Highlights from the Concurrent Contemporary Istanbul and Istanbul Biennial
The overlap of two major events created a week of ambitious art in the city, which continues to prove its status as a cultural hub to watch
On the crossroads between east and west, Istanbul is susceptible to change perhaps more than any other metropole. Turbulent, unpredictable and rhythmic, the city of 20 million inhabitants perpetually encounter yet another surprise on each cobble stone-paved corner and at the end of every steep hill. Art is unsurprisingly among the sprawling mega city’s multi-sensory lures, a fact which has particularly proved its role in Istanbul’s global recognition as a cultural hub in the last two or three decades. Instrumental in the city’s positioning have been the Istanbul Biennial and the art fair Contemporary Istanbul. And their overlap this year, just like a few times in the past, promised an eventful week which unfolded into ambitious outings around the fast-growing city’s historic districts.
The biennial’s 18th edition, which is conceptualized under the title of The Three-Legged Cat by the Lebanese curator Christine Tohmé, spreads over eight venues within a walking distance in the seaside Karaköy neighborhood. Contemporary Istanbul on the other hand, ran September 24-28 at the Golden Horn-viewed Ottoman-era shipping yard Tersane Istanbul, which has recently been turned into a luxury complex of hotels, shops, and restaurants. Around 50 galleries from over ten countries participated in this year’s 20th edition which occupied two separate halls overlooking some of the city’s definitive landmarks such as the Galata Tower and the Blue Mosque.
The fair’s founder and chairman Ali Güreli reflected on his endeavor’s last two decades. “The first decade was dedicated to developing conditions of an art market and help the public learn about collecting,” he told Galerie. Besides his annual commercial affair, Güreli also launched Contemporary Istanbul Foundation a few years ago to solidify his mission of prompting an international audience to pay attention to his city’s rich network of artists and galleries as well as a burgeoning collector base. He summarizes the second ten-year chapter of his efforts with the fair as a period of amassing knowledge among his Turkish peers about the global art sector: “More and more collectors from here started visiting international fairs and attend biennials.”
The VIP preview on September 23 proved Güreli’s point as hoards of attendees filled the aisles in their best attire and positive outlooks towards art’s uplifting powers. At Istanbul and Berlin-based Zilberman Gallery’s booth, a stand-out was Azade Köker’s mixed-media on canvas paintings of feminine forms with inspirations from the Vienna Secession movement as well as the digital age. Istanbul-based mixed-media artist Güneş Terkol whose sewn fabric paintings of everyday rituals blended with mythic hints are familiar to the visitors of the most recent Venice Biennale, Foreigners Everywhere, had a few intricate textile works at Ferda Art Platform. The local gallery’s booth also presented Hüseyin Aksoy whose German walnut paint and watercolor seascape offers a sneak peak to his Turkish Pavilion exhibition in the ongoing 19th Venice Architecture Biennial.
Besides local artists with global presence, the fair also boasted a suite of international artists whose names are synonymous with blockbuster fairs, such as Adam Pendleton with the Lisbon gallery Pedro Cera, James Rosenquist and John Chamberlain who occupied an intimate room installation with Sevil Dolmaci Gallery, and New York-based fixtures Shirin Neshat, Ghada Amer, Ugo Rondinone, and Summer Wheat at local powerhouse Dirimart’s booth. A special exhibition dedicated to turbulent paintings of Jannis Kounellis, titled Half of a Long Story, offered a slice of the Greek-born Art Povera maestro’s two-dimensional practice; a new iteration of Judy Chicago’s interactive What If Women Ruled The World?, quilt project invited visitors inside inside a hut where they could answer the titular question in their own words, surrounded by numerous others’ responses rendered in quilt on a large screen.
The biennial, on the other hand, conveys a rather mediative and paced-down platform with a cohort of international artists whose open-ended and fluid statements gently mingle with one another through breezy installations. As the title suggests, the show introspects on procession and perseverance against all odds through the power of vulnerability and even obscurity. Just like stray cats—Istanbul’s unofficial rulers—who always find their way out of a mishap, the tireless willingness to weather trauma with malleability is a shared trait among the show’s 40-plus artists.
Willy Aractingi’s eight paintings at the former commercial building Zihni Han equally narrates and veils the tales which the late American painter attributes to his figures like a masterful puppeteer. Detailed in his painterly technique, the late artist frees his subjects from sharply-drawn plots while keeping the viewers irresistibly intrigued about what they are looking at. At the same building, located steps away from the still active cruise ship terminal, the entrance gallery is reserved for Argentine artist Celina Eceiza’s immersive presentation A nest is a fruit that swells (2025) which wraps visitors with a domestic setting of dyed cotton, burlap, and towel. A soft garden as well as a dreamscape, the installation democratizes all living beings with Eceiza’s mythic forms and hospitable invitation to slow down and relax.
A ten-minute walk away leads to the biennial’s other venue, Galeri 77, which hosts four artists who explore communication and its abrupt absence. Dilek Winchester claims the unlikely spot of a rooftop for her text-based work Untitled (Kendinibegen…) (2012-2025) which reads an extremely long portmanteau word from Turkish author Oguz Atay’s seminal novel The Disconnected (1972), here blending the made-up word’s Arabic, Hebrew, Armenian, and Greek translations into a singular utterance.
Those maneuvering Karaköy for the biennial which runs through the end of November may also notice a hefty serpent of red LED lights wrapping a clock tower by the Bosphorus. Titled PASSAGE, Peruvian-American artist Grimanesa Amorós’s illuminated gestures wraps The Peninsula Istanbul’s historic 60-feet tall clock tower, which was built in 1910s for the purpose of updating the seaway travelers and their loved ones at the passenger hall, where the hotel is located today.