Istanbul Digital Art Festival to return for 6th edition in June

The sixth edition of the Istanbul Digital Art Festival will be held June 3-7 at the Ataturk Cultural Center, with Anadolu serving as the event’s global communications partner.

Organized by Mezo Digital with support from Türkiye’s Culture and Tourism Ministry, the festival will take place this year under the theme “Retell.”

The event will feature children’s and youth workshops, theater productions, digital shows, robot performances, panels and audiovisual performances.

A total of 70 artists from Türkiye and abroad working in digital arts are expected to participate.

This year’s festival will focus on the relationship between art and artificial intelligence, aiming to encourage audiences to rethink individual creativity and collective memory through a more inclusive perspective.

Organizers said artificial intelligence will be approached not simply as a technology, but as a tool reshaping how artists reinterpret, think and produce.

The festival will also explore the role of art in questioning and transforming social values, opening discussions on the place of artificial intelligence in society through themes such as value creation and collective narratives.

The event will be directed by Nabat Garakhanova, while Esra Ozkan will serve as artistic director.

The curatorial team includes Evgeniya Romanidi, Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, Burcu Ozturkler, Ozan Turkkan, Ismail Erim Gulacti and Avind, described as Türkiye’s first artificial intelligence curator.

As in previous years, the festival will be free and open to the public, featuring audiovisual performances, masterclasses, theater productions, panels and workshops.

Commenting on the event, Garakhanova said reaching a sixth edition reflected the growing influence of digital art both in Türkiye and internationally.

“As the Istanbul Digital Art Festival, we value being not only a platform that showcases technology, but also one that thinks with it, questions it and builds new narratives through it,” she said.

She added that the festival would continue fostering artistic collaboration and dialogue by bringing together artists from around the world.