7th Çanakkale Biennial goes online
Alexandra Pirici, Parthenon Marbles, ongoing action, 2017.


On Sept. 19, Çanakkale Biennial's seventh edition, "Constellation," kicked off. The exhibitions, spanning four venues in the northwestern province, were unveiled on the biennial's website on Oct. 20 and will be on display there for the following month.

The online events are the MAHAL art venue's "What does it look like?" curated by the Çanakkale Biennial Initiative (CABININ), "Culture: Damaged or Destroyed" at Kırmızı Konak (Red Mansion) and "Unwittingly But With Pleasure" at Korfmann Library and Arzu Tüzünoğlu.

Erinç Seymen, "Loyalty," silkscreen print on a lightbox, 2011.

While "What does it look like?" explores the idea of thinking and producing on the expressive potential of the symbolic language of art, "Culture: Damaged or Destroyed" comprises of three sections. The first emphasizes endangered culture with the second marking the end of the world as we know it. The last section focuses on the work of artists who steal and transform the language of advertising. "Unwittingly But With Pleasure" speaks to the idea that "the journey itself is more important than arriving."

Çanakkale Biennial's four-week program was prepared in line with measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic and consists of works by 31 artists brought together around different conceptual frameworks. It focuses on intersecting and interacting relationships, collaborations, sharing and communication.