4th Istanbul Digital Art Festival kicks off

By Ozlem Limon and Omer Mirza Seker

ISTANBUL (AA) - The 4th Istanbul Digital Art Festival (IDAF) kicked off on Thursday at the Ataturk Cultural Center (AKM), bringing together art enthusiasts.

Sponsored by the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry, IDAF gathers prominent figures from both domestic and international digital art scenes. Anadolu is the festival’s global Communications partner.

Festival Director Nabat Garakhanova expressed gratitude to sponsors, the Culture and Tourism Ministry, and the AKM team, highlighting their support since 2018.

- Artificial intelligence to exhibit Susa's works

Garakhanova drew attention to the tradition of planting trees during the festival, on behalf of both artists and sponsors, highlighting their efforts toward reducing energy consumption.

She also presented a plaque symbolizing this tree-planting activity to Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister, Batuhan Mumcu.

Mumcu expressed his gratitude for hosting esteemed artists at the ever-growing and strengthening Istanbul Digital Art Festival. He also stated that their support will continue.

Festival's cinema curator Samed Karagoz indicated they prepared an exhibition for the festival featuring "100 Years, 100 Cinema Works," published by Anadolu Publications.

"We brought the work to life using artificial intelligence. We'll witness how AI reinterprets these works through synopses in a visual spectacle," he added.

Fashion curator Niyazi Erdogan highlighted that a fashion area was organized for the first time at the festival this year.

"Fashion is an area where we live a life and express our own reality. With the works we showcase here, we'll experience the quest for fashion's own reality. We have works by Susa, an AI, as well as fashion designers, created with very different media," he added.

Julie Walsh, this year's festival music curator, noted the inclusion of works of 21 artists from Colombia, Taiwan, France, the US, Germany, and Türkiye, all using virtual reality.

Game curator Rahim Unlu described in his section, titled The Impossibility of the Possible and the Modest Truth of a Paradox, how visitors can experience interactive experiences that transcend the avatar experience to different dimensions through video games and virtual reality technologies.

Also, at the festival's opening, AI robot Avind delivered a speech.

- Istanbul Digital Art Festival

Organized by Mezo Digital, the festival will bring together prominent figures in digital arts from both domestic and international scenes.

This year's festival, which will be held with the theme of "Search Reality", will exhibit the works of 55 artists accompanied by 4 curators.

As Türkiye's first and only international digital art festival, it will host children and youth workshops, panels, and visual and audio performances until May 5.

In the festival, which will be open to everyone and free of charge, panels and workshops will be held on many topics such as technological harmony study, digital transformation workshop, machine aesthetics workshop, "Istanbul Technic University From Past to Present” exhibition, creative coding, comic anime, FCR experience, lego, upcycling art workshop, as well as audio and visual performances in the music, game, cinema and fashion sections.

- AI-designed exhibition

An exhibition, titled 100 Years, 100 Cinema Works, prepared from films produced in the first century of the Turkish Republic, will also be presented to visitors at the Istanbul Digital Art Festival.

In the cinema section of the festival, visual works produced with artificial intelligence based on the book brought to the readers by AA Publications will be exhibited.