The Çanakkale Biennial Initiative (CABININ) is carrying its 20 years of cultural and artistic accumulation into the future in this edition with new artistic productions, international collaborations, and participation from different disciplines.
This edition of the biennial will be realized with the main support of Dardanel and Kale Group - Kale Design and Art Center; the cooperation of the Çanakkale Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, Çanakkale Municipality, and Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University; the local partnership of the Troy Excavation Directorate, ÇATKAV, and the Troia Foundation; and the institutional support of the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge and Motorway.
Collective Construction, over 60 artists from 9 countries
The biennial's participatory and collective production-based approach continues in its 10th edition. Artists and works determined by a committee consisting of Deniz Erbaş, Ebru Nalan Sülün, Halil Yoleri, Loukia Thomopoulou, Seyhan Boztepe, Vince Briffa, Yasemin Ülgen, and Gu Zhenqing are meeting art lovers in the biennial's different exhibition venues. In the biennial, which will take place with the participation of artists from Turkey as well as the Netherlands, Germany, South Korea, the UK, China, Romania, France, and Belgium, over 60 artists are coming together in 15 exhibition and event venues:
Artists coming together in this edition include: A. Serkan Aka, Adina Mocanu, Alex Long Yuan, Andreas Treske, Annika Boll, Ayça Telgeren, Aylin Zaptçıoğlu, Burçak Bingöl, Burcu Erden, Can Altay, Canan Bozbağ, Carmen Bouyer, Derya Geylani, Dilara Akay, Ece Kibaroğlu, Eda Çekil, Edward Burtynsky & Alkan Avcıoğlu, Elif Uras, Evren Karayel Gökkaya, Eymen Aktel, Fulya Çetin, Funda Susamoğlu, Füreya Koral, Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann, Gizem Boyacıoğlu, Gökçe Kınay, Gözde Mimiko Türkkan, Gülden Ataman, Gülfidan Özmen, Hakan Yılmaz, Halil Yoleri, Hyeseung Lee, İlhan Sayın, Johannes Vogl, Kay Aplin, Kemal Tizgöl, Lara Ögel, Laurent Lacotte, Leyla Pekmen, Manfred Heinze, Meliha Coşkun, Melike Abasıyanık Kurtiç, Mark Verkerk, Meral Değer, Merve Mepa, Mesut Öztürk, Murat Yıldız, Mustafa Tunçalp, Nermin Kura, Oddviz, Ozan Atalan, Öznur Işır, Renée Levi, SENA - SEDNA, Serdar Yılmaz, Stijn Ank, Süleyman Yılmaz, Sunbin Lim, Tardu Kuman, Uğur Cinel, Volkan Aslan, Yaren Yıldız, Yasemin Özcan.
Ebb & Flow Extending from Çanakkale to Troy
The title “Metcezir // Ebb & Flow” establishes a metaphor of motion through the advance and retreat of water, starting from the coastal geography of Çanakkale. The ebb and flow is a natural field of motion where water and soil touch each other and constantly create new shapes. As in the silent rhythms of tides, shores, and deltas, every encounter produces new forms; sometimes it erodes, sometimes it accumulates. This cycle makes visible the essence of nature, which is not static but built on transformation and mutual interaction. The union of soil and water is one of the simplest yet most powerful representations of life.
The 10th edition of the biennial focuses on both the natural ecosystem and the living cultural heritage of Çanakkale, shaped around the relationships between “Soil and Water.” The theme addresses these two basic elements not only through their physical properties but also through the multidimensional relationships woven within time, memory, and daily life. How human beings' relationship with nature shapes the ways of producing, learning, and living forms the areas on which the biennial concentrates.
The 10th Çanakkale Biennial treats its unique geography, extending from the city center to its villages, from new settlements to historical sites, as an active part of the exhibition. The program, consisting of exhibitions, performances, panels, talks, workshops, and events covering different disciplines, carries contemporary art beyond the boundaries of galleries and museums and places it into the city, the countryside, and daily life. It opens the natural, cultural, and historical layers of the region to re-reading through the works of artists in the geography extending from Çanakkale to Troy, and from Ayvacık to Adatepe.
The biennial exhibitions will spread to initiatives that open space for art at different points in Çanakkale, such as the Ayvacık Tartışık Village, Adatepe Olive Oil Museum – Küçükkuyu, Adatepe İda Blue, and the Assos Güneşane Foundation, as well as cultural institutions located in the Troy Museum and the MAHAL art ecosystem. The Fish Market (Balıkhane), one of the city's important meeting points, will host a selection focusing on Çanakkale's relationship with the sea.
Projects and International Collaborations
The artistic outputs of the international projects and collaborations that CABININ has developed in recent years, centered on MAHAL and StudioMAHAL, are meeting the audience together for the first time within the scope of the 10th Çanakkale Biennial.
Sea Villas – Ecological Transitions is an international artist residency program launched in 2025 in cooperation with the Institut Français de Turquie and the Goethe-Institut İzmir. The program, which researches the ecological, cultural, and social transformations of the Mediterranean geography through art, invites artists from different countries to think and produce on the local environment, ecological transitions, and the common issues of the Mediterranean. The artist productions realized within the scope of the program are brought together for the first time within the scope of the biennial. This special content, which focuses on the relationship the biennial establishes with water and the sea, is enriched by the productions of international artists, while offering perspectives that will strengthen the historical, cultural, and daily ties Çanakkale has established with the sea, with the contributions of DARDANEL, which has supported the biennial since 2018.
Another project, Gravitas – Cultural Heritage Regional Art Network, is being realized with the support of the European Union within the scope of the CultureCIVIC: Culture and Art Support Program. Bringing together Tekirdağ, Edirne, Çanakkale, and Balıkesir, the project aims to rethink cultural heritage through contemporary art and regional collaborations and to establish a sustainable culture-art network between cities. The productions of artists from the four cities within the scope of the project can also be seen within the scope of the 10th Çanakkale Biennial.
New Productions Inspired by Çanakkale
The 10th Çanakkale Biennial also hosts new productions realized by many artists in Çanakkale. These works, which approach the “Metcezir // Ebb & Flow” theme directly through the local context, are shaped through the unique relationships established with the city's geography, history, cultural heritage, and daily life.
The new productions, realized with the support of the French Institute, Goethe Institute, Tarabya Academy, and the Dutch Consulate, as well as the SAHA Association, ClubHouse, Dereli Art, and ORMOS, offer new contributions to the international art accumulation that the Çanakkale Biennial has developed over the years.
From Soil to Ceramics: The Material Memory of Çanakkale
The 10th Çanakkale Biennial develops a special focus on ceramics within the scope of the “Metcezir // Ebb & Flow” theme. This section, which addresses the relationship between water and soil directly through the material, aims to establish a new dialogue between Çanakkale's strong ceramic production tradition and contemporary art practices. The original selection, curated by Yasemin Ülgen and to be held at the Troy Museum, forms the center of the ceramic focus. With the main support of Kale Group and under the execution of the Kale Design and Art Center (KTSM), ceramics are handled in the biennial not only as an art discipline but as a context that brings together Çanakkale's cultural and industrial memory with current production forms.
The relationships between traditional knowledge, craft, industrial production technologies, and contemporary art make the continuity between the past and the future visible. Through this approach, the biennial not only remembers Çanakkale's ceramic heritage; it carries this heritage into the future by relating it to contemporary art, new production technologies, and public space.
The joint work carried out with artist and the Ceramic House founder Kay Aplin with the support of the British Council's Connections Through Culture Program explores the possibilities of ceramics in public space. The new work that Aplin produced in Çanakkale with the support of the KALE Group will continue its existence as a permanent public space artwork in the city after the Biennial.
A 20-Year Accumulation, A New Threshold
The year 2026 carries two important milestones for the Çanakkale Biennial at the same time: the 10th edition of the biennial and the 20th anniversary of the founding of CABININ, which brings it to life.
Throughout the biennial journey that it started in 2008, following the large-scale and international contemporary art exhibitions that CABININ has held in Çanakkale since 2006, it has brought together artists from different generations, culture professionals, local actors, and audiences in Çanakkale. Over the years, it has transformed into a unique contemporary art platform with the permanent cultural infrastructures, contemporary art-focused community, and art productions it has brought to the city. The 10th Çanakkale Biennial will make the continuity of its long-term culture-art structuring visible and will position Çanakkale as one of the important stops of international contemporary art circulation again this autumn.
The 10th Çanakkale Biennial, which will take place between October 10 and November 20, 2026, invites its visitors to rediscover the different layers of Çanakkale through the movement of water, the memory of the soil, and the transformative power of time.
News Source: 12punto
