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"   Photo: Billy Farrell Agency  A handful of the world&amp;#039;s most beloved artists, musicians, fashion designers, filmmakers, writers and generally very cool people converged upon the city of Istanbul over the weekend to take part in an epic and diverse series of round tables lovingly called ISTANCOOL. Free and open to the public, the festival (now in it&amp;#039;s second year) is essentially a string of extraordinary opportunities for the culturally inclined public to meet and greet people like Terry Gilliam, Michael Stipe, Tilda Swinton, Courtney Love and Kirsten Dunst (who&amp;#039;s enjoying a well deserved extended celebration of her Best Actress award at Cannes), all of whom participated in panel discussions where topics ranged from the future of cinema to psychedelic drugs (Gilliam has never taken any!). It was an incredibly ambitious event, taking place over the course of several days, in multiple venues including Vakko&amp;#039;s sensational new headquarters (Istanbul&amp;#039;s premiere fashion house). During the festival, we were privy to an enlightening conversation between Terry Gilliam and festival co-director Alphan Eseli where the famed director told us, &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t select the idea. The idea selects me. And then I become the worker.&amp;quot;   Photo: Billy Farrell Agency  R.E.M. screened a few of the short films made for their latest album Collapse Into Now created by Sam Taylor-Wood and Sophie Calle, who were on hand to talk about their work along with Michael Stipe and AnOther`s Jefferson Hack. Meanwhile, Courtney Love proclaimed, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m not a brand, I&amp;#039;m an artist,&amp;quot; before breaking into an acoustic set for the audience of 100. And finally, a few intimate workshops for Turkish students of fashion and art were held with designer Haider Ackermann and the promising young photographer Thomas Dozol. Thanks to the organizing genius of Liberatum founder Pablo Ganguli and Istanbul&amp;#039;74 founder Demet Muftuoglu, not to mention Jefferson Hack, the star-packed weekend actually went smoothly and was a joy to attend. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/news/a6609/istancool-from-kiki-dunst-to-courtney-love-22779/>