Istiklal street and CI:bloom art fair!

Originally posted: 240501

On sunday I headed to CI:bloom. The art fair didn´t open until 11 am so i had time to check out the famous Istiklal street that was located near the hotel! Istiklal street is a famous shopping street in Istanbul with normal, affordable, non-luxury stores. Luckily I didnt find anything I wanted to buy 😀

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When I reached Taxim square the place was packed with policemen with riot gear. They were everywhere in groups of 10-20 persons.
I went into one of the döner places around the square and ordered a chicken sandwich.
“Whats up with all the policemen?” I asked.
“No worry, no worry!” yelled the man behind the counter.
So I sat down in the orange fast food restaurant and ate my sandwich and watched the policemen who just stood there waiting for riots with their helmets and shields ready. After finishing my meal I took the metro to Osmanbey.

CI:bloom

The fair looked like any other art fair in the world. White cubicles, moody gallery assistants in black clothes, a bar and a lot of paintings.

The majority of the visitors seemed to be turkish. Mostly middle aged women and men and pairs of young women with artistic aspirations. But also at least a handful of families with young children, which imo is unusual.

I met an artist from New York, John Newsom, in the café area. He was in town for his own exhibition at Pilevneli gallery (Go check it out if you are in town!). He invited me to the opening on tuesday but unfortunately I´m flying back to Alanya then. I wished him the best of luck and headed to explore the fair. 

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CI_bloom 2024 Istanbul

Interesting artists on the fair

In the first booth, gallery Dirimarts, I am drawn to a large painting that consists of four canvases. It´s yellow ochre background is filled with ornaments and symbols, paintings of paintings and things that make me think they are fragments of dreams or memories. It´s Çagla Ulusoys works Sweet grief 1 and Sweet grief 2, here represented as one.

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Çagla Ulusoy – Sweet grief 1 and Sweet grief 2

The works in the next booth, X-ist gallery, are more figurative. Murat Paltas Prince’s mission 1.2 makes me think of Tintin but here in the form of a weird game. Poverful Sultans watch from a distance while humanity and a lizard-person indulges them selves in brutal violence.

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Murat Palta – Prince´s mission 1:2

One of my favorites on this fair is Hazal Ösgürs multidimensional pantings. According to the presentation she works with oppositional binaries like inside / outside, day / night etc.

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Hazal Ösgür

Paintings dominate the cubicles. It’s usually like that. Objects that can be hanged on walls take less space and are easier to transport than fex heavy three dimensional objects.

In galleri 77s booth I find works of Vav Hakobyan and Sedat Girgin. Hakobyans burning duckmen seem to currently be erased from the world by the wind, or maybe there is a nuclear bomb happening here. His brushstrokes are filled with violence.

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Vav Hakobyan – Untitled

Sedat Girgins Walk of the absurd is my absolute favorite on this fair. A strange line of figures is marching through town. They look like something that escaped from a Hieronymus Bosch painting and there is no way of telling if the creatures are friendly or dangerous.

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Sedat Girgin – Walk of the absurd N6-1

Art as a commodity or a holy icon?

The fair continues. One thing that is obvious here is that the selfie culture is here to stay. And that how you behave around art really differs from place to place.

People kept touching the art pieces.
I watched in horror when a woman backed into a hanging painting to get a better photo of her self. It made me angry but the gallerist didn´t seem to mind.
Are you here to promote yourself as a cultural being or are you here for the art? I thought to my self.

And then I saw my own reflection.
What about me? the brain asked. Am I here for the art, or to promote my self as a cultural being?
The answer must be: possibly… both.

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These influencers did not touch the art works or back in to them, they just took photos like influencers do

xoxo/Salla V
Artist, Writer, Explorer
Originally posted: 240501