MUNICH.- This year’s 15th Istanbul Biennial curated by the Danish-Norwegian artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset is entitled a good neighbour.

a good neighbour_on the move at the Pinakothek der Moderne is the continuation of this project.

How have notions of home, neighbourhood, and belonging changed throughout the past decades? Within an intimate selection of works by twelve contemporary artists, personal narratives offer reflections on gender roles, social control, shifting urban structures, global conflict, and displacement.

a good neighbour_on the move amalgamates contributions by the following artists:

Burçak Bingöl, born in 1976 in Giresun, Turkey, lives in Istanbul, Turkey • Canan, born in 1970 in Istanbul, Turkey, lives in Istanbul, Turkey • Vlassis Caniaris, born in 1928 in Athens, Greece, died in 2011 in Athens, Greece • Vajiko Chachkhiani, born in 1985 in Tbilisi, Georgia, lives in Berlin, Germany • Andrea Joyce Heimer, born in 1981 in Great Falls, Montana, USA, lives in Ferndale, Washington, USA • Gözde Ilkin, born in 1981 in Kütahya, Turkey, lives in Istanbul, Turkey • Mirak Jamal, born in 1979 in Teheran, Iran, lives in Berlin, Germany • Mahmoud Khaled, born in 1982 in Alexandria, Egypt, lives in Trondheim, Norway • Victor Leguy, born in 1979 in São Paulo, Brazil, lives in São Paulo, Brazil • Olaf Metzel, born in 1952 in Berlin, Germany, lives in Munich, Germany • Erkan Özgen, born in 1971 in Mardin, Turkey, lives in Diyarbakir, Turkey • Stephen G. Rhodes, born in 1977 in Houston, Texas, USA, lives in Berlin, Germany

In the museum, the Turkish artist Burçak Bingöl (b. 1976 in Giresun, Turkey, lives in Istanbul, Turkey) installs surveillance cameras, made in ceramic with prints of the local flowers of Beyoglu, Istanbul. The cameras refer to a society under constant surveillance. We monitor and control – while simultaneously being monitored and controlled ourselves.

The work of Stephen G. Rhodes (b. 1977 in Houston Texas, USA, lives in Berlin) warmly greets the visitors of the exhibition. However, its cordial gesture turns out to be double-edged.

Considered to be one of the most influential Greek artists of his generation, Vlassis Caniaris (b. 1928 in Athens, Greece, d. 2011 in Athens), is the oldest artist featured in the exhibition. His favoured topics – solidarity and exclusion, freedom and migration, feelings of being foreign and homelessness, “elites” and “the people” – are perhaps more topical today than ever before. Caniaris’ installation “What’s North, what’s South?” (cf. title illustration) is defining for his œuvre. What do we actually know about our neighbours? To whom do we feel close – and why?

How do family and state, society, religion and the media influence our identity? In an animation, the Turkish artist Canan (b. 1970 in Istanbul, Turkey, lives in Istanbul) tells of a young woman from eastern Anatolia who, forced into an arranged marriage by her parents, moves to the metropolis Istanbul.

How does the man we see staring out of a window in Vajiko Chachkhiani’s (b. 1985 in Tbilisi, Georgia, lives in Berlin) film actually live? What does he see? Is he watching us or are we watching him? Where do our worlds intersect?

Andrea Joyce Heimer’s (b. 1981 in Great Falls, Montana, USA, lives in Ferndale, Washington, USA) playful paintings tell the tales of folly, trivial schemes, and other comic situations inspired by experiences from among others Heimer’s childhood neighbourhood. How close do we as neighbours have to be? And how much intimacy does our relationship endure?

Gözde Ilkin (b. 1981 in Kütahya, Turkey, lives in Istanbul, Turkey) works with fabrics showing traces of use. By embroidering and painting scenes from her family album, she creates new social – both harmonious and complex – constellations.

Mirak Jamal (b. 1979 in Teheran, Iran, lives in Berlin) carves and transfers motifs from his childhood drawings on standard drywall panels, reflecting his and his family's experiences from Iran, the USSR, Germany, and North America. History is here revealed as a construct and Jamal’s works become vessels of distant memories.

Mahmoud Khaled’s (b. 1982 in Alexandria, Egypt, lives in Trondheim, Norway) sculpture “The Crying Man” depicts one of the 52 young Egyptian men who were arrested at a party in 2001 and put on trial because of their sexuality. The sculpture’s reflection of the iconic press photo of the unknown crying man shares his public humiliation with the visitor.

Victor Leguy’s (b. 1979 in São Paulo, Brazil, lives in São Paulo) wall works are all painted from the horizon line up, which both obscures and frees the objects. Leguy began his project “Structures for Invisible Borders” in 2015, which he has subsequently realised in different places across the world in conjunction with migrants. Such encounters could inspire the dissolution of cultural clichés and the fixed narratives of history creating more equal terms for co-existence.

By 2015, the Italian island of Lampedusa between Tunisia and Sicily had become an undisputed symbol both for the mass exodus from Africa and the various migrations occurring world-wide. Olaf Metzel’s (b. 1952 in Berlin, lives in Munich) large-scale sculpture depicting a crumpled newspaper approaches this topic from the distant view of mass media. Are the best neighbours those we never actually see?

In the film by Erkan Özgen (b. 1971 in Mardin, Turkey, lives in Diyarbakir, Turkey), the young deaf-mute boy, Muhammed, animates his experiences fleeing from his homeland Syria. The actual turn of events is left to the imagination of the viewer. Here, speechlessness becomes a metaphor.

In the works on display, a good neighbour_on the move additionally discuss how globalisation is changing the self- perception of public art institutions and their exhibitions. Museums – not to mention artists – see themselves in a broader social context and thus faced with a new audience. These new encounters extend our understanding of being neighbours – whether referring to the domestic or to the relationship between nation and culture.