Seven days in Istanbul to meet cultural producers against the backdrop of the 11th Istanbul Biennial "What Keeps Mankind Alive?"

During this time we had the opportunity to meet with Vasıf Kortun, director of Platform Garanti, Öykü Özsoy, coordinator of their residency programme and archivist Sezin Romi. Both Melih Görgün and Mahir Namur from The European Cultural Association gave us an informative overview of the City and Art Projects before viewing the exhibition, City and Art which took place at Tophane-i Amire Culture and Arts Centre. We also used the opportunity to meet with artist-initiated projects operating outside of state support, such as PIST, run by Didem Özbek and Osman Bozkurt, Geni Açı (Wide Angle)'s co-founders Serdar Darendeliler and Refik Akyüz and BAS founded by Banu Cenneto. Having this opportunity to meet directly on a one to one level with cultural producers, artists, critics, curators and gallerists enabled The Enquiry Research Group a greater understanding of the landscape of contemporary art in Istanbul. We were given an extremely warm welcome to Turkey. This visit ensured meaningful conversations and exchanges, enabling the possibility to forge future collaborations between Istanbul, Dublin and elsewhere.

On behalf of the Enquiry Research Group, Dublin, I would like to thank the ECF and GradCAM for their support of this initiative.