Meet our new Board Member: Kevser Güler

Kevser Güler, Director, Istanbul Biennial – Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV)

Kevser Güler

Director, Istanbul Biennial – Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV)

Announcing Our Final New Board Member: Kevser Güler

We are delighted to introduce Kevser Güler as the final addition to our board. On joining the International Biennial Association (IBA) board, Kevser shares her perspective on the journey ahead:
“I have been learning from the IBA’s public programmes that opened up reflective discussions of/in/through/with contemporary art biennials. I look forward to taking responsibility on the board of the IBA and participating in the current debates and research while the biennial models are reinvented today in their specificities.”

Kevser brings to the board her experience and enthusiasm for projects capable of activating and empowering networks of actors also outside traditional contemporary art arenas as testified among others by her experience at Cappadox festival.

Kevser Güler is the director of Istanbul Biennial for which she previously worked between 2007-2014. She was part of the founding team of the Cappadox Festival Contemporary Art Programme and its Associate Curator between 2015-2017. She conducted research on Arter’s collection between 2014-2019 and worked as the Curator and Exhibitions Director at Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts from 2020 to 2021.

Based on researching and discussing the current conditions, possibilities and limitations of contemporary culture and art production, Kevser Güler’s curatorial work encompasses organising exhibitions and programmes in museums, art centres, galleries, rural and urban public spaces and non-art spaces, and extends to preparing publications. Her recent curatorial posts include Changing Skies, Cappadox, Nevşehir (2024); Previous Program, Can Aytekin, Nilüfer Nazım Hikmet Kültür Merkezi, Bursa (2024); ‘Together Fanzine,’ Beginning in the Middle, Artİstanbul Feshane (2023); They Were Just Constantly Flying In Circles, Çağla Köseoğulları, Sanatorium, Istanbul (2023); Sympathetic System, Karşı Sanat, Istanbul (2022); This Place, Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts (YKKS), Istanbul (2021-22); Coulisse: Hagop Ayvaz, A Chronicler of Theater, YKKS, Istanbul (2020-21); Meydan, Deniz Gül, YKKS, Istanbul (2020); Milat, Lale Müldür, YKKS, Istanbul (2020); On Celestial Bodies, Arter, Istanbul (2020-21); Rocks and Winds, Germs and Words, Kerem Ozan Bayraktar, Sanatorium, Istanbul (2019); Magnet and the Moon, Nilbar Güreş, Galerist, Istanbul (2019); Flesh and Bone, Bilsart and Operation Room, Istanbul (2019); Koloni, Kaos GL Derneği, Abud Efendi Konağı, İstanbul (2017); Ways Out from the World, Cappadox, Nevşehir (2017); Let Us Cultivate Our Garden, Cappadox, Nevşehir (2016) and Cappadocia Struck, Cappadox, Nevşehir (2015).

Born in 1983 in Izmir, Güler graduated from the Department of Industrial Engineering at Boğaziçi University and studied Philosophy at Galatasaray University. In 2021, she gave lectures on the history of exhibitions at Kadir Has University, and in the same year, she programmed and conducted workshops at Mişar Art that examined contemporary questions around exhibitions and artworks in the context of art ontology. Güler writes articles on contemporary art and visual culture and has also served as editor of independent publications and various exhibition publications. She was on the advisory board of Sanat Dünyamız journal between 2021-2023.

Güler took an active role as a consultant and jury member in many art programmes including SAHA Studio, Ankara Queer Art Residency, Lucy Art Residency, Berlin Senate Visiting Artist Programme, and took part in the advisory board of the Istanbul Biennial Production and Research Programme, where she mentored artists.