Against Despair

How Istanbul's contemporary artists have created pockets of resistance in the heart of the city

- by Kaya Genç

In the early 2000s, the seedy streets of Beyoğlu in Istanbul were the heart of the city's contemporary-art scene. Small galleries, like NON and Pilot, thrived alongside institutional spaces, such as Arter and Salt, as well as independent workshops, including Hafriyat Karaköy and Karşı Sanat. When I moved to this bohemian enclave in 2009, I found a spirit of solidarity and collaboration among artists, curators and political dissidents. The neighbourhood captured my heart. Then, in the mid-2010s, big money arrived and Turkey's strongman president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, accelerated the area's gentrification. Rising rents pushed out smaller galleries and bookshops in favour of blue-chip behemoths, while affordable studios were converted into profit-making Airbnbs. In 2023, Istanbul Modern's Renzo Piano-designed new building opened at the seafront mall Galataport where Swarovski and TAG Heuer shops now flank the museum. The spirit that had once drawn me to this part of town migrated to a complex in the city's historic peninsula: the Istanbul Manufacturers Bazaar (İMÇ).

Istanbul's first shopping mall has shepherded some of the most exciting contemporary art produced in the city.

It is remarkable that the dilapidated İMÇ – Istanbul's first shopping mall, and one of the city's brutalist landmarks – has shepherded the most exciting contemporary art produced in Istanbul over the past 15 years. The complex couldn't be less glamorous. Built in 1968 between the Golden Horn and the Valens Aqueduct - a fourth-century structure that once carried water from Thrace – İMÇ comprises a series of stepped concrete courtyards and six interconnected blocks of more than 1,000 units. From sewing machines to curtains, electronics and wallpaper, the mall's tiny, box-like shops offer everything you didn't know you needed. But today, many of the storefronts are empty, and the İMÇ sees less footfall from shoppers than it does from artists and art lovers.