Applications for the Akbank 43rd Contemporary Artists Award Competition Have Ended
Applications have started for the Akbank 43rd Contemporary Artists Award Competition is organized in cooperation with the Painting and Sculpture Museums Association and Akbank Sanat, in order to support developments in the field of contemporary art and support young artists, The applications will be evaluated by the jury and the works selected to be exhibited will be presented to art lovers at the exhibition to be held at Akbank Sanat between May 29th – July 31th, 2025.
Application Deadline: 28 March 2025
* Click for the competition specifications.
* Applications for the Akbank 43rd Contemporary Artists Award Competition have ended. For your questions, you can contact us through the contact page of our website. Thank you for your interest.
Jury Members:
Ceren Erdem (Cutator)
Ayşe Erek (Art Historian - Associate Professor)
Emre Hüner (Artist)
Gönül Nuhoğlu (The Painting and Sculpture Museums Association)
Derya Bigalı (Akbank Sanat Director)
Competition theme:
The World is Not Round, But a Web
Friendship and comradeship, among the most profound bonds of existence, have long woven individuals, communities, and even disparate species. Through laughter, communication, solidarity, and the cultivation of trust, these bonds have catalyzed the development of both individuals and societies. Yet, such connections are not confined to humans.
Today, friendship and comradeship are being reimagined across diverse dimensions- spanning personal relationships, social solidarity, ecological harmony, and inter-species affinities, as well as interactions with technology. Interspecies relations highlight the interconnectedness of humans, animals, plants, and the broader ecosystem, underscoring interdependencies that shape a collective future. Solidarity, meanwhile, transcends individual connections, forming the foundation of social struggles and redistributions of power.
This exhibition is an invitation to reconceptualise friendship, with its enduring strength and transformative potential, not solely as a personal experience but also as a network of relations extending into ecosystems, technologies, and the material world. It calls upon the audience to co-discover how these ties -whether formed through human companionship, the roots of a plant, or the mere presence of an object- make life more sustainable and imbue it with deeper meaningful.
Ceren Erdem