Conceptual Framework

"Karada akıl yürür, denizde sezgi," say the fishermen. At sea, we sense. On land, we reason.

To be at sea is to relinquish the illusion of control. There is no arguing with the currents; there is only attention, a bodily, unglamorous knowing that ensures survival at sea. In a time of global polycrises – unevenly distributed and impossible to completely evade – this feels less like folklore and more like instruction.

We ask: Can we sense the sea and be sensed by it in return? The question falters immediately, for the sea does not sense us uniformly. It registers the weight of a fishing net differently than a leisure boat, a body that falls in from despair as distinct from one that dives for pleasure. The sea is a political surface, reading labor, precarity, and privilege long before we arrive with our poetic questions.

Sinopale 10 does not aim to resolve this tension but instead sits within it. For the fisherman, sensing is not philosophy but survival, sharpened by interdependence.

This edition holds collaboration as a more-than-human endeavor: with the sea, with its animals, with its songs, with fishermen and marine ecosystems, with architecture, with Sinop’s existing communities. Following the city’s waves, we trace how the sea carries stories, affects, and movements across distance through materials, rhythms, and practices.

Unfolding through informal gatherings, conversations, performances, and an exhibition situated in Sinop, this biennial asks: What does the sea know that reason alone cannot?

Curators

DENIZ
KIRKALI

Based in London, where she lives and works, Deniz Kirkali is an independent curator and writer. She is the co-founder of topsoil, a transnational curatorial and research collective, and Garp Sessions, a summer residency program in Babakale, Turkey.

Conducting her research-led curatorial practice within a multidisciplinary framework, Kirkali focuses on collaboration and experimental pedagogies through projects spanning the UK, Europe, and the Middle East. She holds a PhD in curatorial practices from Goldsmiths, University of London. Her writings have been widely published in international platforms and magazines such as AQNB, Flash Art, this is tomorrow, Cogito, and Art Unlimited.

MARINA
FOKIDIS

Based in Athens, where she lives and works, Marina Fokidis is a curator, writer, and educator. She is the founder of Kunsthalle Athena and the biannual journal South as a State of Mind, both of which center on contemporary art and critical discourse.

Her practice investigates geography, co-existence, and socio-political issues within a multidisciplinary framework, and she is widely recognized for her advocacy of emerging and underrepresented artists. Having curated numerous significant international exhibitions, Fokidis served as the Head of the Artistic Office in Athens and as a curatorial advisor for documenta 14. Through her work, she continues to bridge Mediterranean perspectives with global contemporary art debates.

MARIAM
NATROSHVILI

Based in Tbilisi, where she lives and works, Mariam Natroshvili (1987) is an artist and researcher whose practice investigates the concepts of memory, forgetting, and disappearance through the lens of the city and its architecture.

Examining how political and social transformations shape individual and collective experience within a multidisciplinary framework, Natroshvili produces work spanning text-based art, archival and CGI video, and digital interactive experiences. With the collection of oral histories at the core of her practice, her work has been presented in public spaces and international platforms across Georgia and beyond. Mariam has curated exhibitions and festivals in Georgia. She is also the author of the book Excerpts: From the History of Georgian Media Art.

T. MELIH

GORGUN

Based in Istanbul, Sinop, and Berlin, where he lives and works, T. Melih Görgün is a Sinop-born artist, curator, and academic. His practice operates at the intersection of contemporary art, urban studies, and cultural research within a multidisciplinary framework.

Görgün is the founder of Sinopale – International Sinop Biennial and the Weltoffenschule platform. Having co-curated numerous editions of Sinopale, he also initiated the 'Borders Orbits' competition at Siemens Art. His curatorial portfolio includes significant international exhibitions such as the Asia Art Biennale and the Akbank Contemporary Artists Exhibitions. Currently, he continues to contribute to the field as an instructor and consultant for the 'Contemporary Art and Curating' program.

Artists

Adina Mocanu, Aleksi Soselia, Ali Kazma, Angela Bonadies, Angelo Plessas, Anna Dziapshipa, Anuar Duisenbinov, Ayesha Hameed, Burak Kabadayı, Collectif MASI, Evrim Kavcar, Eylem Ertürk, Ezgi Tok, Fisherwomxn, Giorgi Khasaia, İpek İpekçioğlu, Kadir Kayserilioğlu, Loopntale, Natalia Nebieridze, Paky Vlassopoulou, Paloma Proudfoot, Serkan Aka, Tanja Ostojić.

Sinopale, International Sinop Biennial, in collaboration with Brunnenpassage and the Vienna Climate Biennale:

What Waters Remember

Artists: Çiğdem Borucu, Susana Ojeda, Zuzana Ernst

What does it mean to listen to water? How do the memories flowing through and around us shape us?

What Waters Remember is a two-part art project centered on the practice of listening, realized through a partnership between Sinopale and Vienna-based Brunnenpassage. Brunnenpassage is a cultural institution that works with participatory artistic practices and aims to create social impact, and in these respects, it also shares similarities with Sinopale.

The project takes as its point of departure the idea that water, which makes up a large part of our bodies and the ecosystem in which we live, also has a memory. Water absorbs what is happening in the present moment, while also remembering everything that has taken place there in the past. We take water into our bodies by drinking it, breathing, through the food we eat, and in various ways through our skin, and then return it to nature once again. Even if we are not aware of it, the water in our bodies and the water in nature, beneath the city, and in the sky are in a constant relationship and cycle; this cycle constitutes both the essence and the entirety of our physical existence. Water carries within it not only the individual but also the collective memory of life.

Embracing Deep Listening as a political practice, the project positions listening as a form of resistance against forgetting and as a practice that makes silenced voices audible.

Parallel Events

Team

Advisory Board: Çiğdem İkiışık, Elif Kuli, Mahir Namur, T. Melih Görgün

Biennial Directors: Çağatay Şimşek, Yiğit Bahadır Kaya

Biennial Coordinator: İpek Hamzaoğlu

Production:: Ece Denizci, Erkan Akliman, Yağmur Güzle, Zeynep Burçoğlu

Social Media: Çağatay Şimşek, Derin Deniz, Mercan Uludağ, Şimal Dindar, Yağmur Güzle

Press Relations: Bkz.İletişim ve Neslihan Özata Örnek

Legal Counsel: Ülker Şimşek Law Office

Graphic Design: Emel Karadeniz

Sinopale 10 Office Team: Cansu Kırcan, Yeşim Uzunöz

Website: Çağatay Şimşek, Mercan Uludağ, Murat Tahtacı

Exhibition Installation: Elif Kuli, Techizart, Zeynep Burçoğlu

Artist Assistants: Ali Arbağ, Barış Tükel, Bensu Koca, Bilge Çubuk, Derin Deniz, Doğa Yılmaz, Eliz Kökdemir, İrem Ararat, İrem Yağcı, Nursevim Kapusuz, Poyraz Çakır