When I think about how an epidemic in this scale which shuts the whole world to their homes will affect the future of the culture and art world – perhaps because of my positive personality – I come to the conclusion that the value of artists and art professionals will be appreciated much more, online art will rise, and artists will produce very striking works in this period. People from different places of the world who share the same experience expressing what they experienced during this period, how they felt and how their reality changed through works of art. Art helps to create a common language. Being aware of the fact that it is difficult to make a realistic prediction about the future of the culture and arts environment at the moment, I think it makes more sense to focus on the positive results we have so far.
During the pandemic, a big population began to spend more time with themselves ever before and searched for a meaning. In a time of crisis and isolation, the role of art has become central to our lives whether we are aware of it or not. Culture and art continues to be one of the greatest unifying and healing forces during this crisis we are experiencing at the global level. In these difficult times, people need art more than ever. The fact that people in quarantine go out to the balconies and sing together in Italy, one of the countries where the epidemic is most severe, can be read as a result of this need, as these images are among the most shared videos on social media. Many studies show that there is a strong link between participation in cultural life and mental health. I think we all internalized the importance of art and the artist more during this period.
When I said I was going to establish an online art gallery 7 years ago, everyone laughed at me saying that a work of art can not be bought without seeing it closely. The current conditions have turned online environments into the main channel of cultural institutions at the point we have reached today. Although the field of culture and arts with its one of the main features which is to bring people together went through a very difficult period under these conditions, it started to shape its own future with new and creative solutions. Virtual exhibitions, live concerts, online artist talks and online performances have evolved in a digital environment by opening up a space of freedom for art. Of course, it is a pleasure to perceive the work of art with the place and to be in one-to-one communication, but it was not bad either to take advantage of the virtual tours of many museums in this period.
With the works that created during the pandemic period, we witnessed a change in perception and an increase in creativity. Projects that we couldn’t encounter in the old “normal” times came to our screens to surprise and delight. The pandemic has caused many artists, who have been confined to their homes by restricting their social interactions, to think and produce differently. I brought together the projects that were on my radar and that I liked very much during this period for you. I hope you will like it.
10) artnivo.com online exhibition- Staying with the Trouble
Considering the changes in the working spaces and interests of artists during the pandemic period, Artnivo brings together the latest works of the artists with their exhibition images presented in the home-studio spaces. In this period, when most of the artists’ studios were closed and their work areas narrowed, it is seen that the sizes of the works were also reduced. During this period, when Artnivo took a break from visiting artist studios, asked artists to install and photograph their works in their own working space. With that, we were able to make a small studio visit from afar.
9) PPerformistanbul – Stay LIVE At Home” performance series
Perform Istanbul’s “Stay LIVE At Home” performance series, which was initiated with the aim of creating a collective experience and sharing network in the early days of the pandemic, set an important example for the transformation and sustainability of performance art, while both performance artists and audience members participated to events in their safe environments.
8) Zilberman -Unlock

The exhibition titled Unlock proposes the constructive, healing and unifying energy of culture and art against the social, cultural and economic shock caused by the coronavirus / Covid-19 pandemic, which the world has been struggling with for more than a year at terrible material and moral costs. The exhibition aims to keep the doors open as a kind of ‘intensive care’ source, almost ’24/7′ with a sense of responsibility and understanding, in the face of the ‘Lockdown’ / ‘Quarantine’ practice that humanity is exposed to and which causes the postponement of many cultural and artistic activities, and the workers of this field, aims to bring the audience together under every possible condition.
7) I ME CE- DISCO-19 Exhibition
“Our basic instinct may not be to survive but to have fun. Here is your chance to think again: DISKO-19”
The DISKO-19 exhibition came out by two art directors of I ME CE, who could not leave their homes during the pandemic period. If artists met on an endless digital canvas and produced work together… They did.
One of the decisions taken in the artistic background of the work is the use of miniature aesthetics. Being next door to the “Miniatures in Contemporary Art” exhibition held at the Pera Museum is a pure coincidence, but its timing is significant. Not to mention, the resulting work reminds us of the works of Brugel, the carnivalesque master of the Renaissance. Of course, it is a pure coincidence that he is the most important work in the history of painting titled “Triumph of Death (1562) Triumph of Death”.
If there is something that is not a coincidence, the name of the exhibition and the participating artists. DISKO-19 is a subjective normalization project envisioned by I ME CE and artists Elçin Arpaçay, Merve Heper and Emine Sandal. However, this proposal is not very fictitious. Maybe it will be of use to us. Experts are of the opinion that pandemics will increase. Take a good look at the details here, take your notes. You’ll find inspiring elements on how to have fun if you go home again.
Entertainment, nightlife, long-awaited festivals and finally the “disco” scene have been designed and presented to the benefit of the art audience in order to imagine the future days in a mise-en-scene frame in order to cope with the restrictive effect of quarantine in every way. Humanity, who has a great appetite for fun after events such as world wars, major disasters, epidemics, which have devastating effects and show the desperation of the species, is experiencing the same situation today.
6) Isolated
Due to the corona epidemic, a group of artists prepared a project to share their works on social media. The isolated project is a formation involving about 50 photographers. Bringing artists together with many different approaches during the quarantine period, the project members use isolaproject.com as an exhibition space. New artists will be included in the time to the project, which unites artists who produce in different disciplines by putting storytelling at the center.
The artist Aslı Çelikel, who participated in the project, says these about her own work;
“The disappearance of the concept of time, the meaninglessness of what we will do on which day and at what time, and production. Maybe we are experiencing the depression of witnessing that the system that had been going on for so long is not working. Actually, my pandemic revolution project for Isolation Project was about this issue.
“We are the generation who have witnessed that this system we have established does not work. Nature recovers and we die. Along with it, our human relations are dying. Nature, which we have forgotten with our selfishness and egos, and which we do not try to protect, is our rightful enemy. A revolution is happening and our children will see the system that we will try to re-establish now, not us. Therefore, we must build it carefully and with love.
Empathy and love.
don’t forget!”
5) Tatsuya Tanaka’s Miniatures
In the time of COVID-19, face masks, toilet paper and other essentials are synonymous with safety, prevention and quarantine. But in Tatsuya Tanaka’s ongoing Miniature Calendar series, everyday items are turned upside down to create small sets of outdoor adventures. A folded mask functions as a small tent, while toilet paper descends from the wall holder as a snowy ski hill, and a thermometer equipped with wheels transforms into a fast race car. For miniature scenes of the Japanese artist and photographer, you can follow https://www.instagram.com/tanaka_tatsuya/.
4) )@covidartmuseum instagram Museum
Three art enthusiasts/directors living in Barcelona, Emma Calvo, Jose Guerrero and Irene Llorca, established the world’s first COVID digital museum via Instagram, keeping this idea in the foreground.
Sensing the dynamism in the art world, three art enthusiasts decided to collect all the works on one platform so that these works of art would not be forgotten in the post-pandemic period and could tell today as an archive years later. As in most fields, art was moving to digital platforms by keeping up with the new normal in this period, so they decided to establish a digital art museum.
So far, about 700 works from all over the world have been shared on Instagram. Some of these works were chosen by the founders, while others were delivered directly to the museum by the artists themselves. Among these artists are famous names such as Marius Sperlich, Marcio Rodrigues, Banksy, Dave Pollot, Mous Lamrabat, Katherine Lam, CJ Lee and Paola de Grenet.
3) Photography in the Days of Pandemic- Istanbul Modern
The whole world is going through days when movement and interaction are restricted. We are trying to understand and make sense of existence in an indescribable, uncertain and uncanny time. While this period is conducive to new discoveries for some of us, it may be a process of reviewing past practices and giving new meanings to them for others.
Istanbul Modern has launched an initiative that brings together the actors of the photography field in order to think together about the question of “what can we do about photography” in the days when we are confined to the borders of the four walls.
With this initiative, they invited artists to share their new works they carried out during the pandemic days. You can watch this project, in which 43 artists from different generations participated, on Istanbul Modern’s online platforms.
On this occasion, it is necessary to remind the photographic image’s strong and unshakable bond with the future beyond the testimony of the “now”. The new meanings we will discover in the face of what we feel and see will be an important and meaningful cultural heritage for future generations.
2) Refik Anadol – quantum memories, 2020
One of the most common consequences of both the pandemic conditions and the ecological crisis we are experiencing is the increase in the number of art works that continue the search for meaning through nature.
For the 2020 edition of the NGV triennial, artist Refik Anadol creates “quantum memories” using machine learning algorithms. Video art series is an expression of more than 200 million images about nature from the internet. These images are processed using quantum computing software developed by the Google AI quantum research team in conjunction with a supercomputer programmed with machine learning algorithms. The resulting real-time video can be thought of as both an alternative dimension of the natural world and a radical visualization of digitized memories of nature.
1) The concert of El Liceu opera during the pandemic period
In Spain, one of the countries most affected by the coronavirus, concert activities could not be held for months due to the epidemic.
The opera El Liceu in Barcelona, Spain, has not given a concert for more than three months due to Covid-19. The first concert given after the relaxation of quarantine measures in the country took place in the presence of flowers and plants.
Plants were placed on 2,292 seats in the hall for the first concert of El Liceu opera in months. After the concert, each of the plants was given to the health workers who took part in the Covid-19 outbreak.