The 31st U.N. Climate Change Conference, set to take place in Antalya from Nov. 9 to 20, will feature a wide range of Turkish and international art exhibitions and cultural events highlighting the effects of the climate crisis and the need for environmental action.
The 1.1-million-square-meter conference site will be transformed into a large exhibition space, bringing together classical and contemporary works under the theme “COPArt: Still Possible.”
The exhibition “Six Masters, Six Traces” will showcase works by prominent Turkish artists Fahrelnissa Zeid, Burhan Doğançay, Ömer Uluç, Devrim Erbil, Mehmet Güleryüz and Haluk Akakçe. Another selection, spanning masters such as Şeker Ahmet Paşa, Osman Hamdi Bey, Hoca Ali Rıza, Nazmi Ziya Güran and İbrahim Çallı to modern and contemporary artists, will be presented to the public for the first time.
The international program will feature Eva Jospin’s cardboard forests, Todd Gray’s narratives on environmental justice, Erica Daborn’s works addressing ecological disruption, Xavier Cortada’s climate awareness projects and Zaria Forman’s depictions of melting glaciers.
Murat Durusoy’s video work “Post-Nature Studies V.2,” drawn from the plant life in the garden of Istanbul’s Sakıp Sabancı Museum, will be displayed in the COPArt section of the conference’s Green Zone.
Meanwhile, a special selection from renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky’s “Earth in Transformation” exhibition will be presented at Akra Antalya in collaboration with Borusan Holding and Borusan Contemporary. The presentation will bring together his “Erosion” project, developed in Anatolia, and the immersive multimedia work “In the Wake of Progress,” which will be shown in Türkiye for the first time.
COP31 will also host a climate short film competition under the theme “Earth Is Our Common Home.” Organized by the ministry and COP31 Türkiye, the competition seeks to highlight environmental challenges through filmmaking. The awards ceremony will take place on Nov. 14.
