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2nd Yeditepe Biennial Launches with the Participation of Our President
The 2nd Yeditepe Biennial, organized with the theme of "Inside the Frame / Out of the Frame", has launched with the honoring of our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
7 January 2022
Organized for the second time this year with the cooperation of Fatih Municipality and Classical Turkish Arts Foundation under the auspices of the Presidency, the Yeditepe Biennial opened with the program attended by our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Starting his speech at the opening ceremony held in Süleymaniye Darüzziyafe by wishing the second of the Yeditepe Biennial to be beneficial, President Erdoğan noted that he deems it important that the biennial - which literally means "annual" – is held in Istanbul under the name of Yeditepe with distinguished examples of classical Turkish and Islamic arts.
“WE ARE A NATION THAT HAS LEFT ITS MARK ON HISTORY WITH ITS INCLUSIVE, COMREHENSIVE AND DEVELOPING MANNER IN THE ARTS”
Expressing that the Yeditepe Biennial, which will start at the Süleymaniye Complex Imaret Darüzziyafe and continue at the Nuruosmaniye Mosque Cellar, Fatih Glass Cube Gallery and Yedikule Fortress, is sufficient to show the eye-catching richness of Istanbul even with its event venues, President Erdoğan said: “The fact that the works of artists from different origins and dispositions are presented together in the same branches of art indicates that we have a civilization climate that rejects all kinds of discrimination and marginalization. The richness, depth and originality emanating from our cultural and artistic products to be exhibited within the scope of the biennial is truly a unique feast in terms of content and scope.” President Erdoğan continued by saying “Embracing the good, beautiful and useful, and improving them is one of the most important legacies left to us from our ancestors” and he added “As in ever field, we are a nation that has left its mark on history not with its complexes, but with its inclusive, comprehensive and developing manner in the arts. We can see the best examples of this in the works exhibited in Yeditepe Biennial. When we look at the works on display, we will realize that we cannot find the beauty, the aesthetics and the delicacy there anywhere else.”
“YEDITEPE BIENNIAL AIMS AT REFLECTING THE APPROACH THAT MAKES US WHO WE ARE”
Fatih Mayor M. Ergün Turan, who started his speech by expressing his happiness that a comprehensive cultural and art event such as the biennial will take place in Fatih, and in the uniquely beautiful venues of Suriçi, said: “In every period of history, Muslims have built a life for themselves in which art is at the center. The legacy accumulated in our pool of civilization in the entire Islamic geography from Bukhara to Andalusia is the result of a journey that continues in the pursuit of absolute beauty. Of course, one of the main sources feeding this pool is Istanbul.”
After the speeches, the biennial was inaugurated, in the company of our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Following the presentation of gifts by Fatih Mayor M. Ergün Turan and Classical Turkish Arts Foundation Chairman Ahmet Özel to our President, the works in the Süleymaniye Mosque Imaret were viewed and examined with the guests.
About the 2nd Yeditepe Biennial
The 2nd Yeditepe Biennial, curated by Berkan Karpat and supervised by Prof. Dr. Zeynep Gemuhluoğlu, will host 226 artists from abroad and various regions of our country for 2 months, from January 7 to March 7. It will host 282 works of art in 4 important venues that are identified with Istanbul. The works will be exhibited at Süleymaniye Complex Imaret Darüzziyafe between January 7th-31st, at Nuruosmaniye Cellar and Fatih Glass Cube Gallery from January 20th to March 7th, and at Yedikule Fortress between February 10th and March 7th. More than 250 artworks that were created in the traditional style in the Süleymaniye Mosque Imaret Darüzziyafe, whose restoration is in progress within the scope of the biennial, were arranged in accordance with the artist's working-seeing practice and in a way that refers to the book arts. The works in the Nuruosmaniye Mosque Cellar are the result of an effort to make visible the questions of artists with traditional art education about their art performance and exhibition styles. The works in Yedikule Fortress, on the other hand, are presented to the attention of the audience as a way of expressing hopes and despairs about the future of exhibition practices of both contemporary and traditional art. In Fatih Glass Cube Gallery, art enthusiasts will be able to visit the works and venues of the biennial digitally and observe their 3D version.
