The 19th edition of Contemporary Istanbul (CI, until 27 October) opened with a preview on 23 October at the Ottoman-era shipyard Tersane Istanbul with 53 galleries from 14 countries. As the fair aims to strengthen its footing as an international art market destination, this edition features a special focus on Spanish and Latin American galleries, with several exhibitors from Argentina, Brazil and—primarily—Spain.
In a press conference ahead of the opening of the fair, the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, emphasised the importance of CI for the Turkish cultural sector and for forging long-term relationships with the global market, saying he “hopes the fair will break records in visitation”. Around 40,000 visitors attended the previous edition.
Ali Güreli, the founder and chairman of the fair, and the founder of The Art Newspaper Turkey, says Istanbul is “an important crossroad between regions, and a cultural translator”, which must become “more active in the art world” by reinforcing relationships with galleries and collectors who still have a lesser presence in Turkey.
The centrepiece of the fair is the painting exhibition Born in the Seventies, curated by Manuel Borja-Villel, the former director of the Reina Sofía in Madrid, organised in collaboration with the Spanish Embassy in Turkey. The presentation aims to show the “continuity of Spanish painting”, says Borja-Villel, featuring 20 multigenerational artists like Antonio Ballester Moreno, Marta Beltrán and Elvira Amor. Borja-Villel will also participate in a conversation this week with Isaac Cerdeira and Carmen Reviriego of the Callia Foundation to discuss patronage and collecting in Latin America and Spain.
Alessandra Rehder's Amazônia (2024)
Courtesy of Andrea Rehder Arte Contemporânea
The fair roster includes 11 first-time exhibitors like the São Paulo-based gallery Andrea Rehder Arte Contemporânea. Andrea Rehder says the reasonable booth price and reasonable 22% VAT for art in Turkey is what made joining make sense. “It’s a good price for clients who are used to much higher,” she tells The Art Newspaper. “For most fairs outside of Brazil, I would need to sell the entire booth to break even. It means that we often don’t join those fairs.”
She adds that she felt a need to “expand the work of our Brazilian artists abroad, and this is the first step”. Rehder has organised a solo booth by the artist Alessandra Rehder, her daughter. The work Amazônia (2024), like the other works in the booth, features a series of framed superimposed and collaged photographs of botanical species found throughout the world, some which the artist has photographed while on humanitarian missions. The ten-panel work was offered as a full set for €20,000 or around €3,000 for separate panels.
The Buenos Aires-based W Galeria has brought a series of ceramic sculptures by the New York-based Argentinian artist and filmmaker Nicolás Guagnini, each offered for €18,000. Guagnini is an established and commercially viable artist, with works in the collection of museums like the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo (MASP). Some of the ceramic works resemble paintings, or what he describes as “parodies of paintings,” while others take a more figurative approach, with busts riffing on mutilated statues of Greek, Anatolian, Truscan and Roman traditions.
From Gülsün Karamustafa's series Promised Paintings (2024)
© Gülsün Karamustafa
Outside of the Spanish and Latin America focus, several local galleries are capitalising on the tailend of the Venice Biennale (until 24 November), like the Istanbul-based gallery BüroSarıgedik, which is showing a selection of paintings by Gülsün Karamustafa, who represents Türkiye in this year's edition of the biennial. Recent works in Karamustafa’s Promised Paintings series, a series the artist began in the 1990s that evokes compositional elements of Byzantine imagery, are being offered for between €12,000 to €20,000. Next to BüroSarıgedik’s booth, Galeri Nev İstanbul is showing works by Erdağ Aksel, who represented Turkey in the 45th Venice Biennale, offered in its entirety for €26,000 and separately for €4,800.
Elsewhere in the fair, the curator Marc-Olivier Wahler, who was briefly the director of CI, has organised the fourth edition of The Yard, the fair’s public art programme. The roster includes nearly 20 artists, including some notable names like Ugo Rondinone and the Arte Povera artist Giulio Paolini. In addition, the writer Osman Can Yerebakan has organised a presentation by the Turkish artist Esra Gülmen featuring an interactive installation of colourful swings and a large-scale reflective sculpture installed on the terrace, titled Ne Seninle, Ne Senzis (Neither With or Without You) (2024). The work was inspired by the poet Constantine P. Cavafy, who “explores the idea of belonging or detachment to a place we have left, or how those places live within us always”, Gülmen says.
This year, the Contemporary Istanbul Foundation (CIF) has also launched the Contemporary Istanbul Foundation Award, recognising artists in five categories. Aslı Taviloğlu has received the Contribution to Art Award; Yunus Büyükkuşoğlu received the Corporate Sustainability in Art Award; Nil Yalter and Neş'e Erdok have received the Master Artist Awards; Merve Ünsal received the Emerging Artist Award; and Melih Fereli received the Cultural Contribution to Visual Arts.