“Istanbul`s Art Scene: Bridge-Building on the Bosporus.” Kunst

Istanbul’s Art Scene: Bridge-Building on the Bosporus | KUNST MAGAZIN
10/17/14, 1:17 PM
ABO | MEDIADATEN | KONTAKT | ÜBER UNS
Istanbul’s Art Scene: Bridge-Building on the Bosporus
Posted on 3. June 2013 by KUNST Magazin
This article is also available in German
ArtInternational Istanbul opened in September 2013 at the Haliç Congress Center in Istanbul
Never before have media and research brought so much interest and attention to contemporary art from the Near
East and North Africa. Almost every week, an exhibition of works from the region is opened and articles are
published on artists there and on art market analysis.
The large auction houses have reacted to the trend by opening departments dedicated to Near Eastern and
Middle Eastern art, and they have established branches in the region. But with the art “boom” in the countries
bordering the Mediterranean to the south and the east as well as in the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, a
perplexing simplification has also arisen. Despite the enthusiasm and euphoria for contemporary art from this
region, despite all the dumbfoundedness in the face of gigantic museum buildings in the Golf states, despite the
sympathy for the fate of artists during the Arab Spring, and despite the broad engagement in the discussions
concerning the possibility or the need for a gallery dedicated to contemporary Arab art in Berlin, all too often the
definitions and national distinctions and divisions are being distorted.
All too often, Turkey reappears in the discourse and depictions. And yet, as a country, Turkey can not be
compared to art centres such as Lebanon (Beirut) or Egypt (Cairo), and even less with the Emirates or Qatar.
Endowed with its own artistic and cultural
http://kunst-magazin.de/en/istanbuls-art-scene-bridge-building-on-the-bosporus/
Page 1 of 6
Istanbul’s Art Scene: Bridge-Building on the Bosporus | KUNST MAGAZIN
10/17/14, 1:17 PM
tradition, as well as its own history of artistic patronage and its particular institutions and culture of collectingart,
Turkey has, since the 1980s, also developed its very own vibrant contemporary art scene.
This is especially true of Istanbul. Over the last three decades, this city on the Bosporus has become the nucleus
of the Turkish art scene. It all began with the Istanbul Biennale. In 1985 the curator Beral Madra was engaged by
the private Istanbul foundation Kültür Sanat Vakfi (IKSV) to organise international summer exhibitions. And after
just two years of preparation, the first summer exhibition opened in 1987. Five years later these art shows were
rechristened as biennales, and they were met with increasing interest, even internationally, already at that time.
As soon as the biennale established itself as a stable institution within the international calendar of exhibitions,
the number of exhibition galleries and museums available for contemporary art increased considerably. They
even offered space not only to Western European and North American art, but also explicit support to the local art
scene. In 2001, the architect Can Elgiz founded the privately owned “Istanbul Museum of Contemporary Art,”
which has since been renamed the “Proje4L/Elgiz Museum”. The museum features a comprehensive cultural
profile. Its founding director was Vasif Kortun, currently the director of the SALT gallery, and now viewed by many
as the founding father of Turkey’s contemporary art scene.
Kutluğ Ataman: KÜBA . Installationview, TANA S Berlin, 5.4–1.6.2008, Photo: Uwe Walter, VG BildKunst
Only a few years after the Proje4L, the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art was opened. Initially it was planned to be
founded in a former fez factory on the Golden Horn and due to open in 1992. In addition to the museums, a
number of art galleries now leave their mark on the cultural life of the city. The names of galleries like ARTER
Space for Art, SALT , Akbank Sanat, Yapi Kredi Cultural Center, “5533,” and the PiST Istanbul are all exemplary
for a myriad of art facilities dedicated to comprehensive exhibition and event programmes. Often, art exhibitions
are offered in coordination with readings, discussion fo rums, and dance or concert performances.
An offshoot, and perhaps an outpost, of this lively art scene can be found in Berlin; the art gallery Tanas, under
the direction of its curator René Block, opened its exhibition of Kutluğ Ataman here in 2008. In alternating
exhibitions, his gallery deals with the “ongoing developments of contemporary Turkish art”. Currently it is offering
http://kunst-magazin.de/en/istanbuls-art-scene-bridge-building-on-the-bosporus/
Page 2 of 6
Istanbul’s Art Scene: Bridge-Building on the Bosporus | KUNST MAGAZIN
10/17/14, 1:17 PM
an exhibition entitled “Agoraphobia” featuring works by Jimmie Durham, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Freee (Dave
Beech, Andy Hewitt, Mel Jordan), Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Lux Lindner, Jose Antonio Vega Macotela, Cinthia
Marcelle, Proyecto Secundario Liliana Maresca, Christoph Schaefer, and Şener Özmen. The exhibition is almost
a preview of the upcoming Istanbul Biennale taking place in September: some of the works shown here will soon
be travelling on directly to Istanbul.
The predominantly private engagement in the scene in Istanbul is far from being uncontroversial. The
accusationthat market interests may play far too large a role is rather unsurprising, considering that the exhibition
programme is largely dominated by private participants. There are also complaints that the institutionalisation has
brought with it a fragmentation and individualisation of the art scene, which had hitherto been, in the 1990s,
characterised by a conspicuously large number of well-represented artistic groups and networks.
Kutluğ Ataman: KÜBA . Installationview, TANAS Berlin, 5.4–1.6.2008, Photo: Uwe Walter, VG BildKunst
During those years, Turkish artists had appeared who were internationally involved politically and socially, and
whose works reflected their extremely radical content and aesthetics. Today, according to the critics, far more
individual positions are being presented—positions which lack the discursive complexity and explosiveness of an
artistically represented provocation. Even if this criticism appears to be justified, one must also recognise that the
comprehensive support for contemporary art and the preference of Turkish collectors for artworks from their own
country also has financial advantages for the local art scene.
The prominent interest of local collectors in the art of their own country had not been anticipated by international
art market agents. Two years ago, when for the first time Iranian and Golf State galleries were among the guests
at the Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet could still report that none of the guest
galleries had managed to achieve good sales. “Turkish collectors appreciate Arabic art, but they don’t buy it,” one
gallerist complained. Turkish collectors preferred their own national artists or Western art. Only recently has a
change been hailed.
Turkey increasingly views itself as a link between Western Europe and the Near East. Also in art. This view
http://kunst-magazin.de/en/istanbuls-art-scene-bridge-building-on-the-bosporus/
Page 3 of 6
Istanbul’s Art Scene: Bridge-Building on the Bosporus | KUNST MAGAZIN
10/17/14, 1:17 PM
surfaced in 2007, when the curator Beral Madra presented artists like Steve Sabella (Jerusalem), Lamia Joreige
(Beirut), Khaled Hafez (Cairo) and Farhard Moshiri (Teheran) at the exhibition “Neighbours in Dialogue”—an
exhibition that offered not only these artistic positions, but also communicated an interpretation of what it means
to be neighbouring nations. The art fair “Art International Istanbul” embodies the preliminary highpoint of this
cultural mediation, and it will take place for the first time in September of this year; here, modern and
contemporary art from “Turkey, the Middle East, and beyond” will be presented. The art fair will be directed by
Dyala Nusseibeh, founder of the London project room DN Arts Projects (DNAP) for art from the Near East. She
will be assisted by Jack Persekian, formerly director of the Sharjah Biennale and founder of the Al-Ma’mal
Foundation for Contemporary Art in Jerusalem, and by the gallerist Rose Issa, whose programme features
predominately artists from the Near East and from Iran.
Kezban Arca Batibeki: Kitsch Room Project 1: “Where to..?”, Photo: Muhsin Akgun
With their art fair, Nusseibeh and her curatorial assistants are reacting to obvious developments. Nusseibeh: “The
contemporary art scene in Istanbul is absolutely thriving and beginning to have a truly global impact. Many
Turkish gallerists are subsequently focusing on how to diversify both their collector base and the reach of their
artists internationally. In terms of the Middle East, it is interesting that Christie’s
began their foray into Turkish modern and contemporary art by including 15 works in their October 2008 sale in
Dubai, placing Turkish art within a Gulf context, with an od to existing trade and investment relations. A few
parallels can be drawn between the two art scenes. In the Gulf, the leadership is clearly involved in driving the art
scene forward, with the opening of Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, the strength of the Sharjah Biennale, and the
formidable collecting patterns emerging from the Qatari family as the most obvious examples. In Turkey, private
http://kunst-magazin.de/en/istanbuls-art-scene-bridge-building-on-the-bosporus/
Page 4 of 6
Istanbul’s Art Scene: Bridge-Building on the Bosporus | KUNST MAGAZIN
10/17/14, 1:17 PM
and corporate philanthropy form the key impetus for some of these initiatives. However, the highly regarded
Istanbul Biennale, which was launched in 1987, has equally propelled the art scene forward, along with the
growth of several key art institutions funded by banks, corporations and families such as the Sabancis, the
Eczacıbaşıs and the Koç family.”
For Arab and North African artists who have worked or exhibited in Istanbul, the city as link between cultures is
less distinguished by its parallels to other regions, and more by its spaces, its liberties, and the opportunities it
offers. Turkey’s own history also plays a role here. For Steve Sabelle, a Palestinian artist who has exhibited in
Istanbul several times, what makes Istanbul so special is, above all, its urban architectural and aesthetic structure
as well as the geographical position of the city: “Compared to the art scene in the Middle East, Istanbul could
position itself as a centre for larger cultural production. One should not underestimate the city’s glorious history,
setting, and urban aesthetic. The art institutions have involved all kinds of artists with critical acclaim, regardless
of nationality.”
Kutluğ Ataman: KÜBA . Installationview, TANA S Berlin, 5.4–1.6.2008, Photo: Uwe Walter, VG BildKunst
The Moroccan-French artist Bouchra Khalili, who recorded here her video works “Straight Stories Part 2” and a
portion of her film “Mapping Journey” (2008-2011), also views the city in a similar manner: “I went for the first time
to Istanbul in 2006. I was already intrigued by the geographical and geopolitical singularity of the city at the limits
of Europe, Asia, the Balkans, and the Middle-East, forming a series of interweaving strata informing the past, the
present, and the possible future of the region. Not to mention the poignant beauty of the city. Istanbul has
become, for me, an object of constant fascination. I had the chance to meet and collaborate with brilliant Turkish
curators such as Adnan Yildiz, Ali Akay, Fatma Colakoglu, and Ovul Durmusoglu. The Istanbul art scene is
complex. The Biennale focuses wide attention, but there are a lot of private, independent and non-profit art
spaces strongly contributing to this vibrant art scene. Being from Morocco, it is fascinating to observe the
dynamism of the Istanbul art scene, its development, and the way the issue of a local and specific modernity is
constantly discussed, explored, and redefined.”
Istanbul’s art scene certainly does play an extraordinary role in the global art context, thanks largely to the drastic
and provocative content and aesthetic approaches of the art works created and presented here. But precisely the
discourses Khalili noted in redefining modernity are equally significant. The comparatively young contemporary
http://kunst-magazin.de/en/istanbuls-art-scene-bridge-building-on-the-bosporus/
Page 5 of 6
Istanbul’s Art Scene: Bridge-Building on the Bosporus | KUNST MAGAZIN
10/17/14, 1:17 PM
art scene here is still in statu nascendi. In the Western media world such discourses are often belatedly
perceived.
“Turkey has become accepted!” the newspaper DIE WELT praised in 2009 during the exhibition “Istanbul Next
Wave” at the Martin Gropius Bau, which was then celebrating the 20-year-old city partnership between Berlin and
Istanbul (1). And when the gallery ARTER opened an exhibition in 2010, the Frankfurter Allgemeine spoke of a
sensation, seemingly overwhelmed by the controversial and virtually scandalous political works (2). But whether
this link to the Near East will succeed, or whether it will go down in history as the short-lived resurrection of the
cliché image of ancient Constantinople as an interface between continents and cultures, remains to be seen.
——————————————————————————————————
1 Mely Kiyak: Türkische Kunst – patriarchalisch und sexistisch, in: Die Welt
vom 13.11.2009.
2 Karen Krüger: Die Arterie der Zeitgenossen, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung vom 7.8.2010.
Dorothea Schöne is a Berlin- based art historian, curator and writer. Her publications on Contemporary Middle
Eastern, American and German art have appeared in numerous art magazines.
Share
Share
Share
Share
More 7
This entry was posted in . Bookmark the permalink.
ABO AGB MEDIADATEN IMPRESSUM KONTAKT
© 2007 - 2012 KUNST Magazin Verlag
Version 2.1.06.de
http://kunst-magazin.de/en/istanbuls-art-scene-bridge-building-on-the-bosporus/
Page 6 of 6