Vasif Kortun

Vasif Kortun is the Director of Research and Programs at SALT, Istanbul, an institution that hosts numerous programs, a comprehensive library of over 40,000 publications, and an extensive archive on Turkish modern and contemporary art and architecture. Kortun was the founding Director of Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul, which he initiated in 2001. He was the founding Director of Project Istanbul Museum of Contemporary Art (2001-03), the Chief Curator and Director of the 3rd International Istanbul Biennial (1992), and Co-director, with Charles Esche, of the 9th International Istanbul Biennial (2005). Between 1994 and 1997 Kortun worked as the founding Director of the Museum of the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. Kortun was the Co-curator of 3rd Taipei Biennial (2008). He was also one of the curators of the 24th Sao Paolo Biennial (1998), Tirana Biennial, and 2nd Ceramics Biennial in Albisola (2003). He curated the Turkish pavilions for the 1994 and 1998 Sao Paolo Biennials and the 2007 Venice Biennial, during which he worked with artist Huseyin Alptekin on an installation titled Don't Complain. He has undertaken numerous independent curatorial projects including, most recently, an exhibition of works by Cengiz Вekil at Rampa in Istanbul (2010), and he co-curated, with November Paynter, The Columns Held us Up at Artists Space, New York (2009). He has written extensively on contemporary art and the cultural situation in Turkey for publications and periodicals internationally and in 2004 co-authored, with Erden Kosova, the book Jahresring 51: Szene Turkei: Abseits aber Tor on the Turkish art scene.