This promises to be a great year for art-lovers in Istanbul. Here are five exhibits that will be opening within the first two months of 2012 at local art galleries and cultural centers.

Julian Rosefeldt: Asylum

German artist Julian Rosefeldt’s short film entitled Asylum deals in often tongue-in-cheek fashion with the issue of guest workers in Germany, and the treatment to which they are subjected by society at large, in this comic, sometimes absurd portrait of “the losers and the left-out individuals of modern societies.”

When: January 5 – 27

Where: Dirimart Garibaldi

How much: Free

Daniel Canogar: River of History

Spanish artist Daniel Canogar’s exhibit at Borusan Contemporary (entitled Tarih Nehri in Turkish), consists of five multi-media installations focusing on the theme of water, in particular its use and over-use in today’s resource-scarce world. River of History is curated by Kathleen Forde, Curator for Time-Based Arts at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, NY.

When: January 14 – April 15

Where: Borusan Contemporary

How much: 10 TL; 7 TL (groups of 10 or more); 5 TL (discount)

Jose Maria Mellado: Enigmatic Landscapes

Spanish photographer Jose Maria Mellado’s Enigmatic Landscapes, at Elipsis Gallery in Tophane, is his first solo show in Turkey. The color photographs in this appropriately-titled exhibit are a breathtaking collection of natural vistas in which humanity – or whatever scant traces exist of human habitation – is dwarfed by Mellado’s towering hillsides, deep ravines, and vertiginous plateaus. Even in a photograph of an ostensibly ordinary gas station / convenience store, the lowering clouds above are the photographer’s true focus.

When: January 12 – March 1

Where: Elipsis Gallery

How much: Free

Michael Snow: Solo Snow

The multi-media exhibition at Akbank Sanat punningly entitled Solo Snow, by versatile Canadian artist and avant-garde filmmaker Michael Snow, is co-curated by Ali Akay and Louise Déry, with the collaboration of Akbank Sanat and Le Fresnoy (Studio national des arts contemporains), one of the most prestigious art spaces in France. Over the course of his long and productive career, Snow has had his art exhibited at venues like the Sidney, São Paulo, and Whitney Biennials; his work, which typically performs experiments with form and temporality, has been described as “illusionistic.”

When: January 18 – February 25

Where: Akbank Sanat

How much: Free

Matthieu Paley: Those Forgotten on the Roof of the World

Photographer Matthieu Paley, known for his work for magazines like Géo and National Geographic, takes a voyage to the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan – known as the “Roof of the World” – in this exhibit at the Fransız Kültür Merkezi. Paley’s wide-angle lens produces stunning shots of the Little Pamir landscape, and his portraits of the Kyrgyz tribespeople who inhabit this inhospitable region are no less impressive. The pieces in this exhibit form the basis of what will become a book of photographs to be published in November of this year.

When: February 22 – March 31

Where: Fransız Kültür Merkezi

How much: Free