The digestible other

The Istanbul Biennial is a radical intervention in the contemporary art scene in Turkey. In a country that still does not have a single contemporary art museum, the Biennial looms large. It uses up most of the local resources for international art exhibitions, it encourages very young artists to make work that will be discovered by a visiting curator, and it brings to Istanbul the latest trendy international brand-name artists. These names have been accredited by their willingness to successfully work in the carefully structured international art world. The international artist is, like global capitalism, increasingly living in a metaworld that has only tenuous connections to actual geographical locations or the conditions of local cultural production.