Artist and curator announced for the Türkiye Pavilion at the 2026 Biennale Arte.
Coordinated by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), the Türkiye Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia will host an exhibition by Nilbar Güreş, renowned for her poetic, critical, and witty engagement with cultural symbols, social inequalities, and issues of identity across diverse media. The exhibition will be curated by Başak Doğa Temür and will be held between 9 May and 22 November 2026.
Başak Doğa Temür, Nilbar Güreş
The Advisory Board for the Türkiye Pavilion in 2026 includes art historian and academic Dr. Ceren Özpınar; curator, writer, and academic Chus Martínez; curator Öykü Özsoy Sağnak; and curator and writer Ulya Soley. The board unanimously suggested Nilbar Güreş as an outstanding voice to represent Türkiye at the upcoming Biennale and shared the following statement:
‘Her multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture, installation, painting, photography, textiles, video, and performance, consistently addressing questions of gender, identity, and cultural memory with intelligence, empathy, sensitivity, and striking visual force. Güreş’s practice is eloquent both in creating a poetic universe, and in staying faithful to a rigorous narrative that challenges dominant perspectives and gives visibility to marginalised communities, remaining deeply rooted in Türkiye’s complex social fabric.
For the 2026 Biennale, Koyo Kouoh chose the motto – In Minor Keys – as its theme. The panel is convinced that the work of Nilbar Güreş embodies and embraces the values of resilience and resistance, and the spaces where quieter, more delicate expressive registers can disrupt current dominant narratives. Her work’s international resonance, together with her profound artistic vocabulary, makes her an exceptional choice to represent Türkiye at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.’
Nilbar Güreş (b. 1977, Istanbul) received her B.A. in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Marmara University and completed her M.A. in Painting and Graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, followed by further studies in Art and Textile Pedagogy at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.
Honoured with the Outstanding Artist Award for Photography and a Research Grant by the Austrian Ministry of Arts and Culture in 2023, Güreş has also been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Hilde Goldschmidt Prize (2013), the Otto Mauer Award (2014), the BC21 Art Award by Belvedere Contemporary (2015), the De’Longhi Art Projects Artist Award at the London Art Fair (2018), and the Prix Maud Mottier (2021). In 2012, supported by the Austrian Ministry of Arts and Culture, she participated in the International Studio & Curatorial Programme in New York as an artist-in-residence.
Her multidisciplinary practice encompasses photography, video, film, painting, performance, sculpture, installation, and mixed-media collages on fabric. Beginning from the personal and biographical, her works expand to address broader issues, with particular sensitivity to themes of social injustice, gender roles, and cultural identity codes. Through research, documentation, and the use of witty figurations, she poetically subverts conventions.
Nilbar Güreş currently lives and works in Naples, Vienna, and Istanbul.
Nilbar Güreş’s solo exhibitions include: Velvet Stare, Arter, Istanbul, Türkiye (2025); Space Uncurated #1, MLZ Art Dep, Trieste, Italy (2024); JUNCTIONS, Kunstforum Montafon, Schruns, Austria (2024); ATEM, Vienna, Austria (2021); Sour as a Lemon, Pasquart Kunsthaus, Biel, Switzerland (2021); Breasts by Rose, Vortic Art, London, United Kingdom (2021); ell Me, Kunstverein Reutlingen, Reutlingen, Germany (2019); Lovers, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany (2019); Erzähl’ mir., Kunstverein Reutlingen, Germany (2019); Overhead, Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz , Austria (2018); JesuitenFoyer, Vienna, Austria (2014); FO.KU.S – Foto Kunst Stadtforum, Innsbruck, Austria (2014); Pink Is The New Black, Osmos, New York, United States (2013); Self-Defloration, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Germany (2011); Nilbar Güreş, Undressing, MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, Austria (2011); Nilbar Güreş: Window Commission 2010, INIVA Institute of International Visual Art, Rivington Place, London, United Kingdom (2010), and Unknown Sports, Indoor Exercises, Salzburger Kunstverein, Austria (2009).
Her group exhibitions include: Empowerment, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore (IN); Colombo (LK) (2025); Forms of the Shadow, Secession, Vienna, Austria (2024); The Cynics Republic, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2024); Delinking and Relinking, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2023); Biennale Bregaglia, Switzerland (2022); Mixed Up With Others Before We Even Being, Museum of Modern Art Vienna - Mumok, Austria (2022); Afterglow, Yokohama Triennale, Japan (2020); Drawing Biennial 2019, Drawing Room, London, United Kingdom (2019); Imagined Communities, 21st Contemporary Art Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil, São Paolo, Brasil (2019); A Pillar of Smoke, 49th Recontres d'Arles, Arles, France (2018); The Way Beyond Art, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2017); The Future Is Already Here – It’s Just Not Evenly Distributed, 20th Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2016); South by Southeast. A Further Surface, Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, China (2016); Istanbul: Passion, Joy, Fury, MAXXI, Rome, Italy (2015); Rainbow in the Dark, Malmö Konstmuseum, Sweden (2015); Cappadocia Struck, Contemporary Art Programme Cappadox, Uçhisar, Nevşehir, Türkiye (2015); How to (...) things that don’t exist, 31st Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2014); Ghosts, Spies and Grandmothers, SeMA Biennial, Mediacity Seoul, Korea (2014); AGITATIONISM, EVA International Ireland’s Biennial, Limerick City, Ireland (2014); 6th Berlin Biennale, Germany (2010) and What Keeps Mankind Alive?, 11th International Istanbul Biennial, Türkiye (2009).
The curator of the Türkiye Pavilion Başak Doğa Temür took part in the founding processes of Istanbul Modern, santralistanbul, and Arter during the early 2000s, when Istanbul’s museum and cultural landscape began to rapidly expand. During her ten years at Arter, she was part of the curatorial team and the artistic programme board, contributing to exhibition coordination and management, publications, and the realisation of new productions. Her experience includes part-time teaching at the Istanbul Bilgi University in the Film and Television and Visual Communication Design programmes. Additionally, she has participated in advisory boards and juries including the Türkiye Pavilion Advisory Board (2017–2019), the CultureCIVIC: Arts and Culture Support Programme Art Production Grants, and the pre-selection jury for the Berlin Senate’s Istanbul–Berlin Residency Programme.
The Türkiye Pavilion exhibition is coordinated by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) with the contribution of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye. The exhibition will take place in its long-term venue at the Arsenale, commissioned by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) for the duration of 20 years from 2014 to 2034.