5,250 children and young people from 12 countries come together in Istanbul for ‘hope’.
The 7th Istanbul Children and Youth Art Biennial has begun. The concept of this year’s Biennial, which is held every two years, is ‘Hope’. As part of the Biennial, 579 projects by 5,250 children and young people will be exhibited at different venues across Istanbul for a month.
The 7th Istanbul Children and Youth Art Biennial, which has welcomed participants from 31 countries since 2010, has officially opened. At this seventh edition, 579 projects by 5,250 young artists are on display. MKM Beşiktaş Çağdaş has been chosen as the main venue of the month-long event, while the second exhibition venue, İstiklal Art Gallery, also presents works by children and young people on the theme of ‘hope’ as part of the Biennial. Alongside these two venues, the Attila İlhan Stage, the Kadıköy and Beşiktaş pier squares and Şehir Hatları ferries will once again host concerts and performances by young people. Hope Alkazar is also setting aside some of its screenings for Biennial visitors.
Biennial Director Gazi Selçuk describes this year’s event as follows: “This year we are holding the seventh International Istanbul Children and Youth Art Biennial, the world’s largest and most comprehensive children and youth art organisation. Fourteen years have passed since we set out with the aim of ‘creating the right climate for creative new generations to emerge’, and every year we continue to grow in participation, scope and impact. We are holding the Biennial, which runs from 22 April to 23 May, with the invaluable contributions, collaboration and institutional partnership of more than 100 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and public and private institutions. Of the record 879 visual arts projects submitted by 21,350 children, 579 projects by 5,250 children and young people were found suitable for exhibition following a preliminary review and a rigorous assessment by the Evaluation Committee.”
Participants from 12 Countries This Year
This year, 130 participants from 12 countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Iran, Germany, Russia, Georgia, Romania and Azerbaijan, are taking part in the Biennial across two exhibition venues and four event and concert spaces. Projects by children and young people from 25 provinces of Turkey are meeting audiences at six different venues in Istanbul.
Organised by Palet Culture, Art and Education Association (PALETDER), the Biennial is curated by Esra Özkan, who has been behind many firsts in the field of digital art. The concept of the 7th Istanbul Children and Youth Art Biennial this year is ‘hope’. While hosting painting, sculpture, photography, installation and performance works as in previous years, the Biennial also welcomes works in fields added this year, such as theatre, artificial intelligence and digital arts.
A Comprehensive Biennial Programme Awaits You
This year, special projects were carried out with children and young people in the earthquake zone. A rich Biennial Programme has also been prepared for the month-long Biennial, with workshops, talks, panels and events led by hundreds of artists, actors, scientists, academics and educators who are experts in their fields.
In collaboration with NGOs, museums, universities and artists, 177 workshops, talks and events will take place in fields such as science, art, literature, creative writing, digital media, technology, climate, the environment, education, climate justice, music and stage performance.
The Biennial events are also a source of nourishment for teachers: by hosting representatives of the changing and evolving education models around the world through seminars and workshops, the Biennial supports teachers in their professional development.
The programme includes nearly 200 workshops, talks, performances and events of various kinds and content with many artists, academics and educators who are experts in their fields, including İsmail Acar, Devrim Erbil, Süleyman Saim Tekcan, Dilan Bozyel, Seren Fosforoğlu, Abdülkadir Özbek, Esra Karagülle, Nihan Aslı Elmas, Murat Germen, Selçuk Artut, Leyla Emadi, Bekir Aksoy, Asil Aksoy, Murat Aygen, Gülveli Kaya, Bengisu Bayrak, Süreyya Evren, Yekta Kopan, Seydi Murat Koç and Şevket Sönmez.
You can follow the events on the website http://www.cocukgenclikbienal.org/ and on Instagram at @cocukgencliksanatbienali, and attend them free of charge.
The Biennial Team
The Biennial, organised by Palet Culture, Art and Education Association, is directed by art educator Gazi Selçuk, who has been involved in many major international projects, and curated by Esra Özkan, who leads international projects in the field of digital arts. The Biennial team comprises General Coordinators Nur Bardakçı and Yeliz İşanç Arapoğlu; Programme Coordinator Yeliz İşanç Arapoğlu; Communications Coordinator Yener Yalçın; Performance Coordinator Başak Salihler Gülbir; Design Coordinator Gül Çetin; Field Operations Coordinator Arzu Efel; Social Media Manager Aslı Karabulut; and, in International Relations, Noshid Mirzaei and Elisa Sassera.
The applications from 20,000 children were evaluated by an academic committee of experts. The Biennial Evaluation Committee includes Ahval Ateş, Alev Cınbarcı, Banu Atik, Çetin Akmeşe, Delal Kazıcı, Dicle Gurban, Duysal Aylin Alkan, Ece Dalkıran, Enis Kalpak, Emine Yıldırım Şencan, Esra Çelikkanat, Gözde Tito, Kader Akçay, Melike Yakarer, Mustafa Duymaz, Nur Bardakçı, Noshid Mirzaei, Oya Mete Yener, Sarah Clarkson Spoors, Seda Aydın, Sevda Akış, Dr Seyit Mehmet Buçukoğlu, Tülin Cabuk and Yıldız Canlıca Yıldız, with Kader Akçay as Fine Arts High Schools Coordinator.
The Biennial Advisory Board is made up of world-renowned figures, including State Artist and former Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University faculty member Prof. Dr. Devrim Erbil; Boğaziçi University faculty member Prof. Dr. Sevda Bekman; EU programmes adviser and former district governor Fikret Toksöz; businessman and DASİFED board member Faruk Ekinci; artist İsmail Acar; artist and Marmara University faculty member Zeynep Öztürk; art educator Maria Sezer; and academic and art director Gizem Pamukçu.
Full Support from Institutions
The institutions supporting this year’s Biennial, organised by PALETDER (Palet Culture, Art and Education Association), are: AÇEV (Anne Çocuk Eğitim Vakfı), Akbank Sanat, Aktif Yaşam Derneği, Altı Nokta Körler Vakfı, Altınbaş Üniversitesi, Arçelik, Arkki Türkiye – Türkiye Tasarım Vakfı, Arter, Asset Studio, Atatürk Kültür Merkezi, Atık Nakit, Atölye Tohum, Atta Festival, Babil Toplum Kültür Sanat Çalışmaları Derneği, Bahçeşehir Üniversitesi, Beltaş A.Ş., Beykoz Üniversitesi, Beyoğlu Belediyesi, BIC, Bilfen Okulları, Bilge Ağaç Orman Okulu, Bilim Kahramanları Derneği, Bizim Dünyamız Vakfı, Black Crow Art, Borusan Contemporary, Borusan Sürdürülebilir Fayda Programı, Bursa İl MEM, Crypto Female, Contrario Art Sanat, Çağdaş Yaşamı Destekleme Derneği, Çocukla Yaratıcı Çocuk Atölyeleri, Çocuk ve Gençlik Yayınları Derneği, DC Art, Dönüşüm Derneği, Eğitim Sanatı Dostları Derneği, Elifce Sanat Atölyeleri, Enka Okulları, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf Üniversitesi, Fikir Değirmeni Girişimcilik Merkezi, Fikri Mahsul, Fridays For Future (climate activists), Gelecek Nesil Soroptimist Kulübü, Golden Horn FRC Team, Habitat Derneği, Hatay İl Milli Eğitim Müdürlüğü, Hayata Destek Derneği, Hayata Renk Ver Derneği, Herkes İçin Mimarlık, Hope Alkazar, Hip Hop Türkiye, İFSAK, İMOGA İstanbul Grafik Sanatlar Müzesi, Impact Hub, İndi Oyuncak, İstanbul İl Milli Eğitim Müdürlüğü, İstanbul Modern Sanat Müzesi, İstanbul Vakfı, İstanbul İZEV (Zihinsel Engelliler İçin Eğitim ve Dayanışma Vakfı), KAÇUV (Kanserli Çocuklara Umut Vakfı), Kadıköy Atölye, Kırmızı Biber Derneği, Kocaeli Üniversitesi, Kronik Çocuk, Marmara Üniversitesi, Masallar Deryası, MKM Beşiktaş Çağdaş, Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı Mahir Başer İlkokulu, MOMENTUM İletişim, Monomit Film, Musiki Eğitim Vakfı, Mülteciler Derneği, SGDD-ASAM, Nesin Vakfı, Öğretmen Ağı, ÖRAV (Öğretmen Akademisi Vakfı), Parıltı Görmeyen Çocuklara Destek Derneği, Pera Müzesi, Primat Atölye, P4C Türkiye, Sakıp Sabancı Müzesi, Sarıyer Açı Ortaokulu, Sıfırdan Yayınları, Soroptimist Kadınlar Derneği Nexgen Kulübü, Stemist Lab, Sürdürülebilirlik Adımları Derneği, Şehir Hatları A.Ş., Talebeyiz Biz Derneği, Tasarım Gezginleri, Teşkilat ICOM, Techlondo, Tomurcuk Kooperatifi, TOG (Toplum Gönüllüleri Vakfı), Türkiye Spina Bifida Derneği İstanbul Şubesi, Yalova İranlılar Kültür Derneği, Yeditepe Üniversitesi, With You Foundation…
The Biennial Programme
Workshops are among the most important parts of the Biennial, with sessions of widely varying content and purpose for children, young people, teachers and adults. These workshops are run with the support of more than 100 NGOs, universities and arts institutions that are experts in their fields. Children and young people aged 4–18 can take part in hands-on workshops in recycling, painting, sculpture, printmaking, puppetry, toy-making, photography, peepshow, storytelling and story creation, while the Biennial also hosts activities such as the Peer Bullying Awareness and Braille workshops, which bring together children with different mental and physical abilities and encourage interaction between disabled and non-disabled people. Children and young people will also have the chance to see theatre plays and to join performance activities in Zumba Kids, hip hop dance, creative drama and improvised music workshops. Under the heading of Animation Day, with content created by Animist, there are drawing and comics workshops led by Ümit Kireççi and Necmi Yalçın, as well as stop-motion and flipbook workshops run by the young members of the Animist club. With Esra Özkan as the Biennial’s curator, workshops on digital art and technology carry particular weight. In the Electronic Waste Examination and Dismantling Workshop, Lego workshops, Robotic Coding, Artificial Intelligence and the Metaverse Workshop, participants can also meet Sakine (Calmila), an AI meditation twin thousands of kilometres away, for an intriguing experience of technology awareness somewhere between the virtual and the real.
The workshop held under the title Let’s Meet at the Stations includes Play, Improvisation, Music, Dance, Painting and Sculpture stations, with activities taking place simultaneously at each station around the theme of hope. While participants chase colours in workshops such as Didem Korkmaz’s Hope Ambassadors, we also welcome artists such as Asil Aksoy, who says “I am a GROWN-UP painter”. In the Voice of the Biennial Radio Workshop, students will share with visitors and their peers a programme they prepare during the workshop, made up of interviews with Biennial visitors and announcements on the theme of hope. At high school and university level, Golden Horn FRC Team, students from the KOÜ Zero Waste Club and young people from Talebeyiz Biz Derneği will have their say. Students from Kocaeli Güzel Sanatlar Lisesi will present their works and performances such as “Yeryüzü Nefes Alsın” and “Ekolojik Denge”, while young people such as Ada Evren and Yunus Emre Ece will run workshops for children.
This year the Biennial is also hosting a theatre play for the first time. Staged by the actors of the Musiki Eğitim Vakfı Youth Theatre and directed by Ertuğrul Akkök, the play opens at the MKM Attila İlhan Stage. Based on Yunus Emre’s philosophy of “Let us love and be loved”, it explores conflict between people to convey the importance of understanding one another – in other words, of empathy.
This year the Biennial has set aside 6–12 May for Children’s Rights Week, naming each day after a children’s right and planning the workshops accordingly. In the workshop “Children’s Rights with Children – We Have Rights!”, Melisa Akkuş, who is passionate about saving the world, runs a session to help children learn about and understand their own rights. The workshop “Children’s Rights with Children: Be Like a Child, Act Like a Child – I Have the Right to Be a Child!” will likewise create a setting in which children can learn about and understand their own rights, declaring: I have the right to be a child!
The Biennial opens a dedicated space for the earthquake we experienced on 6 February 2023. The Nurhak Children and Youth Library Dance Group is taking part in the Biennial. Hayata Destek Derneği is hosting an activity led by Dilan Bozyel in which photographs capturing moments from the lives of children affected by the earthquake in Adıyaman and Diyarbakır are printed and then coloured in with pencils by other children attending the Biennial. Meanwhile, a workshop organised by Habitat Derneği will take place in Hatay at the same time as in Istanbul, and the event can be watched live inside MKM Beşiktaş Çağdaş.
To help renew hope in the earthquake zone, the Istanbul Children and Youth Art Biennial and AÇEV held workshops with children in four cities – in the container towns of Adıyaman, Gaziantep and Hatay and at the centre in Diyarbakır – with Leyla Emadi, Selçuk Artut and Murat Germen, together with Biennial Director Gazi Selçuk and Programme Coordinator Yeliz Arapoğlu, accompanied by AÇEV representatives. The works produced by the children are on display at the Biennial, and as the final stop of this journey of hope, a gathering with the artists involved in the project and AÇEV representatives will be held in the closing days of the Biennial.
In addition, an interactive art workshop will be held in memory of artist and academic Gülçin Aksoy, one of the curators of the 4th Biennial, who passed away recently. Led by art educator, artist and Biennial Advisory Board member Maria Sezer, it will bring participants together to remember Aksoy and share her contributions to art and education.
