Pushed back one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 17th Istanbul Biennial was realized in an unprecedented time of disintegration for our accustomed communication, social, and economic systems. This significant breaking point between past and present models of living acts as the central axis of the Biennial, which seeks to develop a collective language of social healing, action, and resistance for the future. Instead of focusing on a single overarching theme, the curators Ute Meta Bauer, Amar Kanwar, and David Teh defined the Biennial’s process-based perspective as analogous to “composting,” enabling new concepts and definitions to grow, fertilize, and unfold beyond the event’s duration. Spread out across 12 locations around the Beyoğlu, Kadıköy, Fatih, and Zeytinburnu neighborhoods, the Biennial featured 55 projects with more than 500 contributors in myriad…