Istanbul once again held a festival-like fair this year; ARTCONTACT 3rd International Contemporary Art Fair held at the Eurasia Show and Art Center hosted magnificent moments in five days with the intense interest of art lovers.

The fair, which was open between May 31 and June 4, hosted nearly 100 participants, more than 1500 artists, where nearly 4500 works were exhibited, and foreign artists from nearly 40 countries. The visitors witnessed many memorable moments with over 20 live performances, 40 panels and workshops, and 20 concerts.

At the opening ceremony that started with the BAU Trio Classical Music Concert; Bilgin Aygül, Chairman of the ARTCONTACT ISTANBUL International Contemporary Art Fair, and Tamer Levent, founder of the “Yes to Art” platform, took place with their speeches. BUBI received the “Honorary Artist Award” traditionally given within the scope of the fair, while the “Institution Honorary Award” was received by the ART ASSOCIATION for GOODNESS and YAHŞİ BAAZ received the “Honorary Award for Contribution to Art”.

Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Şişli Mayor Muammer Keskin, Eyüpsultan Mayor Deniz Köken, Beşiktaş Mayor Rıza Akpolat, Fatih Mayor Mehmet Ergün Turan, Maltepe Mayor Ali Kılıç, Bodrum Mayor Ahmet Aras, Russian Federation Consul General Andrey BURAVOV and The protocol and foreign mission were also very interested in the fair, which was visited by the Consul General and cultural attachés from many countries, together with Aleksei Shved, Consul General of the Republic of Belarus. ÖZBEKİSTAN In addition, the intense exhibitors and visitors from Anatolia revealed that ARTCONTACT ISTANBUL will be a sought-after fair in international calendars in the coming years.

ArtContact Istanbul International Contemporary Art Fair; In addition to the trio of Gallery, Artist, Collector, it strives to become an international platform where local governments, non-governmental organizations, art education institutions, educators and initiatives come together by highlighting Art in the Public Space. Strengthening the art markets, the participation of new actors in the art markets, increasing the importance of young artists, making art more accessible and shareable are among the important goals of the fair.

The galleries of the Russian Federation and Iran showed great interest in the fair and participated with more than 200 artists. In total, more than 300 artists from abroad and Turkey’s leading artists exhibited their works. International famous names such as Aleksandr Shadrin, a medalist from the Russian Academy of Arts and one of the brightest artists of the Russian painting school, Marat Bekeyev from Kazakhstan, and Iranian artist Firoozeh Aklaghi took their place at the fair. Estonian sculptor Kirill Grekov, on the other hand, completed the sculpture “Woman of the Republic”, about the Turkish woman, about the 100th Anniversary of the Republic, which he started to work on 3 weeks ago, with a live performance on the last day of the fair. Many artists from Spain, Cuba, Bulgaria, Iran, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Estonia, Belarus, Korea and France were among us with their galleries.

The panels “Transformation of Cannabis into Contemporary Art” by the Seed to Art stand and “Russian Contemporary Art” by Aleksandr Shadrin were met with great interest from the audience.

In commemoration of the 2023 UNESCO Year of Commemoration and Celebration of Asik Veysel, the “Aşık Veysel Collection Exhibition” and “Seeing the Unseen: Aşık Veysel”, jointly prepared by Gürsel Gökçe and Caner Yedikardeş, were opened to visitors at their own stands.

Emart Young Talents Foundation, which aims to contribute to the visibility of art students and to increase awareness of classical music and opera, participated in the fair as “Dream Melodies”. This year, the mission of Dream Melodies, which accepts the “Yevgeni Onegin” opera as a theme; to be a means of understanding these works and to guide art students to relate the magic of intellectual resource and imagination.

Imoga Istanbul Graphic Arts Museum which is founded by Süleyman Saim Tekcan participated with the solo exhibition of Süleyman Saim Tekcan.

Gallery Beylikdüzü, on the other hand, attracted a lot of attention with its selection of “Women’s Images” belonging to the Ekrem İmamoğlu collection and the exhibition of prints belonging to Aşık Veysel Fine Arts High School students.

Beylikdüzü Municipality also participated in ARTCONTACT 2023 with its own colletion in order to make art a part of life and to ensure that it permeates every place and every person.

And also, almost 4500 works of art, whose names we cannot count, met with their audiences in their own stands.

22 Thousand Art Lovers Met at ARTCONTACT ISTANBUL

At the fair, where artists from different countries, from Russia to France, Korea to Spain, took part, 22 thousand art lovers showed interest in ARTCONTACT ISTANBUL with great enthusiasm. Our fair came to an end with the closing concert of BAU JAZZ TRIO.