Open Call to Artists and Designers for the İGART Art Projects Contest

With the İGART Art Projects Contest, iGA Istanbul Airport aims to bring together the cultural memory of Anatolia and the identity of Istanbul that is immersed in different cultures and art. Consequently, the second Art Projects Contest is being held and İGART is proud to present an extremely democratic format which opens the public arena to competitors. The grand prize for the contest is TRY 2 million. The piece that wins the contest will be displayed to millions of national and international spectators.

iGA Istanbul Airport, Türkiye’s gateway to the world, continues its mission of being an art centre where different cultures meet and interact, as well as being the most important global hub in the region. Having brought all cultural and artistic works under the umbrella of iGART in 2021, iGA Istanbul Airport focuses on promoting Turkish culture to the citizens of the world in this context. On this occasion, iGA Istanbul Airport has planned art projects in 17 different areas as part of the Art Projects Contest, the first of which has already been held.

Accordingly the second edition of the Art Projects Contest is being held in this context. As you will recall, İGART announced its first Art Projects Contest in September 2021, receiving 221 project submissions for the contest that was open to both Turkish and foreign young artists and groups under the age of 35, and in which Betül Kotil’s “Saya’sVoice”won the grand prize of TRY 1 million.

The cultural memory of Anatolia meets the world from a contemporary art perspective.

İGART is aiming to introduce the rich cultural memory of Anatolia to the world from a contemporary art perspective, what makes this proposition different is that it is completely transparent, free, permanent and unique, due to the fact that its selection committee is made up of interdisciplinary experts. iGA Istanbul Airport, which provides services for 300,000 passengers per day on average, gives artists the opportunity to exhibit their artworks in one of the most important public arenas such as iGA Istanbul Airport through the exhibition of the artwork so it can be enjoyed by millions of visitors from different nations within the scope of İGART Art Projects. Therefore, it offers Istanbul, the city of civilizations, a new arts & culture venue.

Under İGART, a selection committee consisting of nine distinguished members who are renowned in different areas of art, from painting to sculpture, architecture to criticism, curation to academia (Prof. Marcus Graf, Mehmet Ali Güveli, Prof. Gülveli Kaya, Deniz Odabaş, Seçkin Pirim, Murat Tabanlıoğlu, Seyhun Topuz, Nazlı Pektaş) under the leadership of the Artist and Academic Professor Hüsamettin Koçan combining their forces to produce and conduct projects with an approach that seeks to benefit both the community and society.

The winning project will be announced on 20 June

The project owners who make it to the second round of evaluation in the contest will receive a participation fee of TRY 50 thousand, and the owner of the winning project will receive the biggest prize ever in the field of arts and culture in Türkiye, TRY 2 million. The deadline for proposals to be accepted from the artists with an open call for the second-phase artwork selection is scheduled for April 1, 2023. The announcement of the winning project is scheduled to be made on June 20, 2023. The results will be announced on the official web channels with the İGART extension and in the media.

The instructions, which state there are no restrictions on material or technique, emphasise that the material and technique of the application or ready-made artwork must be permanent and applicable within the framework of the physical characteristics of the proposed project area. It has been announced that all activities under İGART and detailed information on İGART Art Projects Context can be found at https://igart.istanbul/yarismalar/d1-check-in-bolgesi.html

There are no thematic or technical restrictions in the second contest, either…

Kadri Samsunlu, the CEO of iGA Istanbul Airport, highlighted that they had a mission to build a bridge between countries, societies, and cultures as the region’s most important global transfer hub. “iGA Istanbul Airport is a point of entry for our foreign guests to our country. Therefore, we take it upon ourselves to introduce our country, Türkiye, and Anatolia at this venue. Last year, with our first contest, we embarked on a journey to give young artists hope, for which we received excellent feedback. Now, we are excited to be initiating the second İGART Art Projects Contest,” said Samsunlu, and pointed out that their mission was to make iGA Istanbul Airport a place that introduces passengers to art and culture.

Prof. Dr Hüsamettin Koçan, the Chairman of the İGART Executive Board, mentioned that iGA Istanbul Airport was a place where cultures met, in addition to being a transportation hub, and stated: “İGART Art Projects is designed with a transparent, interdisciplinary approach and an openness to prioritising the artists’ suggestions. As we aim to integrate the identity of iGA Istanbul Airport with the geography and culture of the country and meet universal values with the works of artists of all generations who are producing works of art and design in our country, we believe that art is essential in public places. In this regard, the winning piece of our second contest will be placed in the round area that links the lower and upper floors of the departures and arrivals terminals, which is in the centre of the D1 – Check-in zone, and it will be visible from both floors. Detailed information about the physical features of the venue can be found at www.igart.istanbul. There are no thematic or technical restrictions for the project.”

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