Empathy Sessions
5th Istanbul Design Biennial

October 15 - November 15, 2020

Presented in the scope of the 5th Istanbul Design Biennial, which is organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, Empathy Sessions is a selection of film works that expand the notion of empathy. Created by artists and designers, they invite viewers to take on a diversity of perspectives – that of water, a tortoise, or even bacteria – and explore a multitude of spaces in the digital realm: from inside the earth to the deep ocean. Critical of existing and fictional technologies, these films shed light on the inherent biases and empathic opportunities of teleportation, facial recognition, artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology and augmented reality. The films are screened daily at 13:00 every Thursday and Sunday. 

Free admissions. Drop in, no reservations.

Hammam

Hammam

Cura

Cura

Dark Origins

Dark Origins

Stream of Consciousness / The Caves of Hasankeyf

Stream of Consciousness / The Caves of Hasankeyf

Robocaliptic Manifesto: techno-politics for liberation

Robocaliptic Manifesto: techno-politics for liberation

Behind Shirley

Behind Shirley

Party on the CAPS

Party on the CAPS

Undercurrent

Undercurrent

The Metropolis of Animals: Neighbours, Companions or Leftovers? <br> Sezai Ozan Zeybek

The Metropolis of Animals: Neighbours, Companions or Leftovers?
Sezai Ozan Zeybek

Places are heterogeneous: A multiplicity of beings co-habit the place: humans, dogs, trees, worms, mushrooms... We are thrown-together and we will be, at different times and speeds, again dispersed. Our social setting is a bubble that draws together forms of life and materials, yet destined to burst out as we move on.

Borderless and Brazen* <br>Gülşen Aktaş, Aykan Safoğlu

Borderless and Brazen*
Gülşen Aktaş, Aykan Safoğlu

Gülşen and I met randomly at a film screening in Berlin in 2012. The coffee we drank in the foyer marked the beginning of a friendship and life-long collaboration between a gay cis-man of White Turk identity born in the West of Turkey, and a Kurdish cis-woman born in Dersim, who dedicated her life to activism and women’s work in Germany.

Chosen Families<br>Şükrü Argın,Joseph Massad, Shahrzad Mojab

Chosen Families
Şükrü Argın,Joseph Massad, Shahrzad Mojab

Chosen Families symposium, sets out from the question of ‘What happens when home ceases to be welcoming, when we leave home either voluntarily or involuntarily?’ and trails the quest for different kinds of belongings beyond family as an institution, the impact of experiences of conflict and resolution that emanates from such quests on the levels of society and sociability, as well as the role of affect in political activism.

The General’s Stork <br> Heba Y. Amin

The General’s Stork
Heba Y. Amin

In late 2013, Egypt made worldwide headlines when authorities detained a migratory stork traveling from Israel to Egypt because of an electronic device attached to its body. It was suspected of espionage.

Fred Wilson

Fred Wilson

Wilson’s installation, for the Istanbul Biennial, entitled Afro Kismet, includes a number of handcrafted items related to Ottoman culture and the roles of black people within it. Please join us in this conversation with the artist about the long history of black people in the region – many, if not most, with origins in the Ottoman slave trade – and today refer to themselves as Afro-Turks or Afro-Anatolians.

5th Istanbul Design Biennial

Pera Museum hosted the 5th Istanbul Design Biennial, organized by Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV). For the 5th Istanbul Design Biennial, organised with the support of Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism and under the sponsorship of VitrA, curator Mariana Pestana teamed up with Sumitra Upham (Curator of Programmes) and Billie Muraben (Assistant Curator & Deputy Editor).

5th Istanbul Design Biennial

The Chronicle of Sarajevo

The Chronicle of Sarajevo

Inspired by the great European masters, from Renaissance to Art Nouveau, Berber’s works exemplify the deep, opaque whites of his journeys through the fairy tale landscapes of Bosnia to the dark, macabre burrows of Srebrenica.

Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel

Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel

In 1998 Ben Jakober and Yannick Vu collaborated on an obvious remake of Marcel Duchamp’s Roue de Bicyclette, his first “readymade” object. Duchamp combined a bicycle wheel, a fork and a stool to create a machine which served no purpose, subverting accepted norms of art. 

Dancing on Architecture

Dancing on Architecture

I think it was Frank Zappa – though others claim it was Laurie Anderson – who said in an interview that ‘writing on music is much like dancing on architecture’.