Vision Forum member and London-based writer and curator Fatos Üstek writes about the quickly expanding art scene in Istanbul. She starts:
Istanbul lies between Sao Paulo and Hong Kong, Moskow and Abu Dhabi. This reconfiguration of the geographical marking is significant in understanding and articulating the current strata of Istanbul’s artistic landscape. It is no longer the door to the East – as the East is reinitiating its own self, nor it is a bridge that commensurates two distinct positions and world-views such as East to West, and North to South. Istanbul operates along the streamlines of these newly introduced finance capitals; as recently gained strength of financial power in the aforementioned cities play a significant role in the repositioning of power dynamics in global scale. Naturally, poignant state of the labour force (in mass production) and new conditions of trade alongside the recent Western financial crisis shift the theocratic model of distribution of power towards a rhizomic model of organisation. Indeed, the new condition is not about production of a polarity, but a situation with refreshed set of parameters.
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