Ali Güreli and the Making of an Art Ecosystem in Istanbul
Contemporary Istanbul's chairperson says the point was never one successful week each September. It was to make Istanbul a place where galleries, collectors and the state all have reasons to take contemporary art seriously.
Ali Güreli's route to the art world wasn't direct. He graduated in business administration in 1982, then went to Paris to do a master's, which he dropped. His father, an architect of the first generation of the Turkish Republic, had already taught him about art, and Paris was then the centre of the art world. He lived in Montparnasse with three older artists, went round the galleries with them, and stayed three years. Later, back in Turkey, he began collecting and travelling to art events. After his first visit to Art Basel he asked himself why Istanbul had no event like it.
The Right Skills
What turned the question into a project was his day job. He ran hotels and a company that organised large conferences and conventions, so the operational side of a fair, he says, was easy for his team. The missing piece was the art-world network. He started with Art Istanbul in 2001, which ran for several years. It became Contemporary Istanbul in 2006. A galleries' association had been part of the early fair. Güreli says he realised its members were happy with local artists and local buyers and didn't want to go international, so the fair continued without it.
The timing helped. The Istanbul Biennial had run since 1987, and the early 2000s brought the Sakıp Sabancı Museum (2002), Istanbul Modern (2004) and Pera Museum (2005), while the number of galleries supporting contemporary art, limited until around 2005, grew quickly. There was a scene, but nothing that brought it together with international buyers.
Layer One: Making It Cheaper for Galleries
Much of the ecosystem is practical. For a foreign gallery, the booth is only part of the cost, since the work also has to be shipped and a customs guarantee put up. Güreli says the fair has tackled both. Through a partnership with Turkish Airlines, chosen galleries get free cargo from anywhere. Separately, through its partnership with Akbank, the fair provides the customs guarantee, 20% of the declared value, on galleries' behalf. He believes it is the only fair doing this and estimates the shipping saving at about a 20% cut in a gallery's budget. Pressed on whether it hurts the fair's profit, he said it doesn't, because the bank and the airline provide their part free of charge. Independent reporting confirms that the fair introduced a bond agreement and a Turkish Airlines partnership aimed at lowering exhibitors' costs.
Layer Two: Building the Market Itself
He describes the fair's history in two halves. The first ten years went into developing the art market in Turkey and the second ten into looking at the whole world. Nearly every year brought some kind of trouble, from the economy, politics or conflicts in the region. His point is that staying through it earned something: confidence, in Turkey and abroad, in the name Contemporary Istanbul. That reliability is part of what a gallery is buying when it commits to a new market.
The fair has also taken on a role Güreli says it didn't plan, as the art market's voice towards government. It is pressing the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to lower VAT on art and to introduce incentives for collectors, in particular young and corporate ones. In his view that is how a market develops: a fair can bring buyers to a booth, but tax policy shapes whether new collectors can afford to start. He calls the fair a soft-power brand for Turkey and describes it as one of the most respected.
Layer Three: An Identity of Its Own
Güreli says the fair never tried to copy another fair. Istanbul is unique, so the fair has to be too, and he believes Turkey's artists and contemporary art are strong. The venue shows what that means in practice. Tersane Istanbul is a former Ottoman shipyard on the Golden Horn, restored by Tabanlıoğlu Architects, which has hosted the fair in recent years. It dates to the 15th century, was used for shipbuilding into the Republican period, and lost that function in roughly the last 30 years. A contemporary art fair in halls where ships were once built isn't something Basel or Paris could offer.
The 2026 Edition
The 21st edition ran from 23 to 27 September. Akbank was main partner, with 70 galleries from 16 countries, 736 artists, 1,372 artworks and 22 new international participants. The foundation reported 38,500 visitors, with international attendance up 50% on the previous edition.
The programme shows the ecosystem at work. A new Focus: Asia section brought galleries from Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore and New Delhi, while New Grounds, a newly launched section for galleries established within the past five years, gave younger galleries a platform of their own. The foundation's CIF Dialogues talks covered topics from Asia's cultural identity to next-generation collecting and the future of cultural institutions. The Asian focus suits a city that sits between Europe and Asia, and the talks programme means the fair is also a place where the market is discussed, not only where it trades.
What It Adds Up To
Taken together, these efforts point to a broader ambition: to build the conditions in which an art market can grow. Lowering the costs for galleries, expanding the base of collectors, pushing for supportive government policies and developing an identity rooted in Istanbul all form part of that work. None is sufficient on its own, and none is complete.
For Güreli, the achievement lies in having sustained the effort through years of economic uncertainty, political change and regional conflict. After 21 editions, Contemporary Istanbul has established a lasting presence in the city's cultural landscape. Whether that presence translates into a deeper, more resilient art market will depend on what comes next. The fair has helped create the platform; the challenge now is to make the wider ecosystem thrive.
