Bengi Ünsal appointed as the new director of Institute of Contemporary Arts in UK

The first director appointed under the chairpersonship of Wolfgang Tillmans, Ünsal joins the ICA as it prepares to celebrate its 75th anniversary. In March 2022, she will become the first woman to serve as the organization’s director in 55 years.

İstanbul

Bengi Ünsal appointed as the new director of Institute of Contemporary Arts in UK

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Bengi Ünsal from Turkey has been appointed as the new director of the London-based Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA).

When she comes into office in March 2022, she will become the first woman to serve as the organization's director in 55 years.

The first director appointed under the chairpersonship of Wolfgang Tillmans, Ünsal joins the ICA as it prepares to celebrate its 75th anniversary.

Speaking about her appointment, Tillmans has said:

"My colleagues and I are enormously excited that Bengi has agreed to join us at this crucial moment in the ICA's history. Bengi has already started developing and sharing her ideas and plans on how she will shape a programme across all artforms and all areas of our building, taking the organisation back to its multidisciplinary heyday with a programme rooted firmly in the here and now. I can't wait to see what she brings to the ICA."

Bengi Ünsal herself has briefly said:

"I am incredibly proud to be joining one of the most iconic and progressive organisations for contemporary arts in the world, one that is such an inspiration to me and so many others.

"We are living through a time that is challenging everything we know about work, life, the world, our connectivity. In a time of such questioning, it is vital that the space for culture, art, and expression is safeguarded to help us make sense of it all. We need our cultural institutions to be the platforms which allow artists to do just that. Artists of today are genre-fluid and connected, their expression limited only by their imaginations."

About Bengi Ünsal

The ICA has introduced its new director Bengi Ünsal in following words:

During Bengi's tenure at the Southbank Centre, she has been responsible for a year-round programme of more than 200 contemporary performances that won critical acclaim. Her responsibilities have included overseeing the annual Meltdown festival, with guest curators MIA (2017), Robert Smith (2018), Nile Rodgers (2019) and Grace Jones (planned for 2020, postponed to 2022 due to COVID-19); launching new initiatives including Purcell Sessions, a series dedicated to multidisciplinary artistic innovation; Concrete Lates, the Centre's first late-night series; and futuretense, a high-profile public performance platform presenting the best untapped talent in British and international music. Ünsal also commissioned works such as Cowpuncher (2018) and Cowpuncher My Ass (2020), which brought together choreographer Holly Blakey, composer Mica Levi and designer Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood.

Before joining the Southbank Centre in 2016, Bengi was the Artistic & Managing Director of Istanbul's live performance and multi-arts venue, Salon IKSV, where she built the brand from scratch – successfully raising 100 per cent of its funding entirely from brand partnerships, sponsorships and ticketing income. She has also served as the Managing Director of Doublemoon Records in Istanbul, run her own events company, launched a festival, and worked for radio stations, music TV channels, Universal Music and BMG. A trustee of the Music Venue Trust and the Nest Collective, Bengi takes over at the ICA from Stefan Kalmár, who served as the ICA's Director from 2016 until 2021.

About the ICA

The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an independent organisation that supports the most pressing debates in contemporary culture.

An Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is supported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Culture Recovery Fund.

From its home on The Mall, the geographic heart of the UK establishment, the ICA presents a programme that speaks to the challenges of the 21st century: exhibitions, performances, independent film and keynote lectures by many of the world's leading thinkers.

Founded in 1946 by a collective of artists, poets and their supporters, the ICA played a role in the development of pop art and charted the course of punk, performance art and independent cinema. (AÖ/SD)