Başak Doğa Temür on Curating Turkey's Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale

For the 2026 Venice Biennale, the Turkey Pavilion, commissioned by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), presents "A Kiss on the Eyes" by Nilbar Güreş (b. 1977, Istanbul), curated by Başak Doğa Temür. The title, derived from a Turkish expression conveying affectionate closeness without intrusion, sets a curatorial tone of gentle approach and relational space. The exhibition interweaves new productions and earlier works across sculpture, installation, painting, and works on paper and fabric, avoiding a retrospective or didactic narrative. Temür emphasizes a deep continuity in Güreş's practice, marked by a sensitivity to thresholds—bodies never fully coinciding with their spaces, identities evading simple definition. The pavilion is designed as a physical experience where scale, orientation, and posture shift the viewer's awareness. In resonance with the Biennale's theme "In Minor Keys," Güreş's work operates through minimal shifts that alter perception, embodying a mode of resistance that works from within forms, bending and destabilizing them without noise. Temür hopes visitors leave with a subtle alteration in how they perceive proximity, difference, and relation, suggesting that delicacy can be a precise site of strength.