One of the world’s leading architecture events, the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia will take place on 20 May–26 November 2023. Following an open-call and a two-stage evaluation, the Selection Committee has determined the project that will be exhibited at the Pavilion of Turkey, realised under the coordination of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) with the contributions of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey. The pavilion is co-sponsored by Schüco Turkey and VitrA.
Ghost Stories: Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture, curated by Sevince Bayrak and Oral Göktaş, will be presented at the Pavilion of Turkey in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia.
The members of the Selection Committee, consisting of Aslı Çiçek, Prof. Dr. Ayşen Savaş, Neyran Turan, Han Tümertekin and Ertuğ Uçar selected the project from among the proposals that made it to the second round of evaluations, each of which had different content and design qualities. Bringing a unique perspective to architectural and urban debates, the selected project focuses on a current and important problem in Turkey as well as in the world, proposes a rich content and research method, and develops a field of interest ranging from building to urbanism with its cross-scale approach.
Ghost Stories: Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture aims to question the taken-for-granted images and approaches to buildings and to reveal hopeful proposals for the future. Based on Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Carrier Bag Theory, the exhibition content, which also draws strength from the radical change that the world of architecture has undergone in the last two decades, suggests listening to the stories of unused buildings rather than heroic structures standing on pedestals. The main topics of the project are the collective documentation of the contemporary archive of such buildings, which can be considered as the ‘laboratory of the future’, that can be found in almost every city in Turkey, and the research on how we can transform them, instead of demolishing or leaving them to their fate.
Details regarding the Pavilion of Turkey at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia and the project Ghost Stories: Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture will be announced in 2023.
CURATORS
Sevince Bayrak and Oral Göktaş
Sevince Bayrak and Oral Göktaş founded SO? in 2007 after studying Architecture at Istanbul Technical University, graduating in 2005. In 2013, they won the Young Architects Programme by MoMA/PS1, creating Sky Spotting Stop for Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, which was exhibited in MoMA and MAXXI. In 2015, they won the invited competition at the Royal Academy of Arts and their project Unexpected Hill was realised in London. Right after that, their installation Lost Barrier was mounted in Rome. Their project for the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial, Fold and Float, traveled to MAXXI and Designmuseum Denmark. Both Lost Barrier and Fold and Float were acquired by MAXXI for its permanent collection.
Their work has been published internationally, won numerous awards and nominated for Mies and Aga Khan Awards. They were among the finalists of the Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Award 2019.
Their recent work includes the transformation of a public cultural centre in Istanbul, a chicken coop, a cabin in the rural parts of Turkey, an interdisciplinary research project on post-disaster emergency housing and the transformation of a swimming pool and a hangar to activity halls. Sevince recently published a book, Bir Meydan Öyküsü, Beyazıt adapted from her PhD dissertation about the evolution of public space in Istanbul. She is currently Assistant Professor at MEF University. Oral has been running a graduate design studio, titled Alternative Architectural Practices in MEF University since 2019. Sevince was one of the architects presented in the Good News, Women in Architecture exhibition in MAXXI, 2021. She writes articles about current architectural issues for popular magazines.
Pavilion of Turkey at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia
The Pavilion of Turkey exhibition is coordinated by İKSV with the contributions of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, and co-sponsored by Schüco Turkey and VitrA. The Pavilion of Turkey has taken part in the International Architecture Exhibition since 2014, thanks to the acquisition of the permanent venue at Sale d’Armi, Arsenale on the initiation of İKSV and with the support of 21 sponsors.