Contemporary Istanbul Turns 20—See What’s In Store
The 2025 edition of Contemporary Istanbul opens this September with scores of galleries, curated programs, and landmark site-specific installations.
Artnet Gallery Network, September 23, 2025
Now in its 20th year, Contemporary Istanbul (CI) returns to Tersane Istanbul, the historic shipyard on the Golden Horn, transforming its indoor and outdoor spaces—including a new pavilion by Wangan Studio—into a vibrant stage for international art. The fair begins with a VIP preview on September 24, followed by public days from September 25–28.
Launched in 2006 as the world’s 21st art fair, CI now ranks among more than 350 fairs worldwide. For this milestone edition, the curated section “Focus America” turns its gaze to the United States, a country navigating its own profound political and cultural shifts. In dialogue with Istanbul’s layered history, the section asks what happens when cultural reference points are unsettled—and how resilience, collaboration, and experimentation can chart new directions for the future.
Highlights this year include Pilevneli, Istanbul and Bodrum, showcasing new work by Lal Batman, whose multidisciplinary practice fuses visual chaos and cinematic storytelling with imagery from diverse temporal and cultural contexts.
From New York, Heft Gallery presents a cross-border collaboration between acclaimed Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky and pioneering Turkish AI artist Alkan Avcıoğlu, exploring the ecological and industrial complexities of the present moment through machine-assisted imagery.
Lisbon’s Pedro Cera will feature sculpture by Berlin-based Oliver Laric, whose practice translates the hallmarks of the digital age—reproduction, endless variation, and instant circulation—into tangible form.
Additionally, the Contemporary Istanbul Foundation (CIF) Dialogues are set to return with the theme “Disrupted Coordinates: Istanbul and the Shifting Landscape of Art.” Artists, curators, and cultural leaders will address questions of resilience and reinvention in a changing world. Speakers include Jennifer Blei Stockman, President Emeritus of the Guggenheim Foundation; Anne Pasternak, Director of the Brooklyn Museum; Jean Cooney, Director of Times Square Arts; and artist Summer Wheat, reflecting on her residency at Aliée Istanbul.
Site-specific installations further anchor the fair to its city. New York–based Peruvian American artist Grimanesa Amorós unveils Passage and Maritime, large-scale LED light works installed around the Peninsula Hotel’s clock tower and lobby, formerly the Çinili Han transit hall. These luminous sculptures evoke Istanbul’s long history as a crossroads of exchange.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Contemporary Istanbul continues to be a bellwether of the international art scene, not only offering a comprehensive look at contemporary art making today, but a glimpse at its future.
Read more on the official ArtNet article by the ArtNet Gallery Network here