November promises to be a month full of art as Contemporary Istanbul (CI), one of the region's prominent international art fairs, will return for a 10th year at the Istanbul Congress Center (ICC) and Istanbul Convention and Exhibition Center (ICEC) from Nov. 12 to 15. This year, Contemporary Istanbul will bring together 102 leading and emerging galleries from 28 cities across 24 countries, including 23 galleries who are first-time participants in the fair. Under the main sponsorship of Akbank Sanat, the participating galleries were selected by CI Artistic Advisor, Marc-Olivier Wahler, and a selection committee. Similar to previous editions, this year's CI Focus will concentrate on a specific country. Showcasing a selection of contemporary Iranian art this year, CI Focus will introduce some of the best examples from Tehran.
Among the participating artists are Nasser Bakhshi (Aaran Gallery), Babak Roshaninejad (Assar Gallery), Ali Akbar Sadeghi (Shirin Gallery), Moreshin Allahyari (Lajevardi Foundation) and Houman Mortazavi (Dastan's Basement). During a press conference, CI's founder and chairman, Ali Güreli, said: "This city has an incredible history and a strong emerging contemporary art scene, which we want to present to the world. It has always been the interest of CI and its collectors to discover new artists and promote exciting art scenes from around the world. That is why we are excited that Tehran will have a strong presence this year at the fair." The section titled "Plugin" will be dedicated to new media, like maker spaces, game labs, and digital art collectives and project spaces. This year, CI will present a special project coordinated by the Australia China Art Foundation (ACAF), and the fair will host Chinese artists and galleries in both private and public spaces. ACAF will focus on Chinese artists for CI 2015, bringing a diverse collection of artwork and experiences to Istanbul. The collaboration will, in the future, extend to Australian artists and will also bring artists from Turkey and the Middle East to China and Australia.
