German Headquarters. Source: Mardin Biennial

Curated by Ali Akay, the 6th edition of Mardin Biennial, aiming to transform Mardin into one of the contemporary art centers and to provide the region with new approaches and gains through the language of art, will be hosted from May 10th to June 10th, 2024. Hosted by the Mardin Cinema Association since 2010, the biennial also aims to contribute to the visibility of the artistic background and production that already exist in the region as well as to the artists’ giving messages about life. The biennial welcomes art lovers both in Mardin’s historical places that incorporate its architecture and culture and in the places of daily life.



Develi Han. Source: Mardin Biennial

6th Titled “Further Away”, Mardin Biennial asks questions about how we can go beyond today’s artistic, political, and sociological issues that we encounter. Inspired by the Epicurean concept of “katastema”*, which represents the moment of physical and spiritual serenity through the absence of pain, the biennial questions the potential of a deliberative democracy among the beings. The biennial encourages the visitors to coexist by inviting them to imagine beyond the existing challenges.

Without denying any of these and by constantly fighting against them, how can we overcome these issues without getting tired and without giving up the fight, and how can we envisage the “further away”?

How can we transform the racism, which is addressed to the nature, culture (Anthropocene and Capitalocene), plants, animals and other people, ethnicities, nations, classes, and regions, into the state of “coexistence” within the context of post-colonial, feminist, intersectional, and decolonial deconstruction? Particularly, how can we get out of the current worldly state and how can we communicate a “deliberative democracy” among the beings (regarding the idea of “Parliament of Things” for both humans and other living beings)? How can we organize the changes and transformations in the domestic relationships in today’s societies (single-parent families, multiple marriages and the resulting families with lots of children, increase in non-kin family relations) as well as the technological changes and transformations (artificial intelligence, worldliness, robotization, and informatization)? Centered around these issues through artistic observation, reflection, and creation, the 6th Mardin Biennial focuses on thinking about how we can fight against these challenges and how we can overcome this era and aims further away on these lands to be walked step by step.



6th Mardin Biennial Artists. Source: Mardin Biennial

The biennial is welcoming over 40 artists such as Ahmet Öğüt, Ali Kazma, Allan Sekula, Aslı Çavuşoğlu, Ayşe Erkmen, Bouchra Khalili, Brice Dellsperger, Bruno Serralongu, Büke Uras, Cevdet Erek, Claire Fontaine Collective, Claude Closky, Erik Bullot, Esma Ertel & Murat Ertel, Güçlü Öztekin, Güneş Terkol, İnci Eviner, İnci Furni, İrem Günaydın, Laurent Grasso, Le Peuple Qui Manque Collective, Liam Gillick, M/M (Michael Amzalag & Mathias Augustyniak), Michele Ciacciofera, Mika Rottenberg, Nasan Tur, Nil Yalter, Özlem Altın, Rafael Lain - Angela Detanico, Sarkis, Serkan Özkaya, Seza Paker, Tarek Atoui, Ugo Rondinone, Thierry Kuntzel, Ulay (Frank Uwe Laysiepen), Victor Burgin, Yıldız Moran, and Yüksel Arslan.

Directed by Döne Otyam and Hakan Irmak, the biennial’s advisory board consists of Paolo Colombo, Fırat Arapoğlu, and Ayşegül Sönmez as well as Mehmet Hadi Baran and Mehmet Sait Tunç on behalf of Mardin Cinema Association. Pointing out that the biennial has an innovative structure that feeds on Mardin, Döne Otyam underlines that the biennial to be spread to the various places of the city will bring new approaches and interpretations to the burning questions of today’s world through the language of contemporary art.

You can follow the 6th Mardin Biennial on this website.

* In Epicurean philosophy, Katastema is described as the moment when the pain goes away and thus the body and soul get to the serenity.