Changing the rules of the game for Turkish contemporary art

Ali Güreli, the founder and chairman of the Contemporary Istanbul art fair, emphasizes the importance of contemporary art and speaks about new projects and how to better circulate Turkish contemporary art internationally Once again this year the Bosphorus Summit in Istanbul focused on the importance of soft power and how it evolves.  However, this time the participants also discussed the importance of contemporary art as a soft power. A participant and speaker at the summit, Ali Güreli, may be known as the founder and chairman of Contemporary Istanbul, but Güreli's main target is to increase the circulation of contemporary art in every other area, be it internationally or nationally. 

According to Güreli, this can only be made possible by making art a part of society. Speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News, Güreli said it was necessary to implement incentives and advantages in terms of taxation when buying art. 

"We need to increase the creation of high-quality art and support artists. Another reason is to get rid of the problems in the art trade, such as taxes," Güreli said.

It is no secret that in Turkey the high value-added tax (18 percent) is always a problem in purchasing art, as it both directly and indirectly affects artists and their creative process. 

Support from local government authorities

Güreli said it was critical to create an infrastructure to support the creation of art. "The government or municipalities can make this possible by giving incentives and with this way, both public and private institutions would be able to support artists. We can have art management centers and artists' residencies," said Güreli, giving an example from Berlin, where municipalities have established artist residencies that...