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ENCORE Reportage It must have been 10, 15 years ago A second constitutional referendum in Once Europe’s that Istanbul was proclaimed the new 2017 sealed Erdoğan’s dictatorial cool new art capital, Berlin. Artists and start-up founders role—and Istanbul disappeared from alike suddenly flocked to the Bosporus. the international art map. Turkey bustled One gallery opened after another Rodeo, Mana, and Rampa are in the Turkish metropolis, and patrons now closed, as are many other com- with eager patrons invested in private museums and mercial galleries, even though, it must cultural foundations, raising as many be said, some private museums are looking to invest, sponsorship funds as all collectors in upgrading—architect Renzo Piano Germany put together. is currently building the new Istanbul and new galleries There was an air of optimism Modern; the Arter cultural center among Istanbul’s artists, and every two moved into a stylish new building; and opened freely and years curators, buyers, and critics the Garanti-Bankası’s Salt art hub unceasingly—until from all over the world flew to the cele- is still around, albeit, like everywhere brated Istanbul Biennale, flitting else, with far fewer exhibitions a the coup attempt back and forth across the strait, sipping year. Certainly, Turkey is much worse champagne. They found themselves off economically than it was nine in 2016. Since then, at art fairs and vernissages, curious years ago, and the political climate is about the culture-hungry city that admit- not one in which the liberal or leftist it has become tedly also drew its extraordinary power art business feels comfortable. THE from the way President Recep Tayyip No question about it: the bubble rather still in Istanbul. Erdoğan’s so-called Justice and has burst. Gesine Borcherdt Development Party (AKP) left behind It has also become quieter among the old-fashioned nationalist spirit of the many cultural workers, patrons, surveys the current Turkey’s founding father, Atatürk, only and entrepreneurs whom Erdoğan had QUIETING to be faced with a new generation of arrested after the attempted coup. situation wealthy dynasties that thought globally One of their most prominent is Osman and gained more and more influence. Kavala, a key figure in Istanbul’s art Thus, the names of families (and scene. Born into one of the oldest and family businesses) like Koç, Sabancı, most respected families in the OF and Eczacıbaşı stood for a new kind of country, he founded Anadolu Kültür in support that, if not always consistently 2002, creating a crucial, internation- tasteful, at least reflected a broad ally renowned, and well-connected range of Turkey’s contemporary art and non-profit organization for cultural and was also notably oriented toward social projects. TURKEY the West. Galleries like Rodeo, Mana, Back then, cooperations with and Rampa became glamorous hot- foreign organizations such as the German spots in a scene where Asia and Europe Goethe Institute and the Heinrich shook hands. Böll Foundation were a matter of course, But even at the beginning of stimulating international exchange and the 2010s, this new dynamic became cultivating liberal values like equality noticeably tenser due to Erdoğan’s and ethnic diversity. thirst for power, as he turned the judi- A former tobacco warehouse of ciary in his favor with the help of the Kavalas became Depo, an exhibition Turkey’s first constitutional referendum. space for contemporary art that What followed were the massive explicitly focused on works tackling Gezi Park protests in 2013. They spread explosive topics like the Armenian from Taksim Square to the whole Genocide or the ongoing suppression country, and are said to have involved of the Kurds. More than an entrepre- 3.5 million Turks, finally culminating neur and philanthropist, Osman Kavala Dawn after a night of chaos. Istanbul on the in a military coup attempt in 2016, is someone who understands culture morning after the Gezi Park Protest, 2013 which toughened the regime further. as a political medium. He was also a 205 ENCORE ENCORE Reportage co-founder of the Open Society from his cell, he initiated the podcast strong, adaptable network and colla- generation, but older artists had already Biennale and now partly lives in Paris, Foundations alongside American philan- “Political pressure Adalet Atlası (Atlas of justice), released borative mindset among artists, lived through the military coup of opened an exhibition at Kıraathane, thropist George Soros, fighting for by Anadolu Kültür. “That gives me curators, and patrons. But besides the 1980. They’re often more pessimistic. a self-described “free word center” that human rights and freedom of the press. was always there. hope. They can demolish buildings political instability, Turan reiterates, Kazma tries to avoid tunnel vision. also offers a platform for writers and Kavala frequented the loftiest poli- But now it’s and close facilities, but they can’t the economic problems persist: “There “The biggest issue facing cultural insti- poets. Regarding Osman Kavala, he says: tical circles, cavorted with artists, and prevent people from thinking and have been big cuts in funding at tutions today is economic. The time “Kavala is a big-hearted, humble, mediated between left-wing intel- extreme. It’s totally speaking,” says the artist. institutions—they’ve started to make of big money is over.” The art and dis- and very courageous man. He supported lectuals and the conservative bour- In the meantime, the non-profit almost yearlong exhibitions to fill up course are both of good quality, but many of my artist friends and stands up geoisie, between East and West, unforeseeable space Protocinema, founded by Amer- their programs and spaces.” it happens in small circles and is undy- for minorities, especially for the Kurds,” between the old and the new—and he’s ican curator Mari Spirito, and one Ali Kazma, born in 1971, has a namic. Now you mostly show your Kazma says. “But it’s for sure that he been in prison for almost three and whether, when, and of Istanbul’s most progressive places somewhat similar feeling about the work among friends. is not in prison because of that, even if a half years. for international contemporary art, situation: “It’s just an endless cycle of Kazma, who was picked for the many people want to see it that way. Kavala was arrested at Istanbul why it’ll hit you. opened an exhibition reacting to the intimidation.” Gezi Park shaped his Turkish Pavilion at the 2013 Venice Things are more complicated.” Airport in October 2017. The allega- You wake up in the pressure on LGBTQIA+ people Indeed, Osman Kavala’s detention tions: organizing and financing the in Turkey. In his text about the show, seems more like a signal to the other Gezi Park protests, being involved in morning and don’t its curator, Alper Turan, writes: wealthy and internationally connected the coup attempt, and espionage. “Within the last year marked by the CANSU YILDIRAN, from the series Fallacy, 2021, photograph on foil, 178 x 140 cm families who’ve turned their backs Aside from a brief break, he’s been think of anything Covid crisis, the Turkish government’s Shown in the exhibition A FINGER FOR AN EYE, curated by Alper Turan at Protocinema on Erdoğan—“Look, if it can happen to held in the maximum security Silivri LGBTQIA+ policy shifted from him, it can hit you too.” Nevertheless, prison outside Istanbul. else. It’s unbearable” passive ignorance to active, systematic, you can’t really compare the Kavalas to Not even protestation by the and violent attacks, mainly on the the Koçs, for example, who have bene- European Court of Human Rights has public visibility of LGBTQIA+. Stu- fited from the looting of Armenian lifted the scandalous charges. The dents and protestors got arrested property and only developed into big arbitrariness is intentional. Erdoğan is because of rainbow flags—even chil- supporters of a free cultural scene setting an example. It’s also a message dren were forbidden to draw rain- during Istanbul’s recent boom years. to the old Turkish bourgeoisie who bows—and that flag literally became During the Gezi Park protests, turned their back on Erdoğan after “Political pressure was always there. a target and a crime. As a response the Koçs opened one of their hotels on showing some initial sympathy, and to But now it’s extreme. It’s totally to that, I invited queer artists who are Taksim Square as a refuge for demon- everyone else who protested against unforeseeable whether, when, and why originally from Turkey but based strators fleeing police violence—only the president at Gezi Park. it’ll hit you. You wake up in the around Europe to produce abstract yet for the family to promptly face an “Osman being imprisoned for morning and don’t think of anything queer works that don’t use any color investigation of their taxes. Few people over three years is a symbolic political else. It’s unbearable.” The other day, in order to evade censorship and state got away with a warning: the left-wing punishment. It shows how the govern- someone was arrested for a retweet, oppression.” Asked about the state politician Selahattin Demirtaş was ment can display its force arbitrarily on and in Izmir, the practice of Tenger’s of the city’s art scene, Turan says that arrested after the 2016 coup attempt, its opponents,” the artist Hale Tenger, doctor, a renowned physician known it’s rolling on, as it always has in one as was the journalist Ahmet Altan, born in 1960, tells me. She knows for his liberal attitude, was closed. way or another. “There was always who’s serving a life sentence in the Kavala well, has done exhibitions with “They repeatedly came back, each turmoil in this country, and accordingly same prison as Kavala.

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