VARDIYA

“THE SHIFT”
THE TURKISH PAVILION AT THE 2018
VENICE BIENNALE
Kerem Piker of the firm Kerem Piker Mimarlik   curated this year’s Pavilion
of Turkey entitled Vardiya (the Shift), together with associate curators
Cansu   Cürgen , Yelta   K?rn , Nizam   Onur   S?nmez , Ya?iz   S?ylev and
Erdem   Tüzün . Coordinated by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and
Arts (IKSV) and installed at Sale d’Armi , Arsenale, the pavilion functions as
a space for gathering, conversation and sharing ideas, with a series of video
installations projected on draped fabric screens as well as a lecture and meeting
space designed to host the 122 architecture students invited from around the
world to participate in workshops, discussions and keynote lectures in the
space.
The group of students was chosen in a contest that asked them to submit
answers to three fundamental questions—Why does the biennial
We prefer to describe the Pavilion of Turkey as a space for meeting,
encounter and production rather than merely an exhibition space. We see
this project and the preparation process as an opportunity to rethink what a
biennial does, for whom, and why it exists in our time. – Kerem Piker