Ali Kazma to represent Turkey in Venice

Kazma will work with curator Emre Baykal on the conceptual framework of the Turkish pavilion in the 55th Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition, scheduled to run from June through November of next year. The duo will announce the conceptual framework and present the project in December, the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Art (İKSV) said in a press release on Tuesday. The 41-year-old Kazma, a well-known name in contemporary art circles in Turkey, has taken part in the 2001, 2007 and 2011 İKSV İstanbul international biennials.

The İstanbul-born Kazma studied photography and film in the UK and US during the 1990s. In 2001 he became one of the four international winners of the UNESCO Award for the Promotion of the Arts and in 2010 he was deemed worthy of the Nam June Paik Award -- an international media art award, given every two years by the German-based Arts Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia.Kazma particularly explores human behavior and forms of existence in his videos, shot in his trademark documentary style, which also focus on such concepts as routines, production, transformation and values. Among his most famous and widely exhibited works is “Engellemeler” (Obstructions), a series he has been working on since 2005.

Baykal previously worked with many leading contemporary art events and institutions in İstanbul, including the İstanbul Biennial and Santralİstanbul, as co-director and director of exhibitions and curator. He previously curated Kazma’s 2010 solo exhibition at the İstanbul Yapı Kredi Kazım Taşkent Gallery. He is currently the director of exhibitions and curator at Arter, a contemporary art space founded by the İstanbul-based Vehbi Koç Foundation.