BIENALSUR at Istanbul Modern

December 24 and 31, 2025 & January 7 and 14, 2026

İstanbul Modern Mezanine Foyer

In 2025, Istanbul Modern launches a new partnership with BIENALSUR. With this collaboration, the museum expands its long-standing global initiatives – such as Artists’ Film International – and continues to integrate moving-image works into different spaces throughout the building.

As part of this program, visitors can watch “Mysteries” (2017), a video commissioned by BIENALSUR in 2017 from Christian Boltanski (1944–2021), on the museum’s mezzanine floor. In this work, Boltanski installed three gigantic metal trumpets on a remote and windswept shoreline near Bahía Bustamante in Chubut Province, Patagonia, facing the ocean. In the video “Mysteries”, these trumpets, set into motion by the wind, poetically aim to reproduce the ancient song of whales. Through this installation, the artist reflects on the power and persistence of nature, independent of human intervention. With real-time sound and imagery, “Mysteries” brings the spirit of Argentina’s coastline to the shores of the Bosphorus.

About Christian Boltanski

Born in Paris, where he lived for most of his life, Christian Boltanski (1944–2021) remains one of the most distinctive figures of conceptual art. Focusing on what is unseen, his works often employ photographs, everyday objects, and archival materials as silent witnesses that render the overlooked visible. Through pieces that give form to what has been ignored, forgotten, or lost, Boltanski brings together personal stories and collective history, carrying them into the present.

About BIENALSUR

BIENALSUR is a transnational biennial of contemporary art that stands out for its innovative nature and global approach. Developed by UNTREF – Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, a public university in Argentina, and organized in collaboration with Fundación Foro del Sur, BIENALSUR has established itself as an innovative model of cultural management and international cooperation. Since its first edition in 2017, BIENALSUR has been a meeting point for different cultures, capable of developing an international institutional network connecting various geographic areas. The project is defined by an ever-growing network that does not limit itself to a single exhibition site, expanding across multiple cities worldwide. Its activities become accessible to broad and diverse audiences who do not need to travel to experience the biennial, as its programming reaches them where they are.

Image:
Christian Boltanski, Mysteries, 2017