding director of [the gallery] BuroSarigedik, I wished to keep away from any battle of curiosity that my new position as curator would possibly current. As such, my staff and I’ve reorganised the workflow of the workplace, and redefined my position in a manner that may preserve me separated from the day-to-day operations of the enterprise facet of representing Gülsün Karamustafa,” she wrote.
The practices for the collection of artists and curators for nationwide pavilions in Venice fluctuate. Like Turkey, some nations choose artists after which let the artists both select their very own curator or have a serious say within the choice. Different nations akin to Nigeria and Benin, which is collaborating within the Venice Biennale subsequent 12 months for the primary time, have appointed curators or curatorial groups and entrusted the collection of artists to them.
It’s, nonetheless, extremely uncommon for a nationwide pavilion to be curated by an artist’s personal supplier; the duty is most frequently assigned to museum or impartial curators.
In her instagram assertion, Öktem famous that “latest occasions” involving Ayas have “highlighted the necessity for a extra clear choice course of…Developments of the previous few days have led me to re-think my choices; not simply on an expert degree, however as a person with a eager consciousness of the precedents and legacies we depart behind for future generations.”
“Regardless that now we have already undergone main adjustments at BuroSarigedik on each management and operational ranges, I’ve determined that I must be much more vigilant about avoiding conflicts which will come up in ways in which I can not foresee for the time being,” she wrote.
Vasif Kortun, a author and curator primarily based in Istanbul, has organised two editions of the Istanbul Biennial in addition to the primary Turkish pavilion in Venice in 2007 on the invitation of general biennale curator Robert Storr. Commenting on the resignation of Öktem, he mentioned: “Esra, a colleague and a really shut buddy, was chosen by Gülsün Karamustafa. Nonetheless, she additionally occurs to be the director of a not-so-commercial however certainly for-profit establishment and successfully represents Gülsün. Esra’s origins are within the non-profit sector, and he or she was dying to do the exhibition and personally withdrew from industrial exercise till the top of the Venice present, but it surely was not a clever resolution given the report card of IKSV. We’re judged on days like this,” Kortun says.
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