Operating in Turkey for 7 years with a mission to become a financial bridge at the Turkey - Azerbaijan - Georgia triangle and closing the first quarter of the year 2022 with an asset size of 3 billion 960 million TL, PASHA Bank continues to support art since the day it had been established. It has been supporting digital art since the year 2021 and became the main sponsor of the “2nd Istanbul Digital Art Festival”, which is organized by MEZO Digital and supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the R.T. (Republic of Turkey), and that will be held in Fisekhane between the dates of 3 and 12 June.
PASHA Bank offers sustainable banking services, including corporate, premium, and investment banking, to its clients in the financial business, a sector the digitalization performance of which leads all others, and it has been supporting art ever since the date it was established. In this world of digitalization, it promotes digital art, which has lately been a topical subject. In this context, PASHA Bank, which happened to be the official sponsor of the 1st Istanbul Digital Art Festival (IDAF), also became the main sponsor of the “2nd Istanbul Digital Art Festival”, organized by MEZO Digital and supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the R.T., and which will be held in Fisekhane between the dates of 3 and 12 June. Another surprise of this festival – where works on the subject of “Is Human Creativity the Only Sustainable Energy in the World?” will be exhibited by Avind, Turkey’s first artificial intelligence curator – will be the digital artistic reinterpretation of the works of Karabakh artists by the Azerbaijani artificial intelligence artist, Shusha. In his statement about the festival where the works of 12 national and international artists, selected by Avind with reference to the matter of sustainability, PASHA Bank General Manager H. Cenk Eynehan said as follows: “One of the leading sectors of digitalization is banking. The Turkish banking sector’s digital applications have a good standing also in the international arena. Digital banking, which can be called “new generation banking,” gained pace during the pandemic. While many innovative technologies like the blockchain, artificial intelligence, cloud-computing are used by the banking sector, almost half of the consumer loans are processed through digital channels. Considering our position at the very center of digitalization, the support we give to digital arts agrees with the dynamics of the sector. We are now talking about non-fungible tokens (NFT) in arts as well. There are NFTs, even among the world’s most expensive works of art. In year 2021, the total volume of NFTs exceeded 22 billion dollars, a considerable part of which consists of works of art. Furthermore, according to the market data obtained from cryptoart.io, in 2021, collectors spent 1.8 billion dollars in 5 auctions where NFTs were sold. Exactly, at that very point, we take pride in being the main sponsor of the first festival in Turkey that is organized by using artificial intelligence technology.”
Artificial intelligence artist Shusha’s Karabakh interpretation
While giving information and the following statements about the works that the Azerbaijani artificial intelligence artist, Shusha, would display at the festival to be attended by 12 national and international artists, Eynehan said that their support for the digital art would also continue in the future. He also said as follows: “Karabakh of Azerbaijan is of particular importance to our bank. Turkey has invested 12 billion dollars in Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijan has invested 19.5 billion dollars in Turkey. According to the Preferential Trade Agreement that took effect on the date of 1 March 2021, the volume of the trade between Turkey and Azerbaijan is expected to reach 15 billion dollars by the year 2025. During the difficult times at the Upper Karabakh that ended with Azerbaijan’s victory, Turkey and Azerbaijan did further close the ranks and shared both pain and joy as “two states, but one nation.” Considering the Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev’s declaration of the year 2022 as the ‘Karabakh year,’ we think that the presentation of the Azerbaijani artist Shusha’s works - in which the Karabakh culture is blended with digital arts - to the visitors will be a unique experience.”