The current Istanbul Biennial, an ambitious three-part show that recently completed its opening exhibnition, will not stage its remaining programming because the biennial’s curator, Christine Tohmé, resigned.
The exhibition “will conclude after its first leg following Tohmé’s decision to step down due to personal circumstances,” the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), a private foundation that manages the event, said in a statement.
The biennial, titled “The Three-Legged Cat,” was conceived by Tohmé as “a three-legged structure to unfold over three years,” with an academic program planned for 2026 and a second exhibition set for 2027. The first show ran from September 20 to November 23 across eight venues in Istanbul and received more than 600,000 visitors.
The 18th edition of the Istanbul Biennial—one of the world’s leading recurring contemporary art exhibitions—opened after a year-long delay prompted by a contentious shakeup of its curatorial leadership. In February 2023, the biennial’s advisory board unanimously selected Defne Ayas, now the director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, to curate the exhibition. The IKSV ultimately chose Iwona Blazwick instead.
Media reports widely linked the decision to Ayas’s Turkish Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale, which was devoted to the Armenian conceptual artist Sarkis. The pavilion’s accompanying catalogue referenced the Armenian genocide—a subject long contested by the Turkish government, which contends that the mass killings of Armenians during World War I were the result of wartime conditions rather than a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Following an outcry from the art community, Blazwick resigned, along with three other committee members. The IKSV’s longtime director, Bige Örer, also departed and was later replaced by Kevser Güler. Amid this tumultuous episode, the foundation decided to overhaul its curatorial selection process.
“We have witnessed the emergence of undesired divisions in art circles that are adversely affecting artists who had already agreed or might have agreed to participate in the biennial as well as collaborations and partnerships,” the foundation said upon announcing the exhibition’s postponement. “Unfortunately, this situation has made it impossible to hold the Istanbul Biennial as planned.”
The IKSV has announced that initial planning for the 19th Istanbul Biennial in 2027 will commence shortly. The foundation will announce the curator for the 19th edition in 2026.
