The aim of the project was to bring artists, art institutions and managers from Turkey/Anatolia who are active in contemporary art together with those similar groups, initiatives, festivals and organisations from Istanbul and Europe at a meeting environment where they can communicate and interact directly, without any intermediaries. The target group of the project were the independent culture and art producers, initiatives, artists, institutions, cultural managers, festivals and independent organisations in Turkey/Anatolia.

Between March and July 2008, after visits to the cities covered by the project, namely Antakya, Çanakkale, Batman, Bartın, Eskişehir, Kars, Mardin, Mersin, Nevşehir, Trabzon, Urfa, Adana, Afyon and Gaziantep, a second round of trips was made to the 6 selected cities (Kars, Mardin, Eskişehir, Trabzon, Antakya and Nevşehir). The project outputs together with the database formed are shared with the involved parties on a website and a video is produced using material from the project related events. A final evaluation event which brought many participants from Turkey and Europe was held in September 2008 in Istanbul. The project was coordinated by Anadolu Kültür and santralİstanbul - Istanbul Bilgi University and other project partners were La friche (Marseille - France), Duncan Centre (Prague - Czech Republic) and Red House (Sofia - Bulgaria). Other contributors of DirectLink were Contemporary Performance Arts Initiative, Bant Magazine, Fabrikartgrup and Goethe Institute.

DirectLink was supported by the European Commission Civil Society Dialogue: Cultural Mobility Program.