Late spring in the Middle East is filled with book fairs, open-air festivals and brave new exhibitions with a dose of discontent about the present and visions of a dystopian future. 

Election fever hits Turkey’s art scene: Concerns among Turkish citizens about democracy, human rights and basic liberties have found expression in several art exhibitions as Turkey approaches the June 24 snap elections, the first presidential and parliamentary balloting since the adoption of a presidential system in April 2017.

At the Galata Greek Elementary School, “First Round,” featuring 80 works from the private collection of Banu and Hakan Carmikli, takes a look at the current political and social scene in Turkey. A work by Ferhat Ozgur, “Tower of Democracy,” consists of old ballot boxes stacked on iron-framed shelves. Nearby, Ozgur's larger-than-life wolf, made of wooden ballot boxes, raises its head as if howling. The ballot boxes and the wolf recall the Nationalist Action Party, whose symbol is a wolf, and its new rival, the Good Party, whose leader, Meral Aksener, is nicknamed Asena, which means “she-wolf.” In Serra Behar's “Untitled,” a medicine cabinet, empty except for a few rosaries, is affixed to the wall, offering a thinly veiled criticism of the conflict between doctors and Islamic healers in Turkey. The exhibition's title, “First Round,” suggests the current debate on whether Turkey's incumbent president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will emerge victorious in the first round of voting. The exhibition runs until May 12.

A few steps away from “First Round,” artSumer, a small gallery in Karakoy, is displaying large works by Deniz Aktas, a millennial from the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. The barren landscapes, in hues of gray and beige, bear the devastating marks of the forced evictions and demolished homes and buildings in his city, which is scarred by decades of armed conflict between state security forces and Kurdish militants. The exhibition, aptly titled “No Man’s Land,” runs through May 12. It will be followed by a collective exhibition on destruction and hope, “The Sun is Still There,” which will hang through June 30.