In our 430th Art meeting, we visit Zülfaris Karaköy, where the second edition of the exhibition “What is Gender?”, the first edition of which was organized in Switzerland, features Turkish artists. The exhibition is co-curated by Gilles Grassioulet & Şanel Şan Sevinç and coordinated by Nilgün Sabar.
The exhibition “What is Gender?” curated by Gilles Grassioulet, with the participation of local and international artists, including Turkish artist Nilgün Sabar, was first organized in April 2022 at the Centre des Arts - Ecole Internationale de Genève in Geneva.
Gilles Grassioulet, curator of the first exhibition, explains that the idea of asking the question of what gender is in an artistic way came from visiting the exhibition “Queer - Diversity is in Our Nature” at the Natural History Museum in Bern, Switzerland, which explores sexual and gender diversity in animals as well as humans.
While the exhibition attracted the attention of both the audience and the Swiss press, it also led to creative workshops with the institution's art students, who tried to answer the question “What is gender?”. Given the success of the first edition, the team decided to take the exhibition to another city, Istanbul, a crossroads between East and West.
Nilgün Sabar took on the project as Exhibition Coordinator for the Istanbul edition, mobilizing her circle with professionalism, passion and enthusiasm to form the exhibition team. Şanel Şan Sevinç, curator and art professional based in Istanbul, and Gilles Grassioulet, curator and art professor based in Geneva, co-curated a selection of Turkish artists for this second edition. The artists whose works are included in the exhibition are Burcu Aksoy, Amina Belkasmi, Christine Berchadsky, Banu Birecikligil, Cecilia Campeas, Gilles Dusabe, Alix Martin, Ali İbrahim Öcal, Chiara de Rocchi, Nilgün Sabar, Yonca Saraçoğlu, Adrien Savigny, Gülay Semercioğlu, Emre Yıldır.
The exhibition features six Swiss artists and eight Turkish artists working in different disciplines and perspectives.
In the Istanbul version of the exhibition, in parallel with the multi-identity and layered history of Turkey, the birthplace of civilizations and a country that has hosted cultural diversity for centuries, the selection of artists offers a richness parallel to the driving force of the art movement. We visit the exhibition “What is Gender?” at Zülfaris Karaköy with its curator Şanel Şan Sevinç.
Tuesday, November 7
12.00-13.00
Address: Azapkapı, Zülfaris Karaköy, Perçemli Sokak, Beyoğlu/Istanbul