Turkish contemporary art is developing and expanding its horizons to the world. Thanks to Contemporary Istanbul, a fair bringing together 2,000 works by 420 artists for its fifth anniversary this year, the event is expected to be one of the artistic highlights of the year while also opening a new area for cultural dialogue
This year’s Contemporary Istanbul art fair will bring together 37 galleries from overseas and 43 from Turkey and show 2,000 works by 420 artists.
The event aims to question the meaning of art, being an artist, reveal the unifying characteristic of an art that can communicate directly and exhibit a broad, cross-cultural appeal.
Even though Turkish media would currently only like to attract everybody’s attention to Turkish collectors and wait to see who will buy what for how much from the fair, the Contemporary Fair is seeking to determine what contemporary art is and how we can put it into words.
The answer, ultimately, is easy; emotional experience is common to all humanity and art evokes emotion and people in Turkey need this. That’s why people are all attracted to art and begin to collect it.
Art evokes emotion in one individual, despite all the cultural specifics that determine that person’s reactions and it will reach out to many other individuals with varied cultural background.
The event for this year has chosen to open a new dimension in by bringing onboard Iranian and Armenian artists. While intercultural dialogues and Iranian and Armenian art are coming to the fore, Turkish art will stand at the center of this three-day event.
“Our aim is to make Istanbul Contemporary Fair a regional art hub. That’s why we are focusing on neighboring countries,” said the director of the fair, Emin Mahir Balcıoğlu.
Armenian art has a symbolic significant for Turkey, said Balcıoğlu. “We would like to create and increase awareness to Armenian contemporary art.
While the Contemporary Art Fair announced the value of the works of art, it also announced that this year will be a golden year for Turkish contemporary artists in regard to the total value of the works exhibited at the fair.
The total value of the artwork that will be exhibited at Contemporary Istanbul is 50 million Turkish Liras – 35 million liras of which belongs to Turkish artists.
Questioning the value of art
Ahmet Güneştekin, a prominent Turkish artist, is expected to break a new record with his artwork valued at 3.5 million liras.
Güneştekin has attracted attention with the total value of his works in the “Religions” series, which are valued at 7.5 million liras.
Compared to last year’s sales of 59 percent, this year it is expected that 75 to 80 percent of the works will be sold.
Chairman Ali Güreli said 70 percent of the sales would be by Turkish artists.
The golden year of Turkish Contemporary Art
Güneştekin, qho reflects interpretations from mythology and myths, including cultural symbols, will present his works at the fair in reference to the connecting effect of religions.
In addition to the large numbers of Turkish artists participating in the event, works from foreign artists such as Franz Ackermann, Andreas Gursky, Andy Warhol, Shirin Neshat and Sophia Vari, the wife of Colombian artists Fernando Botero, will be at Contemporary Istanbul.
The work of Mübin Orhon, which broke a new record recently with a sale of 1.08 liras will also be exhibited at the fair. Visitors to Contemporary Istanbul will have the chance of seeing Orhon’s largest abstract oil painting, which is 352 by 112 cm. The work was created in 1962 and recently broke a new record when it was sold for 1.75 million liras at an auction held by Antik A.Ş.
Setting out to take contemporary art to the masses and to make Istanbul a center for the contemporary arts, Contemporary Istanbul has made a substantial effort to carry Istanbul to its place among the world’s major art centers by bringing together galleries and artists from Turkey and abroad.
Receiving great interest both from national and international media, Contemporary Istanbul will have the opportunity to reach 12 million art lovers through various media channels.
Dialogue between cultures
Contemporary Istanbul has succeeded in becoming an annual event bringing together works from local and foreign artists with art lovers through constant conferences and exhibitions held during and after the event.
The conferences titled Dialogues – previously held in Istanbul and Berlin – was held in the German capital in October in cooperation with Akademie der Kunste, and will be held in Istanbul in December this year.
On top of that, Contemporary Istanbul has opened up to other Turkish cities with a new conference series titled Contemporary Art Meetings.
Conferences were organized in İzmir, Adana, Bursa and Ankara under the title Contemporary Art Meetings / Aesthetics – Value – Passion. The event, to be held in a different city every year, aims to make the interest in contemporary arts country-wide and raise awareness.
Contemporary Istanbul has prepared big surprises for its fifth anniversary, initiating cooperation with the Galleries Association of Berlin. Within the context of that cooperation, major contemporary art galleries from Berlin will come to Istanbul.
New Horizons: Iran
Hosting artists from different countries every year, Contemporary Istanbul last exhibited Syrian artists’ works at the New Horizons area. Now, for its fifth anniversary, it will host New Horizons: Iran exhibiting Iranian artists and Iranian art outside of Iran. Among the Iranian participant galleries to be included are Etemad, Assar, Xerxes and the Rosa Issa Projects, while the artists to be presented include Farhad Ahrarnia, Reza Derakhshani, Monir Farmanfarmaian, Parastou Forouhar, Taraneh Hemami, Alireza Adambakan and Samira Alikhanzadeh. Contemporary Istanbul will be also showing at Videocube works by artists from Iran and the Contemporary Arabian Art World.
Meeting with Armenian artists
Another surprise will be the Armenian artists invited to promote regional arts at Contemporary Istanbul. Armenian contemporaries like Karen Aghamyan, Tigran Kirakosyan, Felix Eghiazaryan will exhibit their contemporary art works in Istanbul.
Edge of Arabia
Contemporary Istanbul is also initiating cooperation with Edge of Arabia, which will bring together the leading representatives of the New Wave of Saudi Contemporary Art. The traveling exhibition of Edge of Arabia is coming to Istanbul for the first time. With a separate booth at Contemporary Istanbul, Edge of Arabia will be hosting symposia and exclusive artistic installations.
Designed to bring all dimensions of contemporary art discourse and art itself to wider masses, Contemporary Istanbul has introduced a new magazine to the publishing world. Published both in Turkish and English, the third issue of ICE (Istanbul Contemporary, etc.) will be out this November. Working up to become a global Istanbul-based magazine, ICE follows the same successful line of the first issue with its content and design.