Yavuz Ekinci is a Turkish novelist. His books have been translated into several languages and published internationally. His novel Dream Divided was banned in Türkiye and he was prosecuted for writing it; he later acquitted. Yavuz Ekinci transformed the court hearings into literary performances. His work explores memory, identity and political violence. His recent novel Aziz focuses on art, power and the contemporary art market.

Aziz (Everest Publishing, 2025) is a literary novel set in the contemporary art world. At its center stands Aziz Mirzade, a mysterious and obsessive art collector whose life revolves around the pursuit of rare works of art. For him, collecting is not a hobby or an investment strategy; it is an existential practice. Moving between Istanbul, European art fairs, galleries, and private collections, the novel explores the hidden mechanisms of the global art market: authenticity, prestige, speculation, and the invisible power structures that shape artistic value. Through the figure of Aziz Mirzade, the novel asks a fundamental question: What does it mean to possess art? Is collecting a form of devotion—or a form of domination?

The novel blends narrative fiction with reflections on art, collecting, and cultural power. Rather than portraying the art world as glamour, Aziz reveals its psychological and philosophical dimensions. Aziz Mirzade approaches artworks as if they were living beings. Each piece he acquires becomes part of his inner architecture. The collection gradually transforms into a mirror of his identity. In this sense, Aziz is also a novel about obsession, identity, and the human desire to give meaning to objects.

Most novels about the art world are written from Western cultural centers. Aziz offers a different geographical and intellectual perspective: a view from Istanbul, a city historically positioned between cultural worlds. The novel examines the art market not only as an economic system but as a symbolic battlefield where power, taste, and cultural capital intersect.