Curator Statement

Uncontainable & Untitled is an exhibition strand of the general ISEA2011 Istanbul exhibition entitled Uncontainable. The title Uncontainable & Untitled is an homage to the 12th Istanbul Biennial – Untitled and plays on the contemporary relevance of socio-political issues at the intersection of art, science and technology. The dispersed nature of contemporary events and technological advancements presents viewers both with the fascinating possibilities and the problematic realities of contemporary art & life. ARTISTS: Thomas Ankersmit & Phill Niblock; Art in Process (Bello Benischauer & Elisabeth M. Eitelberger); Gavin Baily, Sarah Bagshaw & Tom Corby; David Bowen; Ayoka Chenzira; Paolo Cirio; Darko Fritz; Murat Germen; Baruch Gottlieb ; Jane Grant; Ian Haig; Janez Janša; Kuuki (Gavin Sade and Priscilla Bracks); Karen Lancel & Hermen Maat ; Teoman Madra; Yota Morimoto ; Kilian Ochs; Esther Polak & Ivar van Bekkum; Daan Roosegaarde; Scenecosme (Grégory Lasserre & Anaïs met den Ancxt); Tamiko Thiel, Cem Kozar & Işil Ünal; Patrick Tresset; Sander Veenhof; Pieter Verhees & Johannes Westendorp; Nils Voelker. Curators: Lanfranco Aceti &  ÖZDEN ŞAHİN.

• Özden Şahin received her BA from Boğaziçi University (TR) in 2007 and her MA in Cultural Studies from Sabanci University in 2009. Her thesis entitled Censorship on Visual Arts and Its Political Implications in Contemporary Turkey: Four Case Studies from 2002-2009 sought to explore cultural manifestations of recent art censorship in Turkey through the narratives provided by artists. Her main research interests are visual culture and new media art curation. Ozden currently works at Sabanci University Kasa Gallery as the Vice-Director and In-house Curator, developing and executing the annual exhibition and publication program. In 2011, she was the Conference and Program Director of ISEA2011 Istanbul: The 17th International Symposium on Electronic Art, the leading world conference and exhibition for art, media and technology. Since 2009, she has been working as the Co-Editor at the Leonardo Electronic Almanac (The MIT Press, Leonardo journal and ıSAST), the peer-reviewed, electronic arm of the leading art-science-technology journal Leonardo.
• Lanfranco Aceti works as an academic, artist and curator. He is Visiting Professor at Goldsmiths College, department of Art and Computing, London; teaches Contemporary Art and Digital Culture at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Sabanci University, Istanbul; and is Editor in Chief of the Leonardo Electronic Almanac (The MIT Press, Leonardo journal and ISAST). He was the Artistic Director and Conference Chair for ISEA2011 Istanbul and works as gallery director at Kasa Gallery in Istanbul. He has a Ph.D. from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University
  of the Arts London. His work has been published in Leonardo, Routledge and Art Inquiry and his interdisciplinary research focuses on the intersection between digital arts, visual culture and new media technologies. He is the founder and director of the LEA digital media platform and of the research center ORADST (Operational Research in Art, Design, Science and Technology).