Istanbul

New campaign group to monitor Istanbul Biennial developments following curator row

Turkish artists and curators have organised two forums and raised concerns about participants who pulled out

Istanbul Biennial's governing body draws up new selection guidelines following curator row

İKSV will bar advisory board members from taking up curatorial posts although the 2024 edition will go ahead as planned

Restored Turkish bath reopens to the public as site for art and respite

The Zeyrek Çinili Hamam, which will open in Istanbul in September after a 13-year restoration and excavation, will operate once again as a traditional Turkish bath and also as a contemporary art space

Artists opens pudding shop in Istanbul to help protest buffalo herding

London-based duo Cooking Sections explore buffalo herding in Istanbul with Turkish pudding project

New Istanbul culture hub seeks to make art more public

ArtIstanbul Feshane opens in an expansive 19th-century military factory to reach more of the city’s 16 million inhabitants

‘We’re not ready’: the race to protect Istanbul’s heritage from another earthquake

Conservators are raising the alarm in the ancient Turkish city as seismologists warn that an earthquake is all but inevitable within the next two decades

New Istanbul Modern museum finally unveiled after five-year construction

Major new contemporary art space designed by Renzo Piano opens ahead of key elections

Long-awaited Istanbul Modern museum nears completion

Renzo Piano-designed institution may coincide with this year's Istanbul Biennial

The 17th Istanbul Biennial finds novel ways to have difficult conversations

Against the constraints imposed by Covid-19 and Turkey’s repressive social climate, the influential biennial obliquely takes up thorny topics and engages with the city’s alternative spaces

Has Turkey halted plans to turn Chora museum into a mosque?

Experts ponder the significance of the sudden scrapping of Islamic prayers by Turkish authorities at Istanbul’s historic landmark

New hope that Istanbul orphanage—Europe's largest timber building—can be saved from ruin

After decades of neglect, a fundraising drive could restore Prinkipo Orphanage as an environmental research centre

Why we should be concerned about President Erdogan turning museums into mosques

Hagia Sophia and the Chora Church will remain “open to all”, Turkish government promises—but restricted access may not be the primary worry

Turkish government on collision course with Unesco over turning Hagia Sophia into mosque

President Erdogan’s plans to convert the museum have drawn fire from Greece and the US

Turkish government slammed for crowds at heritage sites as ticket collector reportedly dies from coronavirus

Worker at Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace is believed to have contracted Covid-19, leading state to be criticised for not closing tourist attractions quick enough

Turkeynews

Court ruling converting Turkish museum to mosque could set precedent for Hagia Sophia

Decision that Kariye Museum must become a Muslim house of worship again could imperil its Byzantine art and have repercussions for other early Christian monuments

Art world impact just 'a drop in the ocean': Istanbul biennial curator takes on climate crisis

Nicolas Bourriaud examines the Anthropocene in 16th edition of the exhibition and says the “real issue is mass tourism"

Monster Chetwynd’s monstrous children’s playground to open in Istanbul

Sculptural project, part of the 16th biennial, looks to the mythical creature Medusa

Turkeynews

'Game-changer' museum to open in Istanbul in time for city's biennial

Turkish non-profit contemporary art space Arter is relocating to a state-of-the-art exhibition space in Dolapdere district

Turkeynews

Erdogan says museum and former cathedral Hagia Sophia will become a mosque again

The Turkish president wants the monument to serve as a place of worship flouting international pressure to retain the site’s current neutral status

Ottoman perspectives

This original and brilliant book describes how Western archaeology and archaeologists appeared to Turkish eyes.

The Istanbul Biennial looks east (Eastern Europe, that is)

The Turkish capital has curators, collectors and galleries⁠—if the government pitches in, it could become the leading destination for contemporary art in the Middle and Near East

First Dalí exhibition in Turkey

The Sakip Sabanci Museum in Istanbul is holding the first ever retrospective devoted to the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí in a Muslim country

Excavations explore how far beyond the ramparts the Trojan War was fought

Excavations suggest that the ten-year war was fought some distance away from Priam's rock