Hurdles in Turkey’s Current Art Scene

Author: Alexandra De Cramer Photo Credit: Carlotta Bailly Borg “Trouble”. Courtesy of the artist and Ballon Rouge Collective. Photo by GRAYSC. Managing crises is a forte of the art world in Istanbul. In less than a decade; it endured a summer-long Gezi Park protests, various terror attacks including a bomb explosion in its international airport, and a coup attempt (to name few). So when a global pandemic hit, much to everyone’s surprise, many were prepared with the shortcomings the situation would demand. “The pandemic was sort of besides the point for Istanbul’s art scene because it had been struggling for a while. It was having a difficult time getting peoples’ attention,” explains Nicole O’Rourke, curator and director of Ballon Rouge Collective. O’Rourke, who splits her time between Istanbul and Brussels, is reminded of the interview she conducted with the curators of the 2017 Istanbul Biennial, artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset: “What they were dealing with was ‘how do we do this in this climate?’, which is what curators are faced with now, but today it is a climate the whole world is affected by rather than just Turkey.” Nicole O’Rourke © Atalay Yavuz Being prepared in hardships did not mean