Istanbul Design Biennial presents A School of Schools


Taking place over six weeks, the fourth Istanbul Design Biennial will explore ‘design as learning’ and will turn the city into a centre for innovation and design.


Called A School of Schools, the fourth annual Istanbul Design Biennial is set to begin on the 22nd September, running until the 4th November 2018. Curated by Jan Boelen with Nadine Botha and Vera Sacchetti, the Biennial is organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) and is sponsored by Turkish bathroom manufacturer, VitrA.

This year, the Biennial will explore ‘design as learning’ and ‘learning as design’; the theme gives practitioners, educators and thinkers from across the globe the opportunity to converge and revise education strategies, to better reflect the role of design in contemporary culture.

Taking place over six weeks, the Istanbul Design Biennial will inhabit six iconic cultural institutions within the city, which will each host a different ‘school’ of exploration. One of Istanbul's most significant cultural events, as the Biennial begins, it will turn the city into a centre for innovation and design. At DesignCurial, we've taken a closer look to find out more about each of the schools and discovered some of the highlights from this global design event: 

Earth School

Location: Arter
Including: Studio Klarenbeek & Dros with Henriette Waal, Algae Lab

Taking place at Arter, the Earth School will ask ‘what is natural, what is disaster, and what is evolution?’ as we try to create a more sustainable future. Part of the exhibition will include the Algae Lab, a project that explores the potential of growing algae locally. The Lab has been researching new values for local wetlands, as incubators for locally grown bio-materials; for the Istanbul Design Biennial, the project will be showcasing products fabricated using different types of algae, from across the Mediterranean.


Unmaking School

Location: Akbank Sanat
Including: Camilo Oliveira, Meeting with My Digital Self

The Unmaking School, held at Akbank Sanat, will emphasise the way that there is an uncontrollable human instinct that drives us to be creative; it will showcase the way that our instinct creates innovation and redefines the future of our work. One installation, Meeting with My Digital Self, will explore the way digital technologies are shaping our sense of self; its artist, Camilo Oliveira, has embodied AI into an avatar of himself, and will showcase this at the Biennial to look at the ways AI can become a tool for self-growth, learning and education.


Time School

Location: SALT Galata
Including: Commonplace Studio (Jon Stam), Tim Knapen & Jesse Howard, A Cabinet of Wonders / A Common Place Book

Learning about contested pasts and theoretical futures through the perspectives and the objects that dictate them, the Time School will be held at SALT Galata. The Time School exhibition will include Commonplace Studio's A Cabinet of Wonders / A Common Place Book. Made up of two interweaving parts, the installation uses fragmented segments of information to discuss the way ‘time’ can be a link between conversation and the future of design, as well as acting as a potential initiator for visitors’ own research.

Click the next page to read about more Schools:

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