Travel to dreamy world under the guidance of eastern and western artists

Art lovers and Turkey’s high society are rushing to the Contemporary Istanbul 2009 art fair in hot pursuit of the latest trend in prestigious investment opportunities: contemporary art.

With contemporary art high on Istanbul’s agenda, Contemporary Istanbul opened for previews on Wednesday night at the Lütfi Kırdar Congress and Exhibition Hall and has received great interest. The fair will be open to the public until Sunday.

One of milestones of Turkish contemporary painting Burhan Doğançay’s work “Blue Symphony” sold for 2.2 million Turkish Liras just a few weeks ago. This figure is the highest price ever paid for a work by a living Turkish artist. A few days after the sale, the buying company admitted that it paid this high price in order to revive the Turkish art market.

“This sale is a turning point for Turkish painting. Otherwise, Turkey would continue to lag behind the international art field,” said Doğançay at the Baraz-Doğançay Museum stand at the fair. “And thanks to Contemporary Istanbul, Turkish and foreign artists can come together and exchange information.”

Everybody opens a gallery

Another important name in Turkish contemporary art Ertuğrul Ateş, from the AHK Çağla Cabaoğlu Art Gallery, spoke to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. Just like Doğançay, Ateş drew attention to the importance of the fair. “Thanks to the fair, Turkish contemporary art can meet the masses. And the world art moves to Istanbul.”

Many small and large art galleries have opened in Turkey particularly in recent years. These galleries, which cannot draw enough interest to their exhibitions, try to find solutions by creating concepts to be discussed. Ateş criticized this attitude of galleries and said: “Exhibitions should not open to draw attention or to create discussion. Galleries should be organized to prevent this. Anyone with money has opened a gallery in our country. This business should have a license and this right should not be given to everyone.”

Talking about Doğançay’s work, Ateş adopted a critical manner and said, “Each artist waits to earn money with their work but certain criteria should be established for pieces of art that will be sold in auctions.”

Turkish art is a promising market

Local and foreign galleries are located on two floors of the fair area. The abundance of Berliner galleries is striking on the first floor. According to fair organizers, Contemporary Istanbul invited the Berlin Gallery Owners Association, German galleries and collectors to the fair due to the 20th anniversary of the launch of Istanbul and Berlin as sister cities.

In the area titled “Art Form Berlin” in the Rumeli Hall, visitors see very creative works of German contemporary art. Anemo Vostell, who attended the fair from the Landesverband Berliner Galerien(Galleries Association of Berlin)said the following about the fair: “Seeing a number of galleries together will give us an idea about Turkish art. The fair is very successful.”

Vostell said Turkey had sent workers to German since the beginning of 1960s, but unfortunately Turkish culture and art was unknown in Germany. “Turkish art is a promising market. Istanbul may play a significant role in terms of the meeting of Eastern and Western art,” she said.

Faces on Allaf’s sculptures

This year the fair’s guest country of honor is Syria. The galleries of Syrian artists are on the second floor. Works by sculptor Ghazwan Allaf catches the eye of visitors at the entrance. The theme of Allaf’s works is human face and woman-man relations.

Allaf began speaking, saying, “Your face might be an inspiration for my next work,” and continued; “I record hundreds of face in my mind. Faces are very important to me. They give challenge to create.”

Allaf said he was being nourished by thousands of years of the culture of Eastern art. “Unfortunately Eastern art is overshadowed by Western art. The main reason is economy. Western artists receive more financial support than us. For example, there are many talented artists in Syria but they cannot open to the world because of lack of state support,” he said.

Allaf said despite all the economic hurdles, Eastern artists are beginning to open to the international art arena with their own opportunities. “Eastern art has a rising value,” he said.

Secret and Layla and Majnun kept in tree

Another Eastern artist Farideh Lashei from Iran has a very impressive work at the Leila Tafhinia Milani Heller Gallery stand. Her projection work is around the theme of “Layla and Majnun.” In the projection, Layla gives a pomegranate to Majnun and while pomegranate beads are poured on the heads of two lovers, their bodies become one whole. One needs to move closer to the projection to see the detail in the work because Ossouli has created the trees by bringing together thousands of Persian words.

She said the work has been displayed in various global cities, including London and Hong Kong. “I have specially chosen this work for Istanbul. Because its topic has been a bit inspired by Orhan Pamuk’s novel ‘My Name is Red’,” she said.