IBA Stage: 17th Istanbul Biennale – Bige Örer

Bige Örer. Director of Istanbul Biennial. Image: Muhsin Akgun IKSV

Bige Örer is currently the director of the Istanbul Biennial and contemporary art projects at the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV). There she directs the artistic vision and programme of the Istanbul Biennial as well as a wide variety of cross disciplinary projects, including the Pavilion of Turkey at la Biennale di Venezia; learning, residency and public programmes which are developed together with a multitude of international and local collaborators. She was the curator of the Pavilion of Turkey at the 59th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, which featured the solo exhibition of Füsun Onur in 2022. She has a background in political science and public administration as well as sociology.

Bige Örer’s breadth of activity embraces both the artistic and the academic fields. Her curatorial projects include exhibitions Flaneuses, Istanbul (2017), Linear Transcendency, Amman (2016), and Agoraphobia, Berlin (2013, co-curated with Fulya Erdemci). She participated in curatorial residency programmes at Whitechapel Gallery (2016) and Palais de Tokyo (2018). Her contributions in various publications include the research she co-conducted on the financing of international contemporary art biennials, the children’s book A Colourful Journey in a Time Machine: Istanbul Biennials for Children she co-authored with Süreyyya Evren, and Hazzz / Cızz co-authored with İz Öztat. Örer has written extensively about biennials and taught courses on the subject at Istanbul Bilgi University. She is one of the founding members of the Curatorial Studies programme at Kadir Has University. She was a consultant and jury member of numerous arts institutions, and has been the vice-president of the International Biennial Association since its foundation in March 2013. She is also on the editorial board of the association that conceptualised and edited the inaugural issue of its journal, Pass.