Istanbul's art fair charms art lovers in new venue

People visit the Contemporary Istanbul art fair in Istanbul,Turkey, on Oct. 8, 2021. Contemporary Istanbul, Turkey's leading art fair, hosted the 16th edition at its new venue, an ancient shipyard, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The event, which kicked off on Tuesday, will run until Oct. 10. (Photo by Osman Orsal/Xinhua)

ISTANBUL, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Contemporary Istanbul, Turkey's leading art fair, hosted the 16th edition at its new venue, an ancient shipyard, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Istanbul's Halic Shipyard founded in 1455 on the shores of the Golden Horn, an inlet of the Bosphorus Strait.

The premises, consisting of four historical buildings and a giant open space along the shore, was packed with visitors who took selfies in front of the art pieces they loved.

"Our dream of moving our venue from a fairground to a historical place like this, to a living and breathing art space, came true," Melih Ismail Inan, the fair director, told Xinhua on the scene on Friday.

The art event, held online last year with only local galleries due to the pandemic, managed to attract 57 local and foreign art galleries and institutions this year.

Inan described the interests of foreign galleries as "tremendous," despite the ongoing COVID-19 related "travel restrictions in many countries."

He stressed that the open spaces of the new venue allowed the team to organize "very beautiful" exhibitions with outdoor installations and gave art lovers a place where they could spend the whole day without worrying about the pandemic.

"This is a beautiful environment where we come together with our artist friends," Caglar Yucel, owner of the Love in Art Gallery, an online art gallery based in Istanbul, told Xinhua.

In his view, Istanbul has always been an art-friendly city and this venue carried its art scene even further.

The event, which kicked off on Tuesday, will run until Oct. 10. Organizers expect more than 60,000 visitors to visit the exhibition in total.