Where can we turn our gaze to find the possibilities of coming out from the structure surrounding us in the concentrations that impede our freedoms and to look at the globalized past of societies?
We are going through a period in which we think we have surpassed it but which re-enters an identitarian state within the open cages that grip us tightly. How can we transform the post-colonial and feminist, intersectional struggle against nature, culture (Anthropocene and capitalocene), plants, animals, other people, ethnicities, nations, classes, regions, and struggle against racism in the context of decolonial deconstruction into “coexistence”?
Without denying any of these and consistently struggling with them, How can we overcome these problems by going through them without getting tired and giving up the struggle? And how can we imagine more ‘’further’’ by transcending them?
How can we organize the changes and transformations in family relations (single-parent families, multiple marriages, and families with many children born from them, increase in non-biological family relationships) and technology (artificial intelligence, terrestrial, robotization, and informatization) in societies today?
In particular, How can we get out of the existing global scenario, and how can we communicate a “deliberative democracy” (between humans and also other living things as in the concept of “The Parliament of Things”) among living things?
The 6th Mardin Biennial will focus on these issues as a proposal to observe, think and create artistically. How can we think of going through these problems and transcending the period we live in by aiming further on the lands to be walked step by step?
-Ali Akay
*For Epicurus, katastema is the moment when pain disappears and thus the body and soul reach serenity.
Artists
Sarkis, Nil Yalter, Ayşe Erkmen, İnci Eviner, Ali Kazma, Seza Paker, Cevdet Erek, Ahmet Öğüt, Nasan Tur, Aslı Çavuşoğlu, Serkan Özkaya, İnci Furni, İrem Günaydın, Özlem Altın, Yüksel Arslan, Güneş Terkol, Güçlü Öztekin, Esma Ertel ve Murat Ertel, Büke Uras, Yıldız Moran, Claude Closky, Bruno Serralongu, Laurent Grasso, Thierry Kuntzel, Michele Ciacciofera, Bouchra Khalili, Tarek Atoui, Allan Sekula, Brice Dellsperger, Mika Rottenberg, Erik Bullot, Le Peuple Qui Manque Kolektifi (Aliocha İmhoff ve Kuantuta Quiros), Claire Fontaine Kolektifi (Fulvia Carnevale ve James Thornhill),
Ulay (Frank Uwe Laysiepen), Rafael Lain – Angela Detanico, M/M (Michael Amzalag ve Mathias Augustyniak), Ugo Rondinone, Liam Gillick, Victor Burgin
Guest Speakers
David Lapoujade, Eric Alliez, Pierre Montebello, Elias Sanbar, Nilüfer Göle, Bernard Blistene
Curatorial statement and information from Mardin Biennial
Image: Gülsün Karamustafa, Melancholic Basilisk. 1980–2022. Four Panthers, Two Praying Carpets, One Jesus, Baby Violinist, Stars and Tulles. 1980–2022. Textile collage. Dimensions variable. Installation view of 5th Mardin Biennial, The Promise of Grass at German Headquarters, Mardin, 2022. Image courtesy of Mardin Biennial
