The Istanbul Biennial is a contemporary art exhibition that has been held biennially in Istanbul, Turkey, since 1987. The Biennial has been organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) since its inception. Format Istanbul Biennial adheres to an exhibition model in which the curator, appointed by an international advisory board, develops a conceptual framework according to which a variety of artists and projects are invited to the exhibition. After the first two biennials realized under the general coordination of Beral Madra in 1987 and 1989, IKSV decided to commission a different curator for each edition, starting with the 1992 Istanbul Biennial directed by Vasif Kortun. Istanbul's 13th biennial in 2013 was overtaken by political events; its theme was art in public spaces but was forced to retreat indoors after many of the scheduled venues filling with plumes of tear gas and water cannon as police and demonstrators clashed had been tuned into a battleground between demonstrators trying to protect the city's Gezi Park. The 2015 edition presented new works by more than 50 visual artists as well as oceanographers and neuroscientists. Past biennials 1987 - Contemporary Art in Traditional Spaces. General Coordinator: Beral Madra 1989 - Contemporary Art in Traditional Spaces. General Coordinator: Beral Madra 1992 - Production of Cultural Difference. Director: Vasif Kortun 1995 - Orient-ation – The Image of Art in a Paradoxical World. Curator: René Block 1997 - On Life, Beauty, Translations and Other Difficulties. Curator: Rosa Martinez 1999 - The Passion and the Wave. Curator: Paolo Colombo 2001 - Egofugal – Fugue from Ego for the Next Emergence. Curator: Yuko Hasegawa 2003 - Poetic Justice. Curator: Dan Cameron 2005 - İstanbul. Curators: Charles Esche and Vasif Kortun 2007 - Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary: Optimism in the Age of Global War. Curator: Hou Hanru 2009 - What Keeps Mankind Alive?. Curators: WHW / What, How & for Whom 2011 - Untitled. Curators: Adriano Pedrosa and Jens Hoffmann 2013 - Mom, am I barbarian? Curator: Fulya Erdemci 2015 - SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms. Drafter: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev 2017 - A Good Neighbour. Curators: Elmgreen & Dragset 2019 - The Seventh Continent. Curators: Nicolas Bourriaud 2022 - (postponed 2021 biennial) Untitled. Ute Meta Bauer, Amar Kanwar and David Teh Past participating artists 9th Istanbul Biennial, 2005 12th Istanbul Biennial, 2011 The 12th Istanbul Biennial was curated by Jens Hoffmann and Adriano Pedrosa, and