We are becoming a bit too art journal now, but what we can do - it's June.
At the 2025 edition of Art Basel in Basel (June 19–22), ceramics emerged as a standout medium, capturing the attention of collectors, curators, and casual admirers alike. Long regarded primarily as craft, ceramic art is now being celebrated in its own right—a testament to its versatility, emotional resonance, and tactile presence in an increasingly digitized world.

Following years of virtual engagement, collectors are seeking renewed physical connection. Ceramics—materials shaped directly by human touch—resonate deeply with viewers longing for authenticity. Contemporary artists are pushing the boundaries of the medium, with large-scale, conceptual, and cross-disciplinary ceramic works featured prominently across the fair’s curated sectors, including Unlimited and Premiere, which focus on ambitious and ultra-contemporary pieces.

Galleries presented ceramics infused with diverse cultural references—from Japanese-inspired glazes to volcanic clays. Despite a 12% decline in the global art market, mid-level collectors (with budgets under $50,000) remain active, often gravitating toward collectible ceramic works that offer both artistic and material richness within a more accessible price range.

Notably, several presentations leaned toward an Asian aesthetic, reflecting both traditional influences and contemporary reinterpretations that added further depth and global resonance to the ceramic trend.

Last autumn, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, opened its new season with Naked City, the first solo exhibition in Turkey by acclaimed American artist Doug Aitken. Far from a conventional display, the exhibition is conceived as a site-specific encounter—an immersive spatial journey set within the enigmatic architecture of Perili Köşk.

Curated by Jérôme Sans, Naked City spans nearly two decades of Aitken’s multidisciplinary practice, from 2006 to 2024. With works that hover between film, installation, sound, and sculpture, the artist draws us into the fragile rhythm of modern life—its noise and silence, velocity and stillness, its intimate estrangements.

Here, the city is not a subject to be viewed from a distance, but a space to be inhabited. Through shifting projections, luminous figures, and a kinetic sculpture commissioned especially for this exhibition (Ascending Staircase, 2024), visitors are invited to lose themselves in a choreography of movement, light, and architectural echo.

“I didn’t want to walk in and see a series of well-lit pictures on a bright wall,” Aitken reflects, “but rather to open the door and fall into this vortex.” At Perili Köşk, that vortex becomes tactile—windows become screens, staircases become portals, and time feels malleable.

This is not to be missed—not for the promise of novelty, so much as for  the fleeting chance to experience what is seldom made present: artworks that breathe with the rooms, walls, and shadows around them.