Guerilla Girls: Exploring the diversity and ethical concerns of European art institutions with the exhibition "Is it worse in Europe?" The exhibition presents the answers to the questions directed to the 383 institutions about their program and collections. The questions were prepared to critically examine the practices and narratives that were produced by the cultural institutions.

Kamiar Maleki, the eldest son of Iranian born London based collectors Fatima and Eskandar Maleki, became the new director of Contemporary Istanbul. Maleki, with the tradition of collecting for many years, also curates exhibitions and supports young artists. 

The Oxford dictionary defines beauty as a combination of qualities; such as shape, colour, or form that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. Although highlighting sight as a paradigm of aesthetic pleasure is indisputably true, there is still no clear connotation of what sight is, which opens up many different possibilities. In order to shed light on the sense of sight, Carol Mavor who calls herself an ‘artist historian’, emphasizes that “Touch is the dictionary for sight.”1 If so, could it be assumed to say that what pleases our touch is ‘overlooked’ within the definition of beauty? Then how can we touch a shape, a colour or a form? What about the pleasure that we get through the things we cannot touch physically?

Didem Yazıcı'nın aylık küratör görüşme serisi çeşitli küratörlük metodolojiler, sergi formatları, sanatçılarla çalışma ve sergi uygulamalarını değişen yolları üzerinde duruluyor. o çok Türk sanatçılardan oluşuyor yaklaşan bir sergi için yakından çalışıyor kiminle müze müdürü Christine Litz konuşuyor serisinin ilk röportajda. sanat kurumları ve sanat koleksiyoncuları arasındaki ilişki günümüz kültürel bağlamlarda yeni soruları teşvik edebilirsiniz?

We had started off our interview with Cem Yılmaz, whose appreciation for art and the artist is infinite, in Art Basel Hong Kong and we finally finished it off in Istanbul. The reason he is so successful in so many different forms of art is perhaps because he was raised to tolerate different tastes, choices and to be sensitive towards beautiful things from a very early age.

Behind every creative idea there are people who are willing to push borders and invest in the new collaborations to realize their dreams. Naz and Susanne, the curators of IdentityLab project, are currently working to establish culture-forwarding bridges through the issues of identity and place. They have talked about the story behind this amazing project. And how it was molded into becoming a collaboration of transnational artists, art professionals and thought provoking culture makers. 

CANAN’s exhibition The Shining Darkness is at Rampa from January 15 to February 27. Her questioning of systems of power, political forces on social gender, patriarchal systems and the tyranny of these influences on the individual’s body continue in this exhibition. We talked to the artist on the occasion of her last exhibition. 

We met with İdil İlkin on the occasion of her exhibition “Crystagram” which includes photographs that she took on her trip to the North Pole. The exhibition captures you immediately with its mysticism; as you move through reflections and colors, it is as if you are taking a step into a different dimension. 

Over a hundred art works including painting, sculpture, and kinetic objects by Heinz Mack, a pioneer in German modernism, is at the Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum. One of the founders of ZERO, Mack’s earth works drew attention to his practice; he is celebrating the 60th year of his career with a series of exhibitions across the Far East, Europe, and Turkey. 

Louis Nègre, a Senior Advisor and co-founder of Pera Capital Partners, has over 16 years of transaction experience in Turkey. Louis has a background in investment banking working for a subsidiary of BNP Paribas where he held several positions including head of M&A. For the last 17 years, he has been the CEO/Founder of Scheffer Investments. Louis holds a PMD from the Harvard Business School and is a graduate from Sciences Po Paris. He also holds a Master in Law from Paris II / Sorbonne.

We talked to Ayşegül Karadeniz, who is a member of the board of trustees at Karadeniz Holding Company on a snowy Istanbul morning at her home in Yeniköy. “Collecting is to follow a trace, to be a part of the artists’ journeys,” says Karadeniz. She draws a parallel between real artists are like stars and continues, “They start to form and to shine long before we see them; it is important to be able to recognize that.” This is one of the most important qualities of a good collector; to be able to discover those stars intuitively, to support their light to shine and to be able to share their brightness. 

On one of the coldest days of the winter, I started out to go to Galata. Galata, old city, new texture. A mixed neighborhood. The neighborhood from which Hezarfen Çelebi flew to Üsküdar, a neighborhood that has a name with its name missing even from its tower.

She talks carefully, articulating each word, she is not exaggerating, she is not dressing things up. Sena is one of the calmest, most peaceful people I have ever met. But her works, which deal with issues of women, are that much more “uneasy.” We met with her in her studio while she was preparing for her sixth solo exhibition opening at The Empire Project on January 29th and talked about the stories behind the new exhibition.

Istanbul Modern welcomes the year 2016 with Till It’s Gone, an exhibition that emphasizes environmental awareness and that glorifies nature. The exhibition is on view from January 13 to June 5 and will host projects that are in dialogue with the exhibition for the first half of the year. 

“The Art of Banksy”s world premiere took place at Global Karaköy in Istanbul with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and sponsored by the Beyoğlu Municipality The exhibition, which has been high on the art world’s agenda and which appears to still remain that way, is on view until March 1st. 

Until her exhibition at Salt Galata, there was not such detailed information on Sabiha Rüştü Bozcalı. Perhaps it is necessary to start with this embarrassing admission.

Bahadır Baruter is at x-ist Gallery until January 23, 2016, with his solo exhibition “Fatality.” We talked about this exhibition and the white-collar individual today.

Sejla Kameric’is exhibition at Arter “When the heart goes Bing Bam Boom” enables us to witness the Bosnian War (1992-1995), a grave example of genocide in contemporary history, from the perspective of a woman with an incredible sensibility who survived this geography both mentally and physically. The exhibition with a title borrowed from a punk-rock song continues until February 28, don’t miss it!

2015 was a very active year for the art world in Turkey. We discovered many artists and we also got a chance to see new projects by artists we already knew. As such, we asked our contributors to tell us the three names that they were struck by in 2015. Below is a list of 25 names that we collated from their votes.The names are not ordered by priority, but are alphabetized. 

The impact of cubism and constructivism can be seen in the ateliers of André Lhote and Fernand Léger from the 1930s. The artists openly look at Picasso and Matisse as role models. Alongside this direct influence extraordinary works appear as well. For example, Eren Eyüboğlu’s almost comical Nude from the end of the 1920s appears to have been influenced by a Henri Rousseau painting. 

Azade Köker’s work is about the positive possibilities that would be produced by a strong chain created amongst the orders/planes of things, increasingly hardened under the rule and willpower of others. The layered forms and images transparently present the existence of the signified as being able to shift completely in meaning through a weak link in the relationship between the signifier and the signified. To stand side by side can heal the deeply entrenched wounds of captivity. 

Two main art production was attracting the attention in the Ninth Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, which has just completed. A photo manipulative language, which young British Artists picked up from America and determine the character of contemporary art by interpreting once more, based on plastic art production that has a sharp language with an aim to surprise, and medium of photography, some using a different medium than this one and sometimes trying to distance itself by disrupting the presentation qualities that are necessary for photography. So, in that case did “the medium is the message” really happen?

Due to the 600th anniversary of Poland-Turkey relations, the city is crawling with Polish people. I don't think we have much of a clue on what that relation is; but I don't think anyone is complaining about various events, exhibitions and concerts.

Cyrilla Mozenter is a New York artist working in drawing and sculpture. Her work is in numerous public collections including the Brooklyn Museum and the Yale University Art Gallery. She taught in the MFA program at Pratt Institute between 1985-2015. Her latest show “ the failed utopian” can be seen at Lesley Heller Workspace in New York between Oct 28-Dec 06, 2015.

2. Istanbul Design Biennial was opened as of November. We had a conversation with British curator and writer Zoë Ryan, who started from French philosopher Paul Valéry's quote ‘The Future Is Not What It Used To Be'.

Vogue Turkey keeps up with the wind of Tehran in Contemporary Istanbul and looks at the Women Intellectuals of Iran. The team of Vogue interviewed and took portraits in this series dealing with these women. We talked to Vogue Turkey General Content Manager Seda Domaniç, Vogue Turkey Content Editor Zeynep Yapar and Mary McCartney, the artist who took the portrait photographs.

As Contemporary Istanbul celebrates their 10th year, it hosts 102 galleries from 28 cities. 16 of these galleries are presented at the fair for the first time. We talked with representatives of these galleries; they talked to us about their artists and their expectations from the fair.

*Title of Mick Jagger's album, released in 1993. This year's Contemporary Istanbul comes with collaborations made with institutions from all over the world; Australia China Art Foundation (ACAF) is one them. The foundation aims to build stronger connections between artists from China and Australia, but it also seeks to create opportunities for artists from all over the world. Through art, ACAF tries to help the marginalized people to further be involved in society including the children of migrant workers. We have talked with Yashian Schauble, the founder of ACAF, about the foundation, their projects, and their collaboration with CI.

Contemporary Istanbul, in its 10th year, opens a new chapter bringing together art enthusiasts and Iranian contemporary art. This section’s name is Contemporary Tehran. We interviewed Contemporary Tehran’s artist Ali Akbar Sadeghi about his art and Iranian Contemporary Art in general. The artist who brings together the rich tradition of Iranian art, iconography, and motifs with surrealism, wowed art lovers with real and fantastic items using striking colors and forms.

We met with Can Dağarslanı, an architect and a photographer, in his studio on the fifth floor of Suriye Pasajı, where the two lives are intertwined. While Dağarslanı talks about how architecture is always the priority, photographing the cities that he travels to makes him feel liberated.

Artist Ramazan Bayrakoğlu uses the shine of satin fabric and the femininity of sewing, stone ornamentation that is so labor intensive that the craftsmanship is more expensive than the stones used, combining all of these elements in his meticulous paintings. He transforms images from film stills, striking photographs from newspapers and magazines. He is represented by Galerie Lelong in Paris. We talked about Contemporary Istanbul, his new works, the stories behind his works and cities.

Eda Soylu is exhibiting her work Wallpaper, made on the streets of Balat, now at a much more protected place, Contemporary Istanbul. The young artist talked about the background of this work that combines concrete with flowers, to be exhibited at the art fair.

We made an interview with Ania Soliman, who was borned in Poland and working in Paris and New York, about her installation called Atlas of Nothing that takes place on the third floor of Pera Museum within the scope of İstanbul Bienal. Forming her exhibition with the pieces from Museum's Anatolian Weight and Measurement Collection, the artist says that she works with historical objects in order to think about future.

In its 10th year, Contemporary Istanbul is hosting art enthusiasts with a new section called Tehran. One of the names in this section, which is composed of leading Iranian artists, is Nasser Bakhshi. We had a conversation with the artist on his art practice, his last exhibition,the contemporary art environment in Tehran, his new project and Contemporary Istanbul.

Ibrahim Koç’s current installation project “I Have No Idea” follows the above mentioned discussions, as it exposes space as fundamental matter of the whole work. Here, work refers to a synthesis of being an artistic project, an installation and an exhibition. It is all at ones. The project’s space is more than a location of production or display but the main object of interest itself. It does not function as frame or platform, but becomes the formal and conceptual reason for the total project.

Kezban Arca Batıbeki is one of the contemporary heroes of the exhibition "Dream and Reality", which brought together modern and contemporary female artists from Turkey in Istanbul Modern in 2011. Her work is polyphonic and versatile through the artist's unique attitude; she employs a variety of media ranging from photography to installation, using the different languages of art sometimes on their own and at times in relation to each other.

Vernon Ah Kee, a Brisbane-based artist, talks about his work in the 14th Istanbul Biennale while reflecting on the saltiness of brutality.

From the world’s most famous conference series, to museology, Communicating the Museum, which focuses on the background of actual work with its approach in context of operation, management and communication rather than content, is being realized in between 9-12 September in İstanbul. Hosting a lot of professionals on museology from Turkey as well as the world, the event has an intense program with conferences, workshops, field trips and tours. We had an interview with Corinne Estrade, who is one of the founders of Communicating the Museum that is founded by Agenda, on the details of this event and today’s museum studies.

The future reached by the countdown of Zero made yesterday visible today through tears, slits, nails, vibrations, pigments, light and sound, which were unconventional and surprising choices in material and gestures. The point of zero created by Zero was the bold beginning of a freedom that would be sustained across continents. Of course while winking at Dada.

14th Istanbul Biennial opened during a chaotic time in the country and it will doubtlessly be seen by thousands of viewers until November. However, the assertion of this article, which also places significance on itself, is that the biennial's knowledge, "Saltwater: A Theory of Thought Forms," cannot be accessed without a means between the object and the subject.

Nezaket Ekici had an exhibition at Haus am Waldsee in Berlin this past summer, including her performances, installations, and video documentations, which spread throughout the building. This exhibition space hosted artists including Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, Max Ernst, Joan Miró since the 1950s; we met with Ekici in the space and talked about her solo exhibition, her works and her perspective on performance art.

Van Gogh Museum, attracting millions of art lovers who want to experience contemporaneity and the deliciousness of the classical, is counting the days until their expansion. No detail has been disregarded in the museum's programming, ranging from Munch to closed tours directed to the visually impaired. There is a familiar signature on a temporary, but contemporary and successful exhibition: Eylem Aladoğan.

As can be seen from the emphasis in the title of the festival on "meeting," the most important and perhaps the nicest aspect of Arles is that it is a place to meet, to network and to meet again. Photographers, photojournalists, gallerists, curators, and publishing house owners, print experts, newspaper and magazine editors from all around Europe choose this space to meet and to have fun. This meeting has become increasingly more familiar and self-enclosed, which I'm not sure is positive or negative.

They call Golden Horn, we call Haliç. The reasons why we interpret the same view in a different way are Canadian artists Caitlind r.c Brown and Wayne Garett. They reverberate their different languages, different point of views, different sights to their Sea/See/Saw named arts. We interviewed with artists about the sculptures which they design specifically for 10th opening anniversary of Pera Museum, their previous works and working practice.

A doctor and an independent curator, one by education, one by passion; Vittorio Urbani says “Basically my attitude is “caring”, so giving pills, or deciding how to hang a painting - more or less – are just different forms of care. “

We had a talk with Funda Özgünaydın who stands out with the diversity in her production process within the Berlin - Istanbul art line about her production at her temporary workshop when she gave a short visit to Istanbul for her new works.

The 3rd Mardin Biennial opened up a new door which transformed words into objects, sound, color, writing, lament, scream, music, and finally into awareness. Numerous stories that could fill up entire lives, from the east to the west, the west to the east, dissipated across the Mesopotamian ocean, from their satchels. We discussed the 3rd Mardin Biennial, "Mythologies", with Döne Otyam, Ferhat Özgür, and Fırat Arapoğlu.

No, I do not imagine an attic in Paris when I hear artist studio. But I should be honest. Although I'm considered to be an "experienced art journalist", I have not seen that many studios. I decided to relieve this lack. Using the resources of Artful Living, I am going to make these visits immortal. I prefer the word "atelier", which is an old term. Most of the artists who accepted me use the term "studio"; at a time when "idea" precedes "craft" and English precedes French, "studio" sounds more correct, but I'm going to keep saying "atelier."

We had a conversation with the important painting collector Can Has on the art market in Turkey and beyond, acquisition power, passion for museums and collecting. This was a very informative dialogue including topics that ranged from Nazmi Ziya to Picasso. He says, "Collecting is like a virus, once it gets into your blood, you become addicted." Quality is more important for him than anything else. Whenever he could, he bought the best works of the artists that he could get a hold of. His aim is not to buy to accumulate. When passion, knowledge, and curiosity come together, they have returns culturally and as financial investments, he says. He reminds young people that being a collector is a long-term marathon and art is the best cultural heritage that can be left behind for the generations to come.

In all his works, there is a sense of anger and rage, which leads his mostly deformed figures to cry for an escape from the horror they live with. The bodies, which are often shown in explicitly violent or sexual acts, seem to be imprisoned between the edges of the canvases. Nevertheless, Horasan’s protagonists do never give up.