Ukraine's Ruslana performs her song Wild Dance ands wins the Eurovision Song Contest on May 15, 2004 at the Abdi Ipekci Stadium, in Istanbul, Turkey. The event – hosted by last year's winners Turkey – also celebrates the 30th Anniversary of ABBA's win. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Istanbul-based Ali Gulec is a graphic artist with a difference. His surreal illustrations are like identikit drawings aiming to prosecute the material arts. Working on the margins of what is possible with his medium, Gulec's forms, figures, and situations are remarkable for their clarity and strength of purpose, and maintain an iconographic intensity that would make any rock band bereft of an album cover salivate with admiration.

Created from nearly 4,000 pieces of metal scraps, Aslan (Turkish for Lion), is a recent sculpture by Istanbul-based artist Selçuk Yilmaz. The piece took nearly a year of work and involved hand-cutting and hammering of each individual metal piece

A child plays with a cat next to a makeshift animal shelter at Cihangir neighbourhood in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, March 23, 2023. Turan comes every single day with cat food in his hand to the makeshift shelter he helped build with the other volunteers in the area and takes care of the needs of the cats that reside their every single day. (Photo by Francisco Seco/AP Photo)

A protester gestures as he holds a dog before a burning barricade during protests in Harare, Zimbabwe on January 15, 2019. (Photo by Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters)

Protesters shout as they hit a pole during ongoing anti-government protests in Beirut, Lebanon on November 19, 2019. (Photo by Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)

A wounded protester is seen after security forces intervene in protesters during a protest against military coup and detention of elected government members in Mandalay, Myanmar on March 27, 2021. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A handout photo made available by the Red Bull Press Office shows Italian pilot Dario Costa in action as he flying through the Catalca Tunnel in Istanbul, Turkey, 04 September 2021. Costa set a new world record for the longest tunnel flown through with an aeroplane marking 1,610 metres. (Photo by Nuri Yilmazer Handout/Rex Features/Shutterstock)