Amsterdam, Cape Town & São Paulo-based multidisciplinary research and design studio Sulsolsal+Contributors have revealed alternative learning strategies experienced through catastrophes, disasters or crises across the world at the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial, themed as "A School of Schools".

The 4th Istanbul Design Biennial has been opened to press and professionals at the Yapı Kredi Culture Centre in Istanbul today. The biennial's theme, titled "A School of Schools", investigates different norms of design education as a transdisciplinary and experimental base.

Curated by Jan Boelen and associate curators Vera Sacchetti and Nadine Botha, the exhibition will reflect the role of design and the role design education, knowledge, and global connectedness in contemporary Istanbul and beyond by testing and revising a variety of educational strategies through the exhibition.

Presented under the sub-title of "Earth School", the exhibition asks a concrete question about learning: what can we learn from the most catastrophic events to continue our lives? Entitled "Staying Alive", the exhibition is presented with a series of steel boxes that explore different educational experiences. 

"The past decade has witnessed a rapid escalation in the frequency and scale of disasters, crises and catastrophes - from ecology and scion-economics to politics, ethics and technology - creating a sense of impending doom," said the team. 

"Who is doing anything about it? Governments seem more concerned with power over each other, and business about cashing in on desperation. Along these seismic contours, preparations for a broad array of possible doomsday scenarios has sparked new interests, hobbies and communities, as well as alternative channels for the production and distribution of emergent knowledge."

Staying Alive draws on the designers' ongoing research into how society is adapting to and learning for what seems to be an inevitable future of scarcity. 

Alongside the simultaneously humorous and sobering research into neosurvivalist communities, and the bizarre commercial products that cater for them, the installation includes a number of designers and artists whose provocations challenge us not to settle for fatalist future trajectories. 

The 4th Istanbul Design Biennial, titled A School of Schools and curated by Jan Boelen with associate curators Vera Sacchetti and Nadine Botha, has been opened with a press conference held in Istanbul. The Biennial will be opened to the public on September 22 and will be on view until November 4, 2018.

The biennial is presented at the six of the city's most iconic cultural institutions in the Beyoğlu District - Akbank Sanat, Arter, Yapı Kredi Culture Centre, Pera Museum, SALT Galata and Studio-X Istanbul.

Each venue focuses on a different theme which is spread like: Yapı Kredi Culture Centre - Currents School, Pera Museum - Scales School, Arter - Earth School, SALT Galata - Time School, Studio-X Istanbul - Digestion School and Akbank Sanat - Unmaking School. 

Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), the biennial brings together projects from more than 200 interdisciplinary practitioners from across the globe. 

World Architecture Community is Magazine Sponsor of the Biennial and will bring to you the hottest installations, discussions and updated news from the event.

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