The second edition of the “What is Gender?” exhibition, which had its first edition in Switzerland, is taking place in Zülfaris Karaköy, Istanbul, from October 24 to November 7, 2023. It is curated by Gilles Grassioulet and Şanel Şan Sevinç, with coordination by Nilgün Sabar, and features the participation of Turkish artists.
Gilles Grassioulet, the curator of the exhibition, initially got the idea to explore the question of “What is Gender?” in an artistic way while visiting the “Queer – Diversity is in our nature” exhibition at the Natural History Museum in Bern, Switzerland, where they examined the diversity of gender in both animals and humans.
The exhibition includes artists, Burcu Aksoy, Amina Belkasmi, Christine Berchadsky, Banu Birecikligil, Cecilia Campeas, Gilles Dusabe, Alix Martin, Ali İbrahim Öcal, Chiara de Rocchi, Nilgün Sabar, Yonca Saraçoğlu, Adrien Savigny, Gülay Semercioğlu, Emre Yıldır. Throughout the exhibition, various artists and designers from different disciplines will organize a variety of performances and workshops.
The first edition of the exhibition, held in April 2022 at the Centre des Arts – Ecole Internationale de Genève in Geneva, featured the participation of both local and international artists, including Turkish artist Nilgün Sabar.
The success of the first edition prompted the idea to bring the exhibition to Istanbul, a crossroads between the East and West.
Nilgün Sabar took on the role of Exhibition Coordinator for the Istanbul edition and collaborated with the Turkish artists. The exhibition features six Swiss and eight Turkish artists from various disciplines and perspectives.
The artists, through their artistic expressions, concepts, aesthetics, experienced forms, colors, materials, abstraction, and visionary realism, lead us to sensory realms where art reconnects us to our own existence and nature.
In its Istanbul version, the exhibition reflects the diversity of Turkey, a land that has harboured cultural diversity for centuries as the birthplace of civilizations and involves a divergent selection of artists.
Nilgün Sabar mentioned that this evolution from one edition to another has sparked further imagination, and efforts are underway to organize similar exhibitions in various cities around the world, including Lille, Chicago, London, Dakar, and Havana.
