Istanbul Biennial / The Seventh Continent - Introductory Film
Music / Sound Design: Mehmet Güren / JJ
"The Seventh Continent - 16th Istanbul Biennial theme- is the name given to the huge island of plastic waste floating in the oceans, covering an area five times bigger than the surface of Turkey. Populated by plastic bags and cotton buds, but also fish and other creatures, it is the embodiment of the Anthropocene, a moment when the influence of human activities on the biosphere has become a major ‘geological’ force, wreaking a drastic effect on Earth.
The 16th Istanbul Biennial considers this moving heap as a territory yet unknown, in which humans and non-humans coexist. Born of our ways of life and production, the seventh continent is the reverse mirror-image of our societies. It is the new world we do not want to colonise, made up of everything we reject. Artists are its explorers.
In the campaign we created for the Biennial, we examine the effects of the Seventh Continent. Our reactions against the consequences of our own actions; despair, sadness, shock and indifference are given by plastic mannequin and other plastic elements which are indeed the natural inhabitants of the Seventh Continent."
Director: Ali Demirel
