Art news in brief

The French Cultural Center in Istanbul's Taksim quarter will present this week a selection of video art from the French Regional Contemporary Art Funds' (FRAC) public collections, created in 1982 to publicize contemporary art in France. Titled "Espaces In/Civils," the selection features the work of 30 artists from France in addition to video art pieces by Turkey's Nil Yalter and Seza Paker. The exhibition, set to open Wednesday and run until Sept. 21, is part of a series of art events accompanying the 13th İstanbul Biennial.
The world's leading architects will visit Istanbul next month for the 2013 edition of the international conference series ARKIMEET, set for Oct. 7 and 8 at the Istanbul Halic Congress Center. Belgium's Julien de Smedt, France's Manuelle Gautrand and LA-based American architect Eric Owen Moss are only some of the famous speakers slotted to participate in the two-day conference, which will focus on cities. The 2013 event will be held under the main theme of "Bypass." The ARKIMEET conference series has been running since 2003.
The Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra, a multinational touring and recording ensemble bringing together musicians from 23 countries, will perform the first of its traditional autumn concerts this year on Oct. 3 in Istanbul. With British maestro James Judd as its conductor, the orchestra will present a program titled "Dogaya Ovgu" (Ode to Nature) at the concert, set to take place at the Lutfi Kırdar Convention and Exhibition Center. The program will include pieces by Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Claude Debussy and Ludwig van Beethoven.