Welcome back to Al-Monitor Istanbul.

This week, the Istanbul newsletter makes a detour to Ankara, then on to Brussels and Vancouver, as we chase the works of internationally recognized and emerging artists. So follow me to CerModern, to a great fish restaurant in a landlocked capital and to the work of a new voice in fiction.

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Thanks for reading,

Nazlan (@NazlanEr on X)

P.S. Have tips on Istanbul’s culture scene? Send them my way at nertan@al-monitor.com.

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1. Leading the week: ‘New Now’

Robin Coban’s sculpture “Toward the Flow.” (Photo by Nazlan Ertan)

“New: Now 3.0” at CerModern is a snapshot taken at full speed. Curated by Attila Gullu, the exhibition marks the third edition of a project CerModern has committed to repeating annually — a deliberate move to give young artists continuity.

Gullu’s premise is precise. “What we cannot predict, know, or foresee — what unsettles societies and spreads fear — can be traced today by looking closely at young people,” he writes in the curator’s text. “If we can visualize and make our present visible, we can shape tomorrow.” The artists gathered, mostly around 30 or younger and from refreshingly diverse backgrounds, are invited into CerModern’s main hall — a space usually reserved for established names — to test that proposition in real time.

The difficulty is addressed upfront. Young artists are asked to say something unsaid, to create images not yet seen. It borders on the impossible. But, as Gullu reminds us, impossibility has always been youth’s natural territory. The works thrive on intersections: hybrid forms, convergences and ruptures, shaped by digital fluency, relentless work habits and what the curator describes as an almost inexhaustible energy.

The placement of works in the vast space sharpens these conversations. Robin Coban’s figurative sculpture “Toward the Flow” appears almost like a three-dimensional fragment that has slipped out of Mehmet Akan’s tall, commanding oil paintings just behind it. The pairing is intentional. “They share the same studio,” Gullu noted. “I did not want to separate their works.”

Elsewhere, Baris Seval’s “The Lonely Waves” introduces a quieter register, offering a pause within the exhibition’s otherwise kinetic rhythm. Ilhak Altiparmak’s embroidered eiderdown — “Is it possible to love someone softly?”........

© Al Monitor