Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center

The contemporary art institution Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center opened in 2001 and was located on the pedestrian Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul, Turkey. Platform Garanti organized exhibitions; conferences and events; hosted an international residency program; and maintained a library and archive of contemporary art.

Platform was founded by Vasif Kortun initially with the support of the Ottoman Bank and later, once the Ottoman Bank had been incorporated under a different name, by Garanti Bank. Directed by Vasif Kortun throughout its term, other key members of the team included Esra Sarigedik Öktem (who went on to work at Van Abbemuseum and later the British Council) and November Paynter who moved to Istanbul in 2003 following completion of a Masters in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art, London. Platform Garanti took a break from its exhibition program at the end of 2007 and formally ended its activities under this name in 2010. In 2008 major renovations of Platform Garanti's original Istiklal Avenue venue and the former Ottoman Bank Headquarters in Galata, were initiated in order to combine elements of Platform's previous activities with two other cultural entities: Garanti Gallery and the Ottoman Bank Archives and Research Centre under the common name: SALT; a public company operating under Garanti Kültür Inc.

Between 2001 and 2007, Platform organized over 40 exhibitions in Istanbul. Notable exhibitions included:

Subtracting of Zeroes, Mladen Stilinović, 2007

The exhibition Subtracting of Zeroes pivoted around the issue of economy with reference to the previous use of Platform's building as a bank in the 1980s. A selection from Stilinović's production of over 70 artist books, from the 1970s to today, were exhibited in the mezzanine.

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