From Blinking in the Darkness to the World Art Stage: Turkey’s Participation in the Venice Biennale on (In)Visibility and Hegemony Discourse

The 1950s were important years for the visibility of Turkish modern art and Turkey’s first participations in international biennials such as Venice, São Paolo, and Paris. Turkey first participated in the Venice Biennale in 1956, and after its participations in 1958 and 1962, Turkey could not participate in it until 1990 for various reasons. The participation in Venice Biennale and other international biennials until 1990s was mostly organized through the initiations of Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul beside the government’s inadequate support from its related ministeries and foreign embassies. After 1990, first, curator Beral Madra and the Minister of Culture and Tourism and then, in 2007, Istanbul Culture and Arts of Foundation (IKSV) took the responsibility of participation in the Venice Biennale with the support of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But, participations before and after 1990 differ from each other in many ways. The state’s inefficient cultural policy including contemporary art and the intervention of private sectors in the participations of Turkey in international biennials created the image of Turkey in the global contemporary art scene, and curators also regulated and contributed to this representation through their selection criteria. Following a historical narrative, this article focuses on Turkey’s representation in the Venice Biennale from the 1956 to 2022, and how these participations were realized through the state’s institutions, individuals and IKSV, and how local, global cultural and political atmosphere had an impact on these participations and how it evolved from (in)visibility to hegemony are discussed through primary sources such as archival documents (ASAC-Archivio Storico delle Arti Contemporanee), exhibitions catalogs and statements of artists and curators. It will shed light on the history of Turkey’s participation in the Venice Biennale that has been little discussed in the writing of art history.