Turkey Announces Artist, Curator for 2026 Venice Biennale
78Oct. 1, 2025
The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) has named multidisciplinary artistNilbar Güreş, known for her humorous, poetic, yet critical works commenting on social topics, as Turkey’s representative to the Sixty-FirstVenice Biennale, set to take place May 9–November 22, 2026. Güreş was unanimously selected by the Turkish pavilion’s advisory board, which comprised art historian Ceren Özpınar and curators Chus Martínez, Öykü Özsoy Sağnak, and Ulya Soley. Başak Doğa Temür, a onetime curator and artistic program board member at Istanbul’s Arter Museum, will curate the pavilion.
Born in 1977, Güreş, who is of Kurdish and Turkish heritage, divides her time among Naples, Vienna, and her hometown, Istanbul. Through a practice that spans performance, video, sculpture, installation, and mixed-media collage on fabric, Güreş examines personal biographical themes as well as broader concepts of social injustice, gender roles, and cultural identity, with a special focus on marginalized communities. A press release announcing her participation in the Biennale noted that Güreş’s work “aligns seamlessly” with “In Minor Keys,” the theme laid out by the event’s curator, Koyo Kouoh, before her untimely death earlier this year, “revealing resilience and endurance while quietly disrupting hegemonic stories.”
Güreş has enjoyed solo exhibitions at Arter, Istanbul (2025); Kunstforum Montafon, Austria (2024); Pasquart Kunsthaus, Switzerland (2021); and Lentos Kunstmuseum, Austria (2018). She has participated in the 2020 Yokohama Triennale, the 2016 Biennale of Sydney, the 2014 São Paulo Biennial, and the 2010 Berlin Biennale. Güreş’s works are held in institutions including MAXXI, Rome; the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; and Malmö Konstmuseum, Sweden.
Curator Temür spent a decade at Arter and from 2017 to 2019 served on the advisory board for the Turkish pavilion. She earlier helped to establish several art institutions in Turkey, including Arter, Istanbul Modern, and santralistanbul. She currently teaches at Istanbul Bilgi University.