Abstract
Biennial events in urban life can be discussed in terms of the interrelation of venues as well as art products and dialogues. There are a number of exhibition venues, where preferences are defined by pragmatic or thematic decisions, such as historical buildings, most common public spaces or contemporary popular places. These buildings are territorial markers of specific patterns and act as muse- um-like environments. This study aims to explore the potential and performative outcomes of these patterns in the Istanbul Biennial between 1995-2013 and aims to discuss the last biennial in 2013 with syntactical parameters and frequencies comparatively for each venue using interface activities and occupancy through the other biennials. For that purpose, this paper will try to answer the questions below: Do biennial space preferences have performative differences in their syntactical configurations through biennial history (between 1995-2013)? Is there a performative relationship between the syntactical values of the inter- faces (for the 2013 biennial) and the frequency of each gate of the venues, considering the interface activities and moods? Comparison of the biennial patterns in Istanbul raises many questions in terms of spatial configuration, social network and functional hierarchy in addition to syntactic parameters such as the mean depth, integration or circularity. The territory of the 2013 biennial and its effects on frequencies will also be examined through biennial venues. To understand whether collective memory or accessibility is effective (dominant), audience frequencies are studied within the biennial pattern using gate counts and interface activities.
