The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) has announced the open call for the 18th edition of the Istanbul Biennial, which will take place between 2025 and 2027. Interested artists have until 5 p.m. on December 15, 2024, to submit their proposals via an online form.

Curated by Christine Tohmé, this edition will be organized in three phases. The first phase will run from September 20 to November 23, 2025, and will feature an inaugural exhibition alongside public programs. In 2026, the biennial will focus on establishing a permanent educational structure and offer quarterly public programs in collaboration with local art initiatives. The final phase will take place between September 18 and November 14, 2027, culminating in a series of exhibitions, publications, performances, and discursive events.

Proposals should include a project that directly engages with the curatorial themes, along with a portfolio demonstrating the artist’s prior experience.

The first leg of the Biennial will focus on themes of self-preservation and futurities. In the face of precarity and recurring crises, how do material conditions and lack of safety affect our daily lives and shape our relationships with ourselves, our bodies, and our communities? How do we create spaces of respite, foster unconventional solidarities, and devise counterstrategies of resistance? What futures can we envision in a dual movement of repair and forward imagination? How can we inhabit our worlds as they unravel, making space for both nightmares and dreams, impermanence and endurance?

For the first leg in 2025, we invite interested artists to submit their dossiers via the online form by following the steps below. The first phase of the 18th Istanbul Biennial will take place between 20 September and 23 November 2025, with media previews scheduled for 16–19 September 2025 and professional previews on 18–19 September 2025.

Submission guidelines

Local and international artists from all disciplines are welcome to apply. The dossier should include a project proposal relevant to the above themes, along with a portfolio.

• Online Form: https://tinyurl.com/2s4bztdd
• Project Proposal: Should directly address the curatorial themes (maximum 3,500 characters without spaces, up to 10 MB)
• Portfolio: Demonstrating past work and experience (up to 100 MB)

The deadline for submission is 17.00 (GMT +3) on 15 December 2024.

Selected artists will be invited to further discussions, either in person or virtually.

Please click for frequently asked questions. For more information: [email protected]

Note: All submissions must be in English or Turkish, and all files must be uploaded in the designated fields in the online form.

You can upload your dossier on a single participation form as a group or collective.

You should upload a single file to each designated section.

• Project proposal: Should directly address the curatorial themes (maximum 3,500 characters without spaces, up to 10 MB)
• Portfolio: Demonstrating past work and experience (up to 100 MB)

You can submit a project proposal that is based on an ongoing project for the call for participation.

You can submit a work/project that was previously submitted to and/or presented/exhibited in another exhibition or art event.