16th Istanbul Biennial the Seventh Continent in the context of approaches to nature in art

In the historical process, the concept of nature in art has been handled in different ways in every period with the changes in human and nature relations. This process, which has been transformed by the transition to settled life, the birth of civilizations, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and urbanization creates an interdisciplinary workshop by combining art, science, and technology under the same roof, with the changing paradigms, especially in contemporary art after 1960. Biennials, which are accepted as one of the most important exhibition areas of art in the changing world, have become the meeting point of art and society with the innovations it brings. The International Istanbul Biennial, which has opened its doors to the audience with different themes since 1987 aimed to bring a new artistic perspective to human and nature relations in the Anthropocene Age with the theme of the Seventh Continent in 2019. In this research, in which the concept of nature in art is evaluated with current approaches and ecological discourses in the 16th Istanbul Biennial: The Seventh Continent, we aimed to reflect that where the artist is in the systems that make up existence. In addition, we investigated how the artist was influenced by nature as a subject and form of transmission from the past to the present, and in what ways and to what extent the subject of nature was reflected in the works, specifically for the 16th Istanbul Biennial. For this purpose, 14 artists and 31 works participating in the biennial, dealing with human and nature relations, were evaluated descriptively using the document analysis method. It has been observed that the artists evaluated within the scope of the biennial make readings covering artistic and scientific fields such as literature, religion, biology, sociology, anthropology, and ecology in their artistic production processes. The artists, who built the conceptual infrastructure of their works on these readings, also carried these disciplines to their workshops and collaborated with different fields. The artists, whose aims are to build a geological and archaeological bridge between the past and the present, revealed the devastating effects of a post-human world. The contribution of art and artists to the formation of social-ecological consciousness in our civilization, which is approaching its end in the struggle against nature with the habits of the age of consumption, cannot be denied. For this reason, we, who are seen as the mirror of society, need to consider ecological approaches in our art practices and put them into practice in all areas of our lives so that future generations do not make the same mistakes.