Under the blazing sun in Mardin, a group of men with traditional baggy pants and prayer beads were trying to make their way to the local mosque for Friday noon prayers, but the narrow, cobbled street was blocked by buses and a white Mercedes with Istanbul plates. An elderly man shrugged and remarked, “There are more cars than people in the city nowadays.”

Back at the hotel, an ancient caravanserai (travelers inn), a harried woman negotiates with the receptionist for two additional rooms while simultaneously shouting into her phone. “You have to pick them up from the airport,” she says to the person on the other end, dropping the names of two of Turkey’s most famous art collectors. Meanwhile, artists speaking French wait for their bus outside, while several Turkish women loudly discuss what they will do the rest of the day now that they've opened their exhibition of “ebru,” the Turkish art of marbling, at the Mardin Museum.

The first 10 days of May transformed Mardin, a city in the southeast known for its religious and vernacular architecture, into a bustling international arts hub. The Mardin Biennial inaugurated its fourth edition on May 4, featuring some 40 artists from Turkey and abroad. On May 3, the Dilek Sabanci Art Gallery opened its exhibition of works by Ai Weiwei, showcasing some of the pieces by the Chinese artist recently on display at Istanbul’s Sakip Sabanci Museum. Several other art events popped up in the city, including a marbling exhibition by a collective of artists from Istanbul and an “anti-biennial” displaying the works of local young artists in a traditional teahouse.

Thus, as happens every two years during this contemporary art event, Mardin locals found themselves rubbing shoulders with captivated foreign artists snapping photos of the city's dazzling gold-hued stone walls, stressed public relations managers in their black Chanel jackets and shades, the Istanbul-based cultural glitterati and art collectors sporting understated designer brands.