Blind Date Istanbul, a rendezvous of the new acquisitions of Deutsche Bank’s contemporary art collection and Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum’s (SSM) calligraphy collection, will take place between September 8th and November 1st 2007. The exhibition, with the theme “Exceptional encounters and relations”, will be running concurrently with the 10th International Istanbul Biennial.

At the time when the borders between East and West are becoming increasingly blurred and Istanbul is ready to be a bridge between the two more than she has ever been, it is the concept of “Abstraction as a universal language” which builds a bridge between contemporary art and Ottoman calligraphy. Blind Date Istanbul houses more than 50 pairings of artists like Çırçırlı Ali and Adolf Hölzel, Beatriz Milhazes and Çömez Mustafa Vasıf, Abdurrahman Efendi and Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Hafız Osman and Bruce Nauman, Abdülkadir Şükri and Asta Gröting, melting diverse generations, schools, concepts, and styles.
For Global Head of Deutsche Bank Art Dr. Ariane Grigoteit, Blind Date Istanbul seems to be one of the most unusual exhibitions in which the Deutsche Bank Collection has ever been presented. Truly showing both partners to their best advantage, it opens an astonishing new horizon for the newest acquisitions of the world’s most extensive corporate art collection. Calling the exhibition “another successful step” in collaborations with leading collections around the world, SSM’s Director Nazan Ölçer sees it as a “turning point” for the museum.

Scrolls from the Topkapı Palace and from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, which are being exhibited for the first time ever, are among the most striking works of art at Blind Date Istanbul. Sculptures of famous artists from the Deutsche Bank collection will be accompanying the exhibition. An exhibition catalog containing photographs of chosen works of art, essays and biographies of the artists will also be available.