Welcome to Al-Monitor Istanbul.

I am writing this week’s newsletter from BASE, where the country’s newest artists are showing their work to Istanbul’s notoriously picky art circles. With the Istanbul Biennial fading from the headlines, early-career creators are carrying the pulse forward, with playfulness, yes, but also with an edge honed by everything they have lived through: precarity, climate anxiety, shrinking cultural space, identity, gender violence and the ever-tightening competition for visibility. So this is our Youth Issue, dedicated to the young artists, chefs and creators who insist on shaping the city and the country in their own image.

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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: Boundaries, Possibilities, Whole Lot of Nerve

In “As If Present,” Aysegul Karababa sets empty glass shoes at the threshold, echoing her childhood ritual of staging her father’s return to make the house feel safe (BASE)

Step into BASE 2025 this weekend, spread across four floors of the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Fulya, and you walk straight into Turkey’s cultural future being negotiated in real time. Now in its ninth edition, BASE brings together 156 new graduates from 36 cities and 43 universities under the theme Boundaries/Possibilities, showcasing nearly 200 works in painting, photography, ceramics, sculpture, glass, video, new media, graphic design and traditional Turkish arts. Add the six satellite exhibitions and the returning alumni, and the number climbs comfortably past 200 artists and 400 works. Please take time to see more works and artists in the link, as I had difficulty choosing.

At the opening, curator and academic Derya Yucel described this year’s show as “a shared ground where boundaries do not solidify, possibilities multiply and encounters become possible.” You feel that immediately: artists working with the precision of people who know the ground beneath them is not guaranteed.

BASE’s ecosystem is larger this year. Trendyol Sanat leads the sponsorship and casts a welcome spotlight on Romanian artists. Bilgili Holding provides the cavernous venue; Kale Tasarim ve Sanat Merkezi and Jumbo bring strong — and delightfully unorthodox — selections.........

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