Dezeen Magazine

Istanbul Design Biennal 2018

Istanbul Design Biennial​ 2018 will feature six pop-up "schools"

Dezeen promotion: the next Istanbul Design Biennial​ will see six of the city's important cultural institutions transformed into experimental teaching spaces.

For the fourth edition of the city-wide exhibition, curator Jan Boelen plans to create a series of pop-up "schools" that will test different educational strategies and explore how they could impact the future of design.

The venues that will house these schools are: Akbank Sanat; the Yapı Kredi Culture Centre, the Pera Museum, Arter, Salt Galata, and Studio-X Istanbul.

Jan Boelen Appointed Curator of the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial
Jan Boelen is curating the Istanbul Design Biennial with the title A School of Schools

The Istanbul Design Biennial​ 2018 takes place in the Turkish city from 22 September to 4 November. It is organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) and sponsored by VitrA.

Boelen was named as curator last year. He will joined by two assistant curators: writer Nadine Botha, and design writer and critic Vera Sacchetti.

Their theme, A School of Schools, was chosen to explore "the multiple dimensions of design as learning".

The biennial's tagline is "design as learning and learning as design".

Istanbul Design Biennal 2018
The event will see six pop-up schools created in the city, including the Earth School at not-for-profit contemporary art space Arter

Akbank Sanat, a centre for music and contemporary arts, will host the Unmaking School, using the human instinct for creativity as a lens to explore innovations in production methods, and the future of work and cities.

The Current[As School, hosted at the Yapı Kredi Culture Centre, will look critically at new technology and systems.

The Pera Museum, an important art gallery, will be home to the Scales School, which will investigate institutionalised biases and assumptions.

The Earth School will be located at Arter, a not-for-profit contemporary art space. This school will examine the relationship between humans and the planet, asking questions about disasters and evolution.

Istanbul Design Biennal 2018
Salt Galata, an art space in former bank, will host the Time School

Salt Galata, an art space in former bank, will host the Time School, looking at "contested pasts and speculative futures" as well as unpacking the concepts of hyper-speed and deep time.

Finally, the Digestion School at urban think tank Studio-X Istanbul will bring together patterns of consumption, metabolic systems and cultural ritual to consider education and lifelong learning.

The programme starts on 20 September with a two-day event called A School of Schools: Orientation, where practitioners, educators and thinkers from Turkey and further afield will discuss educational strategies and design in an increasingly connected world.

For more information, visit the Istanbul Design Biennial​ 2018 website.