{"id":37224,"date":"2025-06-06T10:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T08:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/?p=37224"},"modified":"2025-06-06T10:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T08:21:08","slug":"about-to-erupt-a-snapshot-of-contemporary-art-in-istanbul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/about-to-erupt-a-snapshot-of-contemporary-art-in-istanbul\/","title":{"rendered":"About to Erupt: A Snapshot of Contemporary Art in Istanbul"},"content":{"rendered":"
To take a snapshot of the magmatic undercurrent in Istanbul’s art scene, Naima Morelli examines the city\u2019s subterranean energies through a gallery show, an art fair, and a museum retrospective.<\/span><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

Naima Morelli<\/span><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

A subtle tension, something that is underground and about to erupt, filled the bright rooms of the art space Galerist, overlooking the Bosphorus. It\u2019s mid-April, in the Istanbul Pera neighborhood, not far from Taksim Square, where just a few weeks before huge protests took the Turkish city by storm, following the arrest of Istanbul\u2019s mayor, Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu, ordered by President Erdo\u011fan.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am standing in front of a large charcoal and watercolor artwork, representing an imaginary volcanic island, by Istanbul-based artist Ahmet Do\u011fu. His practice deals with the loss of memory, both personal and public.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The work, representing a fictional map from 1805, includes writing that speaks of the journey of an imaginary ship sailing from India to Australia, and stopping by the depicted island.\u00a0\u201cEven if the artist doesn\u2019t say [it] directly, this can be read as a reference to the Turkish current political situation,\u201d confirms the gallery assistant. \u201cBut some of the viewers comment on how we metaphorically also have this smoke right now on top of us, as a country.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The title for this collective show, <\/span>The Volcano\u2019s Lovers<\/span><\/i>, with over 40 participating artists \u2014 both modern and contemporary \u2013 draws from the symbolism of the volcano. Turkish curator Anlam De Coster refers to Susan Sontag\u2019s namesake historical novel. \u201cI was inspired by the methodology of Susan Sontag and the way she uses the volcano as a metaphor \u2014 both for personal tumultuous passions and desires and repressed feelings, but also [for] the social upheavals of the time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The curation inspired by 18th-century upheavals, willy-nilly, found an uncanny counterpart in present-day Istanbul. \u201cI guess the show somehow captures the energies of the moment, however, it was unintentional,\u201d observed De Coster. \u201cThe protest started just a week after the exhibition opened.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The show also included black-and-white photographs of Y\u0131ld\u0131z Moran, Turkey\u2019s first formally educated female photographer, from the 1950s, depicting different locations of geological interest in Cappadocia: \u201cIn this picture, there\u2019s this impending danger, this shadow,\u201d De Coster said. \u201cFor me, it is time for women to explode.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"Yildiz<\/a>

Yildiz Moran, Untitled, Kars, Turkey, 1957 (courtesy Galerist).<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Yildiz<\/a>

Yildiz Moran, Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Yildiz<\/a>

Yildiz Moran, Agri, Turkey<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Yildiz<\/a>

Yildiz Moran, Nevsehir, Cappadocia, Turkey<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Yildiz<\/span>\"\"<\/span>\"\"<\/span>\"\"<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
\n

The feminine is seen as a subterranean energy bound to burst, personally and societally, and is echoed in works like Elis Uraf\u2019s \u201cShakti,\u201d a painting of a stoneware depicting a woman lying underground, while her magmatic energy was exploding out. Similarly, the concrete sculpture of Ay\u00e7a Telgeren, aptly called \u201cGrowing Pains,\u201d from\u00a02025, is a poetic, tangled shape that materialized the expression \u201ctwisted stomach.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ayc\u0327a
Ayc\u0327a Telgeren, “Growing Pains,” 2025 (courtesy Galerist).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a country where free expression faces increasing restrictions, the volcano is a potent image: pressure mounting until rupture becomes inevitable. \u201cWe feel like the world as we know it is coming to an end,\u201d De Coster noted, gesturing toward a powerful work by Azzurra Galatalo called “<\/span>Two Mountains<\/span>.” <\/span><\/i>\u201cSo we don’t know where to hold on to \u2014 what\u2019s going to be our future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CI Bloom Fair<\/b><\/h4>\n

Trailing a long-haired, patched cat along a side street, I arrived at CI Bloom, Contemporary Istanbul\u2019s younger sibling fair of emerging galleries. CI Bloom had opened weeks after the outburst of protests. Yet attendance was significant for a small fair.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a serious situation a month ago,\u201d said Ali G\u00fcreli, director of CI Bloom. \u201cSome of your colleagues hesitated to come. You can tell them there\u2019s nothing happening right now. We are very happy to be in Istanbul,\u201d he said the day of the conference, which was held in a relatively calm time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ali G\u00fcreli\u2019s role on Turkey\u2019s artistic landscape is both prominent and controversial. While he has been behind a great number of private artistic initiatives in Istanbul and has ambitious projects to transform the Golden Horn into a “second Venice for contemporary art,\u201d his defense of Turkey\u2019s invasion of northwest Syria in 2019 drew criticism from the international art community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

G\u00fcreli emphasized CI Bloom\u2019s role as a \u201cshowcase of the art produced in this country.\u201d He avoided the label \u201cTurkish art,\u201d explaining that \u201cthere is no Turkish art. It\u2019s the art here produced in the country. That\u2019s just the definition, in my opinion. There are many ethnic mixtures in Turkey, and many civilizations. So you cannot look at Turkish art as a whole.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At a breakfast at the Mandarin Hotel Bosphorus, G\u00fcreli informally spoke of the political implications of \u0130mamo\u011flu’s arrest, feeling that it would make him into a symbol for protesters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Turkey, so geographically we are always in turmoil,\u201d said the gallery representative at Dirimart Gallery. \u201cSo, it is best for us every time to keep focusing on what we are doing. The solution is not to withdraw, but rather push our boundaries, to have art as an explanation of what is going on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, the political situation affects everything. We are in the middle of it. But we must continue. We must make art. We must sell art. We cannot stop everything,\u201d echoes <\/span>\u00c7i\u011fdem \u00d6zdemir director from CHI Art Gallery from Istanbul.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For most of the local galleries present at the fair, CI Bloom became less a market and more a moment of communal reassurance. Genco Gulan, director of CAM Gallery, put it bluntly: \u201cObviously the political climate has been pretty tense these past few weeks,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we see here that artists need to keep making work. We need physical events to find each other.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Berk Gu\u0308ntu\u0308rk, “Formula,” oil on canvas, 165×130 cm, 2025 (courtesy CAM Gallery).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

These tensions are mirrored in the artists themselves. Turkish-Russian artist Berk Gunturk exhibited a painting of a man standing in between cultures. \u201cHe is speaking of 19th-century imperial ideology, and the entanglement orthodoxy, nationalism, and monarchy,\u201d explained Gulan from CAM Gallery. \u201cIt\u2019s all more relevant in the framework of today\u2019s war.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Next to it in CAM\u2019s gallery booth, the artist Amar K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7, featured works in copper-based photographic processes, inspired by a historical site that is under the protection of UNESCO, a poetic contradiction that speaks volumes about fragility and resilience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some figurative works at the fair tackle social issues heads on, for example the painting \u201cIsimiz\u201d by Bahattin Eren, showcasing a number of rats coming out of a manhole under the eyes of a group of helpless workers, while a man is playing a trumpet on top of a telephone cabin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"\u0130nci
\u0130nci Eviner, “Neural Crest of an Island,” still from a 4K video, 5:39. Edition of 5 + 2 AP (courtesy the artist, Dirimart, Istanbul Modern).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n


\nThe Long Arc of Resistance<\/b><\/h4>\n

To understand the long-standing commitment of Turkish artists to socio-political combat, and have some historical perspective, I turned to the contemporary museum of the Turkish city: Istanbul Modern<\/a>. In the building design by Italian architect Renzo Piano, the permanent collection is showcased through rotating exhibitions, curated around a specific theme.<\/span><\/p>\n

This time the theme is Floating Islands<\/em>,<\/span>\u00a0and consists of a production spanning from 1945 to today. The exhibition tracked seven decades of art forged under shifting political tides \u2014 authoritarian crackdowns, rural uprisings, and ideological wars.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here, too, the label \u201cTurkish art\u201d is rejected, as artists with different subjects and approaches, from figurative paintings to installations and videos, are united by popular tendencies of the time, as Floating Islands <\/em>pays homage to artists\u2019 extraordinary imagination and spheres of influence. It indicates their attachment to a specific place while also emphasizing the impact of their thought and production beyond borders and geographies.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 1950s, abstractionists returning from Paris fused modernist languages with Ottoman aesthetics as subtle acts of cultural negotiation. In the 1960s\u20131970s, political realism took hold, as we can see in Ne\u015fet G\u00fcnal\u2019s lithographs chronicled peasant struggles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Burhan Do\u011fan\u00e7ay\u2019s layered collages \u2014 fumage, torn posters, rusted materials \u2014 mapped Istanbul\u2019s walls as battlegrounds of propaganda and protest. His work prefigured modern-day campaigns to control dissenting media.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 1980s\u20131990s feminist turn saw artists like Nil Yalter and Neriman Polat speaking of the condition of women in Turkey. In this section, artists probed the body\u2019s endurance under political trauma. In a video the artist Nezaket Ekici, known for her durational performances, tries to escape a golden cage, by trying to reach the key of the cage, to a delicate memorial made of ribbons that recall the numerous cases of feminicide in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bedri Baykam\u2019s satirical deconstruction of Orientalist tropes in the big canvas\/collage \u201cIngres, Gerome, Burasi Benim Hammamim,\u201d reclaimed national narratives over Western superimpositions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cArtists can register subterranean movements,\u201d says Deniz Pehlivaner, the curator of the show, guiding me through the rooms of the building. \u201cThey make us see hope.\u201d In the final galleries, Refik Anadol\u2019s data-driven light installations warned of ecological collapse intertwined with social repression.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the show continues in the museum, outside its walls, the protests in Istanbul and other parts of Turkey have resumed in the past few weeks, as a testament to the fact that social upheaval is not a singular moment but an ongoing process \u2014 one that Turkish artists have navigated for decades.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The last consideration of De Coster while walking out of the Galerist are still resounding in my ears: \u201cWe still don’t know what this moment will mean for us,\u201d she concluded \u201cWe need to go through painful processes to be reborn \u2014 as societies, as nations, but also as individuals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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