The 5th Istanbul Design Biennial has unveiled it’s 2020 edition’s curator, with the election of Mariana Pestana, architect and curator to fill this position. The biennial, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), will take place from the 26th of September till the 8th of November 2020.
Currently curating Fiction Practice, for the Young Curators Lab for the Porto Design Biennale 2019, Mariana Pestana, has a lot of experiences in the field with events and exhibitions all over the world and in the most prestigious settings including, The Royal Academy, the Lisbon Architecture Triennial, the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design.
She is one of the co-founders of The Decorators, an interdisciplinary practice that interferes in public realm interventions and organizes cultural programs. Working between Porto and London, she taught at Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College of Arts, and Royal College of Arts. She holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from the Bartlett School of Architecture. The architect is especially concentrated on topics related to critical social practice and the role of fiction in re-imagining futures for an age marked by technological progress and an ecological crisis.
“Mariana Pestana’s passionate approach will be beneficial to the biennial in many ways, and her critical reflections on contemporary issues and inquiries into fictional futures are quite intriguing. We believe that she will put all her soul into turning this edition into a memorable one, and relish the opportunity to extend the collaborative approach of the Istanbul Design Biennial.” -- Istanbul Design Biennial’s Advisory Board
