#trienale

Aside from the harrowing depiction of the city burning and the plight of refugees during the 1920s Greco-Turkish war in Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel Middlesex (2002), I didn’t know much about Izmir before going there. But given the stated aim of the second installment of ‘Portizmir 2’, their contemporary art triennial, to produce not only an exhibition but also ‘a dialogue between contemporary art and the people in the city’, I knew that would have to change. Luckily for me Turkey’s second biggest port after Istanbul, and third largest urban centre, is welcoming to strangers and trade. Intertwined historical, cultural, social, political and religious conflicts, and myriad contradictions that they give rise to, are rife in contemporary Turkey.

via frieze.com