Istanbul to host new int’l art fair ‘Artcontact’

ISTANBUL

Istanbul will host a new international contemporary art fair called ‘”Artcontact” between May 31 and June 6 at the Avrasya Arts Center.

Atis, the company that has been organizing the ArtAnkara Contemporary Art Fair in the capital for seven years, will organize the Artcontact Contemporary Art Fair this year.

The fair, which will be organized on 10,000 square meters of closed area and 5,000 square meters of open space, will host approximately 1,000 artifacts from local and foreign artists.

Conversations, panels and concerts will also be held within the scope of the fair, which includes remarkable projects, which handle the COVID-19 pandemic in different dimensions.

An award ceremony will be held after the opening concert of BAU Jazz as part of the preview on May 31.

One of the striking projects of the fair, where the participants can participate only through galleries, is “Antropause,” organized by the Turkish Ceramic Association. Works by 48 artists, including Zerrin Tekindor, Hasan Şahbaz, Elifko, Çağlar Uzun, Claudia Schmidt and Korean artist Kim Yong Moon, can be seen in the exhibition.

Fair visitors will see striking sculptures weighing 10-15 tons made by Mehmet Aksoy and Metin Yurdanur and nearly 20 sculptures of ASAŞ Art and Workshop 20. The sculptures will be displayed in the open area of the fair.

Another project in ArtContact Istanbul is Dışkapı Hospital Art Workshop.
The paintings made by health personnel of Ankara’s Dışkapı Hospital during the pandemic will be shown in the exhibition.

Along with the artists, such as Mehmet Aksoy, Devrim Erbil, Bedri Baykam, Ertuğrul Ateş, Professor İsmail Ateş, Metin Yurdanur, Cem Sağbil, Süleyman Saim Tekcan and Aydın Ayan, the galleries, including Maçka Sanat, AB Gallery Korea, Rusevi, Switzerland Clauia Schmidt Gallery, Brazil Silvio Piesco Art, Arte Des-Generado Spain and Azerbaijan Azart Gallery, are also among the participants of the fair.

Healthcare personnel and their spouses, who have been facing tough working conditions due to the pandemic for the last two years, will enter the fair free of charge.