Symbolic Vault: Panel Discussion & Tour
- Exhibition
- RSVP Recommended
Go beyond the exhibition. Join the conversation. Explore the ideas shaping Symbolic Vault.
VIP Reception
Dates: 18 September 2026 19:00
RSVP required info@artvoyagebiennial.org.uk
Panel Discussion
Dates: 26 September 2026
Location: Kasa Gallery, Istanbul
Curated Tour
Dates: 26 September 2026
Location: Kasa Gallery, Istanbul
Open ro Public
Dates: 19 September – 24 October 2026
Location: Kasa Gallery, Istanbul
Go beyond Symbolic Vault exhibition with two special events during Istanbul’s September art season, bringing audiences closer to the ideas, artists and conversations shaping the exhibition.
From a panel discussion exploring art, technology and future ecologies to an intimate artist-led tour through Kasa Gallery’s underground vaults, discover Symbolic Vault through conversation, exchange and direct encounter.
Panel Discussion
Post-Human Perception: Seeing and Hearing Beyond Ourserves
26 September 2026
Kasa Gallery, Istanbul
What happens when we begin to perceive the world beyond the human? Coinciding with Symbolic Vault, this special evening brings together artists, curators and academics to explore how contemporary art responds to emerging technologies, ecological change and non-human forms of perception. An evening of ideas, exchange and conversation during Istanbul’s September art season.
From artificial intelligence and contemporary image-making to ecological change and environmental futures, the discussion explores how new technologies are transforming the ways we see, sense and understand the world.
At its centre is a wider question: what role can art play in imagining new relationships between humans, machines and nature?
The Speakers
Derya Yücel (Moderator) – Curator & Director, Kasa Gallery
Derya Yücel is an Istanbul-based curator, art writer and lecturer. She has served as curator of Sabancı University Kasa Gallery since 2015 and is a Board Member of AICA Turkey. Her practice spans contemporary art, curatorial research and education, and she has curated numerous exhibitions in Turkey and internationally.
Tima Jam – Curator & Founder, Art Voyage Biennial
Paulo Arraiano – Artist
Portuguese visual artist Paulo Arraiano works across body, landscape and technology, exploring questions around climate change, the biosphere, extinction, transhumanism and the Anthropocene. His interdisciplinary practice considers how shifting ecological and technological conditions are transforming our relationship with the natural world.
Ecem Dilan Köse – Artist
Istanbul-based artist Ecem Dilan Köse works across generative art, digital installation, AI, VR and audiovisual performance. Drawing connections between organic textures and digital systems, her practice explores the relationship between nature, technology and human experience, imagining new possibilities for their coexistence.
Drinks reception – Continue the Conversation
A drinks reception follows the panel, inviting guests to continue the conversation in a relaxed setting and connect with participating artists, curators and Istanbul’s wider creative community.
An evening of ideas, exchange and conversation during Istanbul’s September art season.
Curated Exhibition Tour
26 September 2026
Kasa Gallery Vaults
Step away from the pace of Contemporary Istanbul and descend into Kasa Gallery’s historic underground vaults for an intimate encounter with Symbolic Vault.
Designed for a small group of invited collectors, curators, museum professionals, cultural attachés, Contemporary Istanbul VIP guests and Art Voyage Patrons, this special tour offers a rare opportunity to experience the exhibition alongside the people who created it.
Beginning with a curatorial introduction, guests will move through the Vault with exhibiting artists Paulo Arraiano, Rebecca Najdowski and Ecem Dilan Köse, hearing first-hand about the ideas, research and processes behind their works.
More than a guided tour, it is an opportunity to look closer, ask questions and engage directly with the artists and curator while exploring some of the defining questions shaping contemporary art today: our changing relationships with technology, ecology and the more-than-human world.
Located moments from Istanbul’s historic Galata district, the experience offers a quieter and more considered encounter during one of the city’s busiest weeks for contemporary art.
About Symbolic Vault
Symbolic Vault: Entanglements of Human, Nature, Machine brings together Paulo Arraiano, Rebecca Najdowski and Ecem Dilan Köse within Kasa Gallery’s historic underground vaults.
Through moving image, sound, installation, performance and digital media, the exhibition explores how technology, ecology and memory are reshaping the ways we perceive, understand and inhabit the world.
18 September – 24 October 2026
Kasa Gallery, Istanbul
Join us for the Opening Reception
Be among the first to experience Symbolic Vault. Join us on 18 September 2026 for the exhibition’s opening reception at Kasa Gallery’s historic underground vaults, and celebrate the opening alongside the artists, curator and Istanbul’s creative community.
18 September 2026
Kasa Gallery Vaults
Be inspired, consider new ways of sensing and thinking.
Reflect on the meanings and implications of interdependence, ecology, and technology. Gain new understandings about climate, AI, and post-human futures; through empathy, awareness, and new forms of entangled thinking rooted in interdependence and symbiosis.
Join the Symbolic Vault public programme for thought-provoking conversation and an intimate journey through the exhibition, encountering new perspectives on the evolving relationships between human, nature and machine.
Our Partners & Collaborators
If you are an artist interested in collaborating with us, or if you would like to learn more about the work we do at Art Voyage, email us at info@artvoyagebiennial.org.uk
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