A Kiss on the Eyes

Opens Saturday, May 9 The Türkiye Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia presents A Kiss on the Eyes by Nilbar Güreş, celebrated for her poetic, critical, and witty engagement with cultural symbols, social inequalities, and questions of identity across a diverse array of media. Curated by Başak Doğa Temür, the exhibition brings together existing works and new productions spanning sculpture, installation, painting and mixed-media works on paper and fabric. A Kiss on the Eyes takes its cue from the Turkish phrase Gözlerinizden öperim, a traditional closing remark often used at the end of a letter or conversation. The Türkiye Pavilion exhibition is coordinated by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) with the contribution of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye, the support of co-sponsor Trendyol Art, airline partner Turkish Airlines and production support of SAHA Association. The Vehbi Koç Foundation is also providing publishing support for the preparation of the exhibition catalogue. A Kiss on the Eyes, Nilbar Güreş’s exhibition at the Türkiye Pavilion, brings together different strands of the artist’s dynamic and diverse practice. Celebrated for her poetic, critical, and witty engagement with cultural symbols, social inequalities, and questions of identity, Güreş has built a substantial body of work spanning photography, video, collage, and textiles. In recent years, her practice has increasingly expanded into three-dimensional forms, leading to this exhibition conceived for the Venice Biennale which will showcase a series of large-scale sculptures and installations. Created through an intensive, collaborative process in Istanbul, these works were produced between December 2025 and March 2026 with sculptors, metalworkers, tailors, and craftspeople. Treating material not only as a formal element but also as a carrier of memory and labour, these new works will be presented alongside selected pieces from earlier periods of the artist's practice. In her curatorial statement, Başak Doğa Temür introduces the exhibition with the following words: “The exhibition unfolds through spatial relationships rather than a linear narrative. Works remain close to the ground, lean, hang, or hover. Instead of guiding the viewer from one work to the next, the exhibition invites them to slow down and become aware of their own bodily position in relation to the space and to others. Moving through the exhibition becomes a negotiation between distance and proximity, vulnerability and resistance. Such an approach characterises Nilbar Güreş’s work across multiple media, drawing on lived experience to address questions of gender, migration, and belonging. Her practice is shaped by situations marked by displacement, racism, xenophobia, and discrimination based on religion and belief, not as distant subjects but as conditions that structure everyday life. She often focuses on moments where social norms and power relations become visible through bodies, relationships, and acts of looking. Materials such as textiles, garments, domestic objects, and organic forms play a central role in her work. These materials carry personal and collective histories and are altered through gestures of care, humour, and resistance. Intimacy and political tension exist side by side, allowing vulnerability to appear without connotations of passivity.” Nilbar Güreş (b. 1977, Istanbul) received her B.A. in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Marmara University and completed her M.A. in Painting and Graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, followed by further studies in Art and Textile Pedagogy at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. Honoured with the Outstanding Artist Award for Photography and a Research Grant by the Austrian Ministry of Arts and Culture in 2023, Güreş has also been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Hilde Goldschmidt Prize (2013), the Otto Mauer Award (2014), the BC21 Art Award by Belvedere Contemporary (2015), the De’Longhi Art Projects Artist Award at the London Art Fair (2018), and the Prix Maud Mottier (2021). In 2012, supported by the Austrian Ministry of Arts and Culture, she participated in the International Studio & Curatorial Programme in New York as an artist-in-residence. Her multidisciplinary practice encompasses photography, video, film, painting, performance, sculpture, installation, and mixed-media collages on fabric. Beginning from the personal and biographical, her works expand to address broader issues, with particular sensitivity to themes of social injustice, gender roles, and cultural identity codes. Through research, documentation, and the use of witty figurations, she poetically subverts conventions.  Nilbar Güreş currently lives and works in Naples, Vienna, and Istanbul. The curator of the Türkiye Pavilion, Başak Doğa Temür, took part in the founding of Istanbul Modern, santralistanbul and Arter in the early 2000s, when Istanbul’s museum and cultural landscape began to rapidly expand. Between 2010 and 2020, she was a member of Arter’s curatorial team and the artistic programme board, contributing to exhibition coordination and management, publications, and the realisation of new productions. Her experience also includes part-time teaching at Istanbul Bilgi University in the Film and Television, as well as Visual Communication Design programmes. She has served on advisory boards and juries including the Türkiye Pavilion Advisory Board (2017–2019), BASE 2018, the CultureCIVIC: Arts and Culture Support Programme – Art Production Grants, and the pre-selection jury for the Berlin Senate’s Istanbul–Berlin Residency Programme. She has curated exhibitions including; Altan Gürman: A Retrospective (2019, Arter, Istanbul); Rosa Barba: The Hidden Conference (2019, Arter, Istanbul); Ali Mahmut Demirel: Isle (2018, Arter, Istanbul); Šejla Kamerić: When the Heart Goes Bing Bam Boom (2015, Arter, Istanbul); Fatma Bucak: Yet Another Story About the Fall (2013, Arter, Istanbul); Mat Collishaw: Afterimage (2013, Arter, Istanbul); Nevin Aladağ: Stage (2012, Arter, Istanbul); Patricia Piccinini: Hold Me Close to Your Heart (2011, Arter, Istanbul); and Transfer Turkey–NRW (2005–2007, Santralistanbul, Istanbul), co-curated with Emre Baykal. Commissioner: Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) Curator: Başak Doğa Temür