a good neighbour / iyi bir komşu

499 pp, color figures, pb, in Turkish-English.

The preparation period for the 15th Istanbul Biennial has reminded us that, in this tumultuous time through which we are passing, one of the things we miss most is living together without having to forgo our identities. There is no single definition of a good neighbour, to be sure; that definition may di ffer considerably according to the time, place and society in which we find ourselves. One might experience the condition of being a neighbour at di fferent scales – the home, the neighbourhood, the city, the country and perhaps even the universe. What determines the course of all these systems is born of the personal, of micro-systems, and our relationship with the space in which we live then shapes the outer circles. At a time when social traumas and political earthquakes have fuelled anxieties about the future in an unprecedented way, and individual freedoms have been forced into a corner, the 15th Istanbul Biennial has chosen to follow personal stories. The terror a tacks that took place re - cently in cities including Brussels, New York, Orlando and Barcelona, and a series of incidents that deeply shook Turkey around the same time, followed by the failed coup a tempt of 15 July, had a direct impact on the world of art and culture. Many events have been postponed or cancelled, but we carried on preparing this Biennial, once again, with the hope that producing, thinking about and discussing art can create zones in which to breathe, where knots can be disentangled. While, across the world, borders have become sharper, nationalist and even racist movements are on the rise, and all manner of violent threats make their presence felt at any given place, at any given time, we tried, as the ground slipped away from under our feet, to hold onto each other, to keep standing by leaning on each other. The excitement the artists invited to the Biennial displayed as they produced new works in Istanbul, and the conversati - ons we had at workshops, meetings with masters and with colleagues from the field during the research and production process, gave us the strength to continue, reminding us how impor - tant it was to have realised the Biennial for the past thirty years and to ensure its continuity as a form of resistance. Bige Örer 24 25 Held for the fifteenth time in its thirty-year-life-span, this year, the Istanbul Biennial is being curated by the artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset. We experienced at every stage of the process what a good decision it was to invite them to accompany us on this journey. For almost twenty years, they had taken part in many biennials and exhibitions in Istanbul, and produced works that interacted with the city, and this formed a strong foundation when we began work on the 15th Biennial.