Contemporary Istanbul 2023: Highlights From An Optimistic Art Fair

30.09.2023 - 11:03 / forbes.com

A historic Ottoman-era shipyard on the shores of the Bosphorus makes a distinctive setting for the 18th edition of the Contemporary Istanbul art fair (on until 1 October 2023). Featuring 67 galleries and 8 art initiatives from 22 countries, with more than 1500 works of art by 591 artists, the fair is international in scope but half of the work here is by Turkish artists. For Turkish people, a celebration of contemporary art is a fitting reflection of modern Turkey and this year’s 100th anniversary of the country becoming a republic. For visitors to Istanbul, the art fair is an excellent way to get better acquainted with the fascinating, contemporary Turkish art scene.

Dating back to the 15th century, the shipyard that houses today’s artfair was used by the Ottomans as imperial shipyards and was still operational until 1980s. After lying derelict for years, many of the buildings of the Tersane district are being renovated by Tabanlıoğlu Architects. Headed by Murat Tabanlıoğlu and Melkan Gürsel, the firm is well known for other projects throughout the city, including the swanky new İstanbul Atatürk Airport, beautiful Atatürk Cultural Center and Biz restaurant. The entire Tersane area is being transformed into a buzzy hub of restaurants, shops, galleries and apartments, the ideal location for a contemporary art fair.

Highlights from individual galleries include the eclectic Piramid Sanat, Istanbul featuring the works of legendary Turkish artist and activist Bedri Baykam whose paintings are in major museums around the world, including the newly opened Istanbul Modern. His limited edition Art History Map is a detailed trip through the culture of the world since the 13th century. On the left side of the Map are most of the important writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, scientists or statesmen of the Western World and on the right, the same equivalents from the non-Western World.

You can’t miss a striking neon and metal sculpture at Zilberman Gallery (Istanbul/Berlin) by Itamar Gov. Refuge of All Strangers recalls the signs mounted on the roofs of old hotels that offered both orientation and promise to passers-by. Gov’s neon sign remains ambivalent: it points to the chasm between the promise of a sanctuary for all strangers and the condition of being a stranger in exile (on the run from what was home). It can, however, also be understood as an invitation to view art as the place of refuge where what has been lost, forgotten, or passed over in silence can be preserved for the generations that follow.

A seemingly beautiful dark red metal sculpture by Erdal Duman at Artsumer, Istanbul actually represents a bomb. The German-born Turkish artist works with different media such as polyester, glass, and metal to