#Istanbul Biennial rocks. Two pieces on the biennial

Japanese arrowroot blankets the Alabama countryside, strangling the trees and fields. An endless tyre dump stretches to the horizon. Plastic waste accumulates in the oceans, forming a seventh continent. In fact, the agglomeration of plastic waste floating about in the Pacific is sometimes referred to as the Seventh Continent. An indictment of the way we live, the ever-growing garbage patch is testament to our wastefulness, heedlessness and greed. The Seventh Continent also provides the title for curator Nicolas Bourriaud’s exhibition for the 16th Istanbul Biennial. The biennial is itself another kind of accumulation, and one that is itself not without its own material and ecological cost, its own political ramifications.