“Let this biennial be compost” were the words of the three co-curators of the 17th Istanbul Biennial, Singapore-based curator Ute Meta Bauer, (2022), about the vanishing ecosystems of water buffalos outside Istanbul; it comprised a one-day agricultural festival and then pop-up pudding shop serving traditional dairy products made from their milk. The local Açık Radyo station ran a 26-week program with the Biennial in 2021 and held live events along with highlights from their archive at Barın Han in 2022. Occupying an unused subway tunnel beneath Gezi Park, filmmaker Carlos Casas created the menacing ambient sound installation (2022) that resonated with the site’s history of resistance and suppression.
