Zincirlikuyu

CURATORIAL STATEMENT

REBUILD is a site-specific show of Atif Akin and Orkan Telhan that draws inspiration from the richness of Istanbul's cultural layers and its remarkable capacity to rebuild itself after multiple crises. It follows the 18th Istanbul Biennale theme of self-preservation and futurities: ‘In the face of precarity and recurring crises, how do material conditions and lack of safety affect our daily lives and shape our relationships with ourselves, our bodies, and our communities?’ (18th Istanbul Biennale statement). In the current moment of political upheaval and institutional fragility, the urgency of rebuilding extends beyond metaphor into immediate necessity. As democratic institutions strain under pressure and social contracts fracture, we find ourselves confronting the same fundamental question that has driven Istanbul's continuous renewal: how do we reconstruct not just our physical spaces, but our collective capacity for resilience and dialogue? Precisely, the show explores the ability of both human and non-human agents to regenerate and reimagine themselves in several contexts: environmental, architectural, and grassroots movements.