Deniz Ova is the director of the Istanbul Design Biennial, organized by the IKSV (Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts).  Before becoming director of the Biennial in 2013, Ova worked as the project leader for the International Projects department, where she developed and organised the festivals and events of the foundation in different European cities. Besides, Ova also coordinated the Pavilion of Turkey at the International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, as well as the artist residency studio “Turquie” at Cité Internationale des Arts, and recently managed the participation of Turkey in the London Design Biennial. Before her posts at İKSV, Ova lived in Stuttgart where she graduated in Political Science and Linguistics. After graduation, she worked as assistant director in several theatre productions at the Stuttgart State and City Theatre, and managed festival events in Stuttgart.

 

“The tried-and-tested models of education within design are well worn out, and are unable to answer contemporary problems. Our current world dictates that we find new solutions, and for that we need new methods, new ways of approaching everyday life.”

 

OM: After you completed your studies in political sciences and linguistics, you were engaged as an event manager in Stuttgart, then you moved to Istanbul to become the head of IKSV’s International Projects Department.  How did such huge change of your career happen? Did you encounter any difficulties in getting into and discovering the world of art?

DO: I do not find my background to be that different from contemporary approaches towards cultural management and design. My studies gave me the ability to think and analyse broadly, to see a wide picture, see problems as multidimensional and approach them with common keywords such as empathy, engagement, participation, diversity, and interdisciplinarity. Although my formal education was more creative concerning language and diplomacy, I have been engaged with different artistic practices all my life, which helped me make this transition. My curiosity enables me to engage with every new topic I work with, and as long as I believe in the work I am doing, I feel as if everything is possible.

İKSV’s current campaign motto is “Seve Seve”, which can roughly be translated into “with pleasure”. I was featured as one of the stories within this campaign. Indeed it was with pleasure that I came from Germany, and it was with pleasure that I started working within the art and culture sector.

 

“The tried-and-tested models of education within design are well worn out, and are unable to answer contemporary problems. Our current world dictates that we find new solutions, and for that we need new methods, new ways of approaching everyday life.”

 

OM: IKSV is a non-profit organisation of culture founded in 1973, aimed to improve the cultural and artistic life of Istanbul. Of the many manifestations it organises, one should particularly point out the Istanbul Design Biennale, whose principal you have been since 2013. Can you tell us what were you plans and objectives at the time of taking over such a responsible position? Looking back today, could you single out some hardships you had at the beginning?

DO: Within the art and culture sector design is a relatively young field, even more so in Turkey. Recently there have been many developments around the field and a variety of events are being realised. Then again, it took a considerable amount of time to establish the idea that design is more than the end product; it permeates, is immanent within everyday life. For this reason it must embrace this position, has to be seen through and approached from the cultural perspective.

 

When I became the director of Istanbul Design Biennial, it had already taken an unusual path in dealing with and presenting design during the first edition in 2012. I discovered the need to turn it into a platform of constant learning. Realising an exhibition every two years was not enough and the biennial needed to be transformed into a platform of collaborative thought where experimental methods were tried out. With our various programmes, events, and projects, I believe we’ve managed to establish the understanding that the biennial would span the form of an exhibition. Then again there’s always room for more!

 

“If design is put forward more evidently as a method of reading everyday problems and not only a way of solving them, it would not be seen as a field that is unattainable.”

 

OM: The theme of the latest, 4th biennale of design 2018 was ‘A School of Schools’ by the commissar Jan Boelen and his assistants Nadine Botha and Vera Sacchetti. The idea was to open the possibilities for a redesign of the educational system on global level. What in your opinion is the biggest problem of educational system in general? Why it should be changed and how design can help in its redesign?

DO: The 4th Istanbul Design Biennial – A School of Schools helped us to think how design education can be restructured in a time where we are celebrating the 100th year of Bauhaus. It wouldn’t want to overstep my expertise by commenting on education in general, but design education has a paradigmatic problem that needs to be redefined. The tried-and-tested models of education within design are well worn out, and are unable to answer contemporary problems. Our current world dictates that we find new solutions, and for that we need new methods, new ways of approaching everyday life.

 

 

 

OM: Talking about education of designers often refers to university levels. What must be changed? How can also the community get involved in the processes of design, especially in those of strongly visible urban changes?

DO: We –as actors of the design scene– need to do a better job of communicating how integrated everyone’s life is with design. People come up with unique solutions to complicated problems every single day, and a lot of them have very much to do with design – they just don’t know it. If design is put forward more evidently as a method of reading everyday problems and not only a way of solving them, it would not be seen as a field that is unattainable. This would also help emancipate it, leading the flow of creativity to wider horizons.

Participatory concepts are key when dealing with issues related with urban design. The Istanbul Design Biennial has always been open about its aspirations for collaboration; whether it is actors from the public or the private sector, academics, independent designers or architects, or people of Istanbul. The last couple of months witnessed a number of charrettes realised by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, and it was quite nice to see this collaborative approach spread. We hope this dynamic spirit would lead to better, more viable, and more sustainable solutions for the community.

 

 

 

OM: Biennale was an opportunity also for the designers focused on speculative design envisioning solutions for (possible) challenges of the future. The works dealt with items such as measurability, conception and usability of time, ecological catastrophes and the unpredictability of their proportions in the future. That covered highly actual topics, and the projects reaffirmed the relevance of inter disciplinarity and the links among experts from various fields. How much did the projects manage to warn the visitors and to make them think? 

DO: The 4th Istanbul Design Biennial reached 200.000 visitors on its own, which was quite a huge number compared to the previous editions. This shows us that the theme responded to an urgent matter, and resonated within the local and global scene.

Our prediction is that the focus of the next decade will be on topics such as sustainability in a broader sense – how can we think of design practices for a liveable planet, or in fact, how can we create empathy for the environment and non-human species? It was important to initiate dialogue in this sense during the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial with projects such as Algae Bloom by Atelier LUMA Algae Lab, which investigated how algae can be used as a material in architecture and design instead of fossil oil-based plastics. The outputs were recently presented at the 50th World Economic Forum in Davos and we had the privilege of witnessing how the biennial made a global impact.

 

 

Another example is Hope on Water by SO? Architecture, an interdisciplinary research project. Starting off from an inquisition around how people would be housed after the big earthquake that Istanbul currently awaits, SO? designed a house that can float on water, and we displayed a prototype as part of the biennial. This marked another example of how the biennial was used as a platform of discussion against an urgent crisis.

OM: The 5th Biennale of Istanbul design is going to take place between September 26th and November 8th, 2020, under the leadership of the commissar Mariana Pestana. The title this time is Empathy Revisited: designs for more than one. What is going to be the Biennale’s main goal this year?

DO: The 5th Istanbul Design Biennial will question how the notion of empathy can be implemented within design. In line with the main title, the main goal of this edition will be to discover a role for design related with affection, feelings, and new relations when we are talking about crises, chaos, and danger all around the globe.

As a part of this approach, we will be developing a Kitchen programme, through which we will reflect on the passage of food from plant to plate, as well as exploring culinary traditions and their impact on contemporary culture.

 

OM: Istanbul is promoted as a city of design with an attention to the links between the traditional craftsmanships and modern technologies. Workshops and events putting craft and craftsmanship in the foreground are yet another way of involving the community and of transferring of know-how and tradition. How much can the traditional crafts be felt in the contemporary Turkish design? What is the role of tradition in promotion and/or recognisability of Turkish design in the world?

DO: The link between craft and design is currently re-discovered topic in Turkey, and it is always exciting to see how traditional practices or rituals are reflected on to contemporary designs.

What you said about Istanbul can in fact be applied to Turkey as a whole. This is a geography in which many cultures and ancient civilizations have lived, and this creates a huge potential for Turkey’s presence within the global design scene. A good example from Turkey in this sense is Atlas Harran, led by IN-BETWEEN design platform. The collection uses the geography and history of Harran, an ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia which currently is located in the Şanlıurfa Province, and transforms that accumulated culture into functional objects we can use in our daily life.

 

OM: Mixture of influences, exchange of information and a cohabitation of various traditions are certainly not alien to the city of a turbulent past, placed on two continents. How much can the mixture of influences be felt in the Turkish design today? How important is the international collaboration today and how much are the global trends reaching Istanbul?

DO: Turkey is unique in the sense that it has the potential to integrate various cultures within works from all fields. Then again, our belief is that there is always room for improved collaboration, which comes more from a mind-set, rather than a way of implementation.

One of the main goals of the Istanbul Design Biennial is to use the city as a dynamic space for projects, actions and interventions, and tackle global design problems while operating on a network of national and international collaborations with cultural agents, institutions, universities and companies. In that sense we believe that the biennial is not only the action but a trigger.

 

OM: What in your eyes is the future of design? What would be your message to young designers, what should they pay particular attention to?

DO: As opposed to events and activities, the future of design in my opinion lies in collaborative concepts and new ways of using materials. The field will hopefully be affected more and more from the current focus on ecology, while designs that are thinking and producing with sustainable, circular, and trans or multi-disciplinary methods will continue to be on everyone’s agenda. Technological products will feature more personalised options as our attention will still be on the digital world and mobile applications.

In line with these projected developments, I would suggest young designers to question particular paradigms within established ways of architecture and design, try to come up with new solutions, and expand the field with interdisciplinary approaches.