2nd Istanbul Design Biennial – Future Forward!

Compiled by Team IAnD

Photography: Courtesy IKSV

Dunne & Raby                                                     ©Anthony Dunne, Fiona Raby collaborator Miguel Angel Valdivia

The 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial curated by Zoë Ryan  - Curator of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago follows the thematic “The Future Is Not What It Used To Be”...

The 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts is in full swing at the Galata Greek Primary School, the hub of the Biennial. With over 50 projects that ask: “What is the future now?” the 45-day (1 November – 14 December 2014) design exercise is a platform, where the role of design is being questioned in relation to society and the capability of design as an active tool for social change.

ABC Manifesto Writers and Consultants                                                                                           ©disturbATI Collective

With the exhibition spread over all five floors of the school, an area of approximately 2,300 square metres, projects propose to imagine new possibilities that can transform the present and help write new potential futures, while asking: “How do we define the future? Who defines it? And perhaps most importantly, whose future are we talking about?”

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Arranged in five departments - Broadcast, Personal, Resource, Norms and Standards, and Civic Relations - the projects entries from Australia, China, France, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United States deal with a broad array of concerns and present a surprising set of multiple possible futures.   

‘Feast of Words’ Calligraphy Workshops                                                                                                     © Culture.pl

N°40 Workoutcomputer by Desireee Heiss and Ines Kaag                                                                                ©BLESS

To Do Product Design by Caldo & Clapp Armchair by Piotr Kuchcinski                                                  © Culture.pl  

Formafantasma’s Open Manifesto, proposes new and inventive objects that appropriate and transform existing aesthetics; Moisés Hernández’s Diario (Diary), presents a social, cultural, and design critique through a rethinking of traditional Mexican bjects; The Workoutcomputer by Bless is a fun and an active critique of static desk jobs; and Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby’s United Micro Kingdoms: A Design Fiction, uses scenes from a parallel world to propose alternative values, beliefs, and priorities; in each of these manifestos on view, designers are actively rethinking our relationship to the world around us... and these are but a few...

Glass Factory / Cam Ocagi                                                                                                                           © Culture.pl

 Carpet making at Dobag                                                                                                                                   © Culture.pl

Parallel activities like film screenings, debates and talks, workshops, etc. are a natural adjunct to the biennial as are design walks (thematic this time), which examine the unique textures of the city’s neighbourhoods, where the participants will be able to learn more about the architectural texture of the city, observe traditional crafts, while soaking up the sights and sounds of this lively metropolis. 

For more information: log on to http://2tb.iksv.org