Art Culture

Friday

Optimism in the Age of Global War

Art biennials are becoming an important fixture in the global art arena and seem to be sprouting up in the most unlikely corners of the world. Before this phenomenon began, there were three key biennials: Venice (founded 1895), Sao Paulo (founded 1951) and Istanbul (in 1973).

The Istanbul Biennial, which is equal in stature to the Venice and Sao Paulo Biennials ends November 4, 2007. This year’s 10^th installment is organized by the internationally acclaimed curator Hou Hanru, who is the current Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs at the San Francisco Art Institute.

His timely theme for the biennial is: Not only possible, but also necessary: Optimism in the Age of Global War, it takes a look at how globalization is changing modernity and features artists who work in developing areas of the world.

The selection of artists show that creative types no longer need to live in Western art centers like New York or Paris, as truly exciting and provocative art is being made in Turkey, Canada, China, India, etc.

Artists include:

• Kutlu? Ataman
• Atom Egoyan
• Cao Fei
• Renée Green
• Huang Yong Ping
• Rem Koolhaas / AMO
• Raqs Media Collective
• Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries

Check out the latter’s cool website for their Flash text animations set to evocative jazz tracks: www.yhchang.com

Taiwanese artist Peng Hung-Chih is exhibiting his videos: 10 Commandments and Islamic Exegesis which features his dog licking an empty wall to reveal religious texts that are violent in message, thus showing both religion’s shared violence and misogyny. As the dog licks the blank white wall, dark-colored words suddenly materialize. In his videos, Peng looks at the complicated world of society, religion and politics from a dog’s perspective. As we know, dog spelled backwards is god.

For further info: the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts www.iksv.org.