ISTANBUL — The historic neighborhood of Dolapdere serves as an unlikely setting for Istanbul's first purpose-built contemporary art museum, towering above the area's rundown terracotta rooftops. Arter, which opened its doors last fall, has high hopes of pushing boundaries by working across disciplines and with international peers to fuel artistic dialogue at a time when expression in Turkey has been muted.

Among the projects Arter slated for 2020 is a retrospective of the German artist and filmmaker K.P. Brehmer co-produced with institutions in Germany and the Netherlands. The museum will also probe the relationship between art and sound with an exhibition by the Turkish artist and musician Cevdet Erek, a group show in Arter’s Sound Art series, and a new music festival. 

The new landmark “enables Arter to assume its role as a multi-disciplinary contemporary arts institution with a strong conceptual art collection at its core while pursuing its mission of encouraging contemporary artistic production across all disciplines, from music to dance, theater to sonic arts, film to literature,” said Melih Fereli, Arter’s founding director.

The museum, whose construction and collection cost $130 million, put its mark on Turkey's biggest city even before it opened. Built on the site of a former auto repair shop, it emerged as the centerpiece of the transformation of Dolapdere, a working-class district where commercial galleries, hotels and residential towers have sprouted in anticipation of Arter’s arrival.