Anna Spreafico on Living and Working in Istanbul's Cultural Scene

Anna Spreafico, a Milanese project manager born in 1978, moved to Istanbul three years ago while maintaining strong ties to Italy. She previously coordinated the Public Design Festival in Milan for esterni and now collaborates with BASE Milano and other organizations. She co-founded the project On printed paper. Spreafico arrived a year after the Gezi Park protests, witnessing a period of change following the May 2015 elections where AKP lost its absolute majority and HDP gained parliamentary seats. After the July 2016 coup attempt and constitutional referendum, uncertainty prevailed, but projects are slowly restarting. She notes that Istanbul's cultural scene has shifted from public to private spaces, with major institutions like SALT Galata, Arter, Mixer, and Borusan Contemporary surviving. She frequents Bomontiada, a repurposed brewery housing Babylon music venue, a gallery, restaurants, and Atölye coworking space. Public cultural policies are virtually nonexistent; initiatives are privately funded, such as IKSV (organizer of art and design biennials and Turkey's Venice Biennale pavilion) and Istanbul Modern. She doubts a model like esterni could exist in Istanbul, citing FotoIstanbul festival supported by Beşiktaş municipality as an exception for its high-quality public programming. Spreafico values Italy's preservation of culture as a public good and admires Turkey's private initiative and accessibility, noting that SALT and Arter offer free entry.