LUCCA × PİLEVNELİ Presents:

:mentalKLINIK – Almost Surprised

During the opening week of the Istanbul Biennial, the artist duo :mentalKLINIK takes over Lucca, Bebek’s iconic meeting point, for 10 days. This collaboration, brought to life with the support of Pilevneli, carries :mentalKLINIK into Lucca, creating for the first time in the venue’s history a comprehensive conceptual transformation.
Lucca, in collaboration with the pioneering contemporary art duo :mentalKLINIK, undergoes a complete transformation. With Pilevneli’s support, the project marks a first in Lucca’s history, as the venue itself becomes a work of art for ten days.

In this special period,

Lucca unites the rhythm of the city’s culture,

lifestyle, and art on a single stage.

Special events and parties taking place throughout the Biennial and Contemporary further enhance this experience.
From September 18–28, Lucca transforms from being just a restaurant or bar into a seductive, surprise-filled art stage.

:mentalKLINIK reimagines Lucca’s atmosphere and sensory codes. This special installation, titled Almost Surprised, reinterprets the “like–share–follow” culture within a mirror-clad environment. Bearing the duo’s signature, the work brings guests into that slippery moment between the pleasure of being seen and the unease of becoming content.

In this encounter,

Lucca opens not as a backdrop,

but as material reshaped and

reprogrammed by the artist duo.

Through the interventions of the artist duo, the Lucca venue transforms into a physical social media feed. As algorithmic desires spread throughout the space, the act of scrolling becomes spatialized and the atmosphere turns into code. Here, the stage invites everyone into complicity within the performative dilemmas of everyday life.

Smile, Share, and Stay in the Loop.

About :mentalKLINIK
Founded in 1998 in Istanbul by Yasemin Baydar and Birol Demir, :mentalKLINIK is a Brussels-based artist duo. Operating as a multimedia and conceptual laboratory—where “:mental” stands for thought and “KLINIK” stands for action—they merge their individual identities into a distinct third persona. With intimate language and ultra-contemporary tools, they render visible the invisible political strategies and social dynamics of today.

Like a disco ball, their exhibitions reflect a selection of the duo’s multifaceted approaches to their own universe. Resisting the boundaries of a single vocabulary or style, their world is both hedonistic and playful: when the viewer approaches to explore, they encounter both festivity and wonder. Yet beneath the shimmer lies violence, evoking the hangover of an intense party or the veiled beginning of an ending yet to come.