12TH ISTANBUL BIENNIAL 2011

ADRIANO PEDROSA AND JENS HOFFMANN
APPOINTED CURATORS OF THE 12^TH ISTANBUL BIENNIAL

The 12th Istanbul Biennial, organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts and sponsored by Koç Holding, is set for 17 September–13 November 2011, under the curatorship of Adriano Pedrosa and Jens Hoffmann.

Adriano Pedrosa, born in 1965 in Rio de Janeiro, is an independent curator, editor and writer based in São Paulo. He has published in Artforum (New York), Art Nexus (Bogota), Art+Text (Sydney), Tate etc (London), Exit (Madrid), and Frieze (London), among others. Pedrosa curated F[r]icciones (with Ivo Mesquita, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, 2000), was adjunct curator and editor of publications of the XXIV Bienal de São Paulo (1998), co-curator and co-editor of publications of the 27th Bienal de São Paulo (2006), curator of Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte (2001-2003), curator of InSite_05, San Diego/Tijuana (2005), curator of 31st Panorama da Arte Brasileira (Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, 2009), and artistic director of the 2nd Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan (2009). He was a juror of the UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts (Istanbul Biennial, 2001), of the Prêmio EDP Novos Artistas (Museu Serralves, Porto, 2003), and of the Hugo Boss Prize (Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2004). Pedrosa is on the editorial board of The Exhibitionist: A Journal for Exhibition Making and is the founding director of Programa Independente da Escola São Paulo—PIESP.

Jens Hoffmann, born in 1974 in San José, Costa Rica, is a writer and curator of exhibitions based in San Francisco where he is the Director of the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. Hoffmann has worked for a number of art institutions including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; KIASMA –- Museum for Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne; The Hugh Lane Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; DIA Center for the Arts, New York, Kunstverein in Hamburg; Kunst-Werke, Berlin; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles; Museum Kunst-Palast, Düsseldorf as well as for exhibitions such as Documenta X (1997), the 1st Berlin Biennial (1998), and the 9th Lyon Biennial (2007). He was the Director of Exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (2003–-2007) and co-curator of the 2nd Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan (2009). He is currently co-curating, with Harrell Fletcher, the 1st People’s Biennial, taking place in five US museums in 2010. Hoffmann is senior lecturer at the Curatorial Practice Program of the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, a guest professor at the Nova Academia di Bella Arti in Milan and an adjunct faculty member of the Curatorial Studies Program of Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is the founding editor of The Exhibitionist: A Journal on Exhibition Making. 

The curators of the 12th Istanbul Biennial were appointed by the Advisory Board of the Istanbul Biennial. The advisory board consists of the artistic director of dOCUMENTA (13) Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, contemporary artist Ayşe Erkmen, art consultant Melih Fereli, director of Exhibitions and Public Programs and chair of the Exhibitions and Museum Studies Program at San Francisco Art Institute Hou Hanru and director of the Sharjah Art Foundation and Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jerusalem Jack Persekian.

The conceptual framework of the 12th Istanbul Biennial will be announced by a press conference to be held in autumn 2010 by the curators; Adriano Pedrosa and Jens Hoffmann.

For further details: www.iksv.org/bienal

For high resolution pictures of the curators: www.iksvpress.com/bienal2011

Information
İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts
Sadi Konuralp Caddesi, No: 5
Nejat Eczacıbaşı Binası
Şişhane 34433 İstanbul
Tel: (212) 334 07 00 – Faks: (212) 334 07 16