Ali Kazma will represent Turkey at the 55th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale in 2013. Having received 2010 Nam June Paik Award from the Art Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia and 2001 UNESCO Award for the Promotion of the Arts and participated to the Istanbul Biennial in 2011, 2007 and 2011, Ali Kazma will realise a new project for the Pavilion of Turkey.

The Pavilion of Turkey in Venice Biennale, coordinated by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), will be curated by Emre Baykal. Baykal had also curated Ali Kazma's exhibition titled "Obstructions" at YKY Kâzım Taşkent Art Gallery in 2010.

Born in 1971, in Istanbul, Ali Kazma completed his undergraduate studies in the United States. After briefly studying photography in London, he returned to the United States to study film. He received his MA from the The New School in New York City where he worked as a teaching assistant.

Ali Kazma, who was granted 2001 UNESCO Award for the Promotion of the Arts, received 2010 Nam June Paik Award given by North Rhine-Westphalia Art Foundation in the field of media art, with his Obstructions series that he had been working on since 2005. His videos raise fundamental questions about the meaning and significance of human activity and labor, the meaning of economy, production and social organization. He has exhibited his works at the Istanbul Biennial (2001, 2007, 2011), Tokyo Opera City (2001), Platform Garanti Istanbul (2004), Istanbul Modern (2004), 9th Havana Biennial (2006), San Francisco Art Institute (2006), Lyon Biennial (2007), and Sao Paulo Biennial (2012) among others. Kazma has been living in Istanbul since 2000.

Emre Baykal, appointed curator of the Pavilion of Turkey at the 55th International Art Exhibition in Venice Biennale in 2013 currently works as Exhibitions Director and Curator at ARTER, an initiative of the Vehbi Koç Foundation. Emre Baykal worked for the Istanbul Biennial as Assistant Director from 1995 to 2000 and as Director from 2000 to 2005. In 2005, he co-curated the public space project "Istanbul Pedestrial Exhibition II: Tunel - Karakoy" together with Fulya Erdemci. Emre Baykal has curated many group exhibitions including "Second Exhibition" (ARTER, 2010-2011), "Tactics of Invisibility" (with Daniela Zyman; T-B A21, Vienna; Tanas, Berlin; ARTER, Istanbul 2010-2011), "Mahrem" (in the context of Nilüfer Göle's "Non-Western Modernities Project", santralistanbul; Kunsthalle Wien Project Space; Tanas, Berlin, 2007-2008); "Transfer" (a residency project exhibition in collaboration with NRW Kultursekretariat and co-curated by Basak Doga Temur, santralistanbul, 2007); 24th Istanbul Contemporary Artists Exhibition (with Susan van de Ven and Marcus Graf; Aksanat, 2005). Baykal curated solo shows by Mona Hatoum ("You Are Still Here", ARTER, 2012), Kutluğ Ataman ("Mesopotamian Dramaturgies", ARTER, 2011), Deniz Gül ("5 Person Bufet", ARTER, 2011).

The Pavilion of Turkey in Venice Biennale, is sponsored by Fiat, as it was in 2011, with the contribution of the Promotion Fund of the Turkish Prime Ministry.

The conceptual framework of the Pavilion of Turkey at the 55th International Art Exhibition in Venice Biennale and the project of Ali Kazma will be announced later in a press meeting in December 2012.

The Pavilion of Turkey in Venice Biennale has been held under the coordination of İKSV since 2006. In 2007 Hüseyin B. Alptekin, under the curatorship of Vasıf Kortun; in 2009 Banu Cennetoğlu and Ahmet Öğüt, under the curatorship of Başak Şenova; in 2011 Ayşe Erkmen, under the curatorship of Fulya Erdemci and curatorial collaboration of Danae Mossman had represented Turkey.

Yukarı