Organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), the 18th Istanbul Biennial will be realized in three stages between 2025 and 2027, continuing to be Türkiye's largest international exhibition dedicated to contemporary art. Curated by Christine Tohmé under the title The Three-Legged Cat, the first leg will be held from September 20 to November 23, 2025. Continuing the Biennial's approach of engaging directly with Istanbul through a dispersed model rather than a fixed venue, this edition will use eight sites located within walking distance along the Beyoğlu–Karaköy axis. Over this period, works by 47 artists from more than 30 countries will be presented to the public, accompanied by a program of performances, screenings, and live events during the opening week.
The venues of the 18th Istanbul Biennial trace a path between Beyoğlu and Karaköy, drawing on the layered histories of the city. The Galata Greek School, a long-standing Biennial site, returns after a comprehensive restoration carried out between 2019 and 2024. Built in 1885, the school functioned as an educational institution until its closure in 1988 and now reopens as a cultural venue. Nearby, Zihni Han has been refurbished to host works for this edition. Rebuilt in 1973, the building once housed the headquarters of a shipping agency in Tophane, a maritime gateway that historically connected Istanbul to the Levant. Along the same axis, the ground floor of building number 35 on Meclis-i Mebusan Avenue has been repurposed as an additional exhibition space.
A short walk away, Muradiye Han and Galeri 77 stand opposite one another on Galata Wine Dock Street. The area, once a central hub of the wine trade with shipments arriving from across the Aegean, reflects the commercial past of the district. Around the corner, a former ice cream cone factory, recently reactivated as a site for cultural experimentation, joins the Biennial as another venue. Ascending Boğazkesen Street towards Beyoğlu, visitors encounter the former French Orphanage, a four-storey property once owned by the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, where the Biennial will extend into its garden through a public installation. The sequence concludes on İstiklal Avenue with Elhamra Han. Constructed in 1827 as one of the city's earliest theatre halls, later known as the Palais de Cristal, the building evolved with the city to host cinema and theatre enterprises throughout the 20th century.
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The participating artists of the 18th Istanbul Biennial's first leg were selected through an extensive process of research, studio visits, and an open call held between October and December 2024. Their practices span geographies and generations, bringing together established and emerging voices from over 30 countries, from Brazil to Lebanon, South Africa to Finland. Among them are Haig Aivazian, Abdullah Al Saadi, Ana Alenso, Willy Aractingi, Karimah Ashadu, and Mona Benyamin, along with Chen Ching-Yuan, Ian Davis, Nolan Oswald Dennis, İpek Duben, Celina Eceiza, Ali Eyal, Eva Fàbregas, Simone Fattal, Lou Fauroux, Pélagie Gbaguidi, Lungiswa Gqunta, Rafik Greiss, Ola Hassanain, Doruntina Kastrati, Jasleen Kaur, Şafak Şule Kemancı, and Kongkee. The selection also includes Seta Manoukian, Mona Marzouk, Merve Mepa, Valentin Noujaïm, Claudia Pagès Rabal, Pilar Quinteros, Khalil Rabah, Jagdeep Raina, Marwan Rechmaoui, Naomi Rincón-Gallardo, Riar Rizaldi, Lara Saab, Sara Sadik, Stéphanie Saadé, Sohail Salem, Elif Saydam, Selma Selman, Natasha Tontey, Sevil Tunaboylu, the collective VASKOS, Ana Vaz, Dilek Winchester, Akram Zaatari, and Ayman Zedani.
The public program will further expand this list with contributions from Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Samar Al Summary, Alex Baczyński-Jenkins, Krzysztof Bagiński, Ronald Berger, Ewa Dziarnowska, Ahmad Ghossein, Maxime Hourani, Meho Huskić, Rafal Pierzynski, Suneil Sanzgiri, Muhamed Selman, and Sigrid Stigsdatter Mathiassen.
Structured across three consecutive years, the 18th Istanbul Biennial aims to extend beyond a single exhibition to evolve as a sustained process. Following the first leg in 2025, the second leg in 2026 will take the form of an academy, developed in collaboration with local initiatives and public programmes. The third and final stage in 2027 will bring the cycle to a close, drawing together the encounters and research of the previous years through exhibitions and workshops.
In other similar news, the first Copenhagen Architecture Biennial, led by Josephine Michau, CEO and Founder of CAFx and curator of the Danish Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, will open on September 18 under the theme Slow Down. Meanwhile, the sixth Chicago Architecture Biennial, marking its tenth anniversary, will run from September 12, 2025, to February 28, 2026, under the title CAB 6: Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, directed by architect, writer, and educator Florencia Rodriguez.
