Contemporary art fair unites art lovers in Istanbul

Contemporary Istanbul (CI), an international art fair that features leading contemporary art works from Turkey and around the world, will come together with art lovers between Nov. 3 and Nov. 6.

Organized for the 11th time at Istanbul Congress Center and Lütfi Kırdar International Congress and Exhibition Center, the fair will host about 70 art galleries. Breaking new ground this year, the fair will showcase 120 works from Turkey's 60 leading contemporary art collections in the "Collectors' Stories" section.

Among the international art galleries attending this year's fair are the C24 Gallery and Marlborough Gallery from New York, the Michael Schultz and König Gallery from Berlin, Analix Forever from Geneva, Gallery Senda from Barcelona, the LICHT FELD Gallery from Basel, the Isabel Croxatto Gallery from Santiago, Gallery Lelong from Paris, Kasia Michalski Gallery from Warsaw, Gallery One from Ramallah and Dastan's Basement from Tehran, along with the Dirimart, Zilberman Gallery, Pi Artworks, Öktem & Aykut, Gallery Nev İstanbul, the Gaia Gallery and the Galerist and Mixer from Istanbul.

The 11th Contemporary Istanbul Fair will also display works from international and local artists including Franz Ackermann, Farniyaz Zaker, Yago Horal, Mamali Shafahi, Wafa Hourani, Katharina Grosse, Victor Castillo, Jochen Proehl, Isca Greenfield-Sanders, Burçak Bingöl, Can Altay, Şükran Moral, İnci Eviner, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ali Alışır, Yeşim Akdeniz and Sibel Diker.

Within the scope of the fair's theme centered around urban transformation, architect Fahrettin Aykut will welcome visitors with unique designs made exclusively for the festiva. The installations created by local artists Ardan Özmenoğlu and Volkan Aslan will be also included in the program this year.

The works selected by Turkey's prominent collectors from their own collections will be on display in the "Collectors' Stories" section, curated by CI Artistic Advisor Marc-Olivier Wahler, thus enabling collectors to present their personal perspectives on aesthetics while presenting periodical changes and the current state of art collectorship in Turkey for discussion.

On the other hand, the CI Dialogues section will bring together over 50 art professionals, artists and collectors to assess the state of contemporary art, its economics and the current state of the market over a three-day period. During the panel titled, "Power of Art Fairs," executives from the world's leading fairs including Art Dubai, Art Brussels, Cosmoscow and Contemporary Istanbul will discuss the future of the regional fairs around the world.