Art Istanbul week eyes to promote Turkish art

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

L to R Ali Güreli, Görgün Taner, Özalp Birol, Derya Bigalı Hasan Bülent Kahraman,Haldun Dostoğlu pose at the press conference of Art Istanbul Project.

Istanbul is readying to be introduced to a week-long celebration of contemporary art at Art Istanbul, which is to take place between Nov. 19 and 25. The event brings together prominent corporate actors in the art world, such as the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), Istanbul Museum of Modern Arts, Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Pera Museum and Turkey’s leading international art fair, Contemporary Istanbul, as well as Istanbul galleries.

The event will host a number of cultural activities such as museum and gallery visits, as well as offering discussions and education programs in collaboration with the most prestigious institutions and museums, including celebrated Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence, non-profit art spaces such as Salt, Arter, Borusan Contemporary and Akbank Art Center, and European cultural centers like the French Culture Institute and Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Promoting Istanbul with the project

Some of the founding partners of the art week held a press meeting yesterday to introduce the project. Speaking at the meeting Contemporary Istanbul Chairman Ali Güreli said the project aimed to promote Istanbul better on the international platform by bringing together its most powerful cultural institutions, which have been individually serving that aim for so long.

“We asked for ministerial support two months ago and the Culture Ministry provided us funds for Art Istanbul’s promotion in foreign media.”

IKSV General Manager Görgün Taner underlined the importance of state support in such large-scale projects, expressing his hopes to see the representatives of the metropolitan municipality and the
Culture Ministry with them the next time.
Güreli said that next year the event was scheduled to kick off on Nov. 4, with participation of more European cultural centers such as the Goethe Institute and Italian Culture Institute.

Haldun Dostoğlu, a founding partner of Galeri Nev, added that the galleries would collaborate in a late night on Nov. 23, when all participating galleries of the event would stay open as late as midnight, even after they closed their gallery booths at Contemporary Istanbul at 8 p.m.

New exhibitions

Akbank Art General Manager Derya Bigalı said the non-profit art space would host a part of Magdalena Abakanowicz’s exhibition, brought to Istanbul courtesy of the Marlborough Gallery, which is to participate in Contemporary Istanbul.

Güreli said the fair was important as it was a means to bring collectors, art dealers and various actors of the global art scene into Istanbul. He said they expected to increase these numbers into thousands, by introducing the art week which integrates Contemporary Istanbul with a series of other local art events.