Vardiya / the Shift

Curated by Kerem Piker and coordinated by Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), the Pavilion of Turkey will present Vardiya / the Shift at the 16th Venice International Architecture Biennale, taking place from May 26 to November 25, 2018. Co-sponsored by Schüco Turkey and VitrA, the Pavilion of Turkey is located at Sale d’Armi, Arsenale.

Responding to the Venice International Architecture Biennale 2018 theme of Freespace, Vardiya is a programme of public events that will transform the Pavilion of Turkey into a staging ground for creative encounter, collaborative production and cultural exchange across borders.

The project started with an open call to architecture students around the world, generating 452 responses to the question: “Why does the biennial exist? What does the biennial do? For whom does the biennial exist?”

The programme will begin with multimedia installations, through which visitors will be informed about forthcoming activities and workshop themes. 122 international architecture students from 16 countries will visit the Pavilion of Turkey in weekly “shifts” as active producers of the evolving exhibition content. They will participate in 13 workshops, engage in 50 digital roundtable discussions and hear 6 keynote lectures driven by guest scholars, designers and architects. All of the workshops, digital meetings and lectures will be open to visitors during biennale opening hours.

Vardiya workshops, lectures and digital meetings
Vardiya project consists of 13 workshops, each lasting one week and run by invited professionals and student groups. The first workshop will begin on Sunday, May 27 after the public opening on Saturday, May 26 and will focus on the theme of the media. Taking place every other week, the workshops will be based on the following topics: The Venice Times; Future of Childhood; Film Space as Free Space: Making a B-Horror Movie Fragment; Architecture as Critical Media; Taking Scarpa for a Walk; (N)everland; Obituary Island; Of Journeys; Venice: Surface, Geometry, Texture, Colour; The Vast Minority; Redrawing Venice; Treasure Hunt and Retrospective.

Each workshop will culminate with a keynote lecture, starting with award-winning architect Emre Arolat on Sunday, May 27, followed by leading architecture and design figures such as: architect Eva Franch Gilabert, architect Juhani Pallasmaa, design critic and curator of the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial Jan Boelen and media artist and designer Refik Anadol.

Around 50 digital meetings will be broadcast online from the Pavilion of Turkey. Based on a variety of different themes, each session will start with a 15 minute discussion on the open call questions. Speakers will bring diverse perspectives from a range of backgrounds, including architect Bernard Khoury, academic and architect Andrew Kovacs, architect Han Tümertekin and architecture editor and critic Cynthia Davidson.

Keynote lectures and digital meetings will be broadcast online on Vardiya’s Youtube channel Vardiya Online and blog: vardiyaxpress.com.

Vardiya book
A set of four books have been published to accompany the project Vardiya, titled: Idea, Open Call, Conversations and Pavilion. The books are edited by Cansu Cürgen, Kerem Piker and Nizam Onur Sönmez and feature texts by the curatorial team, workshop coordinators, and other collaborators. The book will be available in a bilingual format—English and Turkish—at the opening of the 16th Venice International Architecture Biennale and will then be distributed by Yapı Kredi Publications in selected bookstores.

The book and the exhibition’s visual identity are designed by ONAGÖRE – Okay Karadayılar and Ali Taptık. The exhibition design of Vardiya is by KPM – Kerem Piker Mimarlık, Architectural Studio, and video content is by SARRAF GALEYAN MEKANİK – Can Tanyeli.

Vardiya is curated by Kerem Piker. Associate curators are Cansu Cürgen, Yelta Köm, Nizam Onur Sönmez, Yağız Söylev and Erdem Tüzün.

For press inquiries please contact:
İKSV Media Relations: media [​at​] iksv.org
Flint PR: Funda Küçükyılmaz at Flint Istanbul: funda.kucukyilmaz [​at​] flint-pr.com / T +90 533 496 48 14 or Emily Saunders at Flint London: emily.saunders [​at​] flint-pr.com / T +44 20 3470 0093