Curator Başak Doğa Temür and Artist Nilbar Güreş Chosen for Türkiye Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale

Başak Doğa Temür has been appointed curator of the Türkiye Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (Biennale Arte 2026). Temür will curate an exhibition by Nilbar Güreş, who has been selected to represent Türkiye as the pavilion’s artist. The exhibition will run from 9 May 2026 to 22 November 2026.

Temür has long played a pivotal role in Istanbul’s evolving cultural infrastructure, contributing to the founding of Istanbul Modern, santralistanbul, and Arter. Over a decade at Arter, she served on its curatorial team and artistic programme board, overseeing exhibition coordination, new commissions, and publication work. She has also taught at Istanbul Bilgi University and sat on advisory boards and juries—including the Türkiye Pavilion Advisory Board (2017–2019) and the CultureCIVIC art production grants programme.

Artist Nilbar Güreş is known for her multifaceted work that interrogates identity, gender, cultural symbolism, and social inequalities across media including photography, video, installation, textiles, performance and sculpture. Her work transforms personal narratives into broader reflections on memory, power, and belonging.

The Türkiye Pavilion Advisory Board 2026, composed of Dr. Ceren Özpınar, Chus Martínez, Öykü Özsoy Sağnak, and Ulya Soley, unanimously proposed Güreş, praising her as “an outstanding voice whose eloquent practice makes visible marginalised communities while remaining deeply rooted in Türkiye’s complex social fabric.”

Güreş has earned international recognition, including the Outstanding Artist Award for Photography from the Austrian Ministry of Arts and Culture (2023), the Otto Mauer Award (2014), and the BC21 Art Award (2015). Recent exhibitions include Velvet Stare at Arter, Istanbul (2025), JUNCTIONS at Kunstforum Montafon (2024), and The Cynics Republic at Palais de Tokyo (2024).

The Türkiye Pavilion is coordinated by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye. The exhibition will be held at the pavilion’s long-term venue in the Arsenale, maintained under Türkiye’s agreement with İKSV through 2034.