Created for GODIVA’s 100th anniversary, the collaboration carries Ekrem Yalçındağ’s art from canvas into packaging, textile and the chocolate itself.
LONDON, Oct. 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GODIVA has unveiled the GODIVA Centennial Collection Art Edition, a limited collaboration with internationally acclaimed contemporary artist Ekrem Yalçındağ, at a launch event in Shanghai on Wednesday, 23 September. Created for the brand’s 100th anniversary, the collection translates Yalçındağ’s work into packaging, textile and bespoke chocolate moulds.
The Shanghai launch forms part of GODIVA’s global centennial celebrations taking place throughout 2026. The anniversary celebrations began earlier this year in Japan and the United States with a special collection box featuring chocolates selected to represent each of GODIVA’s ten decades. They now continue in Shanghai with the launch of two limited-edition collections bringing Ekrem Yalçındağ’s art together with GODIVA’s chocolate craftsmanship.
Following Shanghai, GODIVA’s centennial celebrations will continue in Riyadh and Istanbul before culminating in Belgium, where the GODIVA story began in Brussels in 1926.
THE COLLECTION
The Art Edition comprises two designs, each exploring a different relationship between art and chocolate. The Tablets feature ‘Feels Like Home’, an original work created by Yalçındağ specifically for GODIVA’s 100th anniversary. Elements of the design were translated into bespoke chocolate moulds, bringing the artwork directly into the form and surface of the chocolates.
Inspired by the feeling of home, the work draws on repetition, rhythm and colour to evoke something both personal and universal: the experience of returning to something familiar, cherished and enduring. It reflects how meaningful experiences settle into memory, not as a single moment, but as something we return to.
The Tablets selection includes Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate with Pistachio, White Chocolate with Almond, and Gold Chocolate with Salted Caramel Pieces. The edition is limited to 5,000 boxes worldwide, each accompanied by a commemorative textile bearing its individual edition number.
The Carrés take their inspiration from Impressions, Yalçındağ’s 2014 oil-on-canvas work, measuring 175 cm in diameter and held in the Yıldız Holding Art Collection. The artwork is reinterpreted on the packaging, and the Dark Chocolate and White Chocolate Carrés are accompanied by a textile featuring the artwork, creating a tangible connection to the original piece.
MURAT ÜLKER: “WHEN ART BECOMES PART OF THE CHOCOLATE”
Murat Ülker, Chairman of GODIVA and pladis, said:
“I became acquainted with Ekrem Yalçındağ’s work before I met him personally. Works from different periods of his career have long been part of the Yıldız Holding Art Collection, so this collaboration represents a new chapter in a relationship built over many years. That makes it particularly meaningful to bring his artistic language together with GODIVA as we celebrate the brand’s 100th anniversary.
The art does not stop at the box. It invites you to indulge not only in the chocolate, but in the art itself. The chocolate may be enjoyed today, but the box can be kept. Years from now, it may bring back the memory of this moment and perhaps even be passed from one generation to another, not simply as packaging, but as an object with its own artistic and emotional value.
GODIVA has endured for a century, and our hope is that it will continue to be part of people’s lives for centuries to come. I like to think that these pieces can carry a little of GODIVA’s first century into its next, and perhaps much further.”
EKREM YALÇINDAĞ: “I STARTED NOT WITH THE BOX, BUT WITH THE CHOCOLATE ITSELF”
Ekrem Yalçındağ said:
“As I began working on the design, I realised that I kept thinking about the chocolate itself and could not resist the desire to give form to the chocolate. So I began not with GODIVA’s exterior, the box, but from within, with the chocolate itself.
‘Feels Like Home’ is the feeling evoked by the smell and taste of chocolate. For me, home is not simply a physical place. It can be a person, a memory, a familiar scent or a taste that takes us back to something we cherish. Throughout the process, I wanted the work to evoke GODIVA while also remaining unmistakably my own.”
Yalçındağ added:
“On GODIVA’s 100th anniversary, I imagined happiness becoming not only something to be tasted, but something to be seen, remembered and cherished.”
The GODIVA Art Edition will roll out globally from October, with launch dates varying by market, including the UAE from mid-October and the US from November.
ABOUT EKREM YALÇINDAĞ
Born in Gölbaşı in 1964, Ekrem Yalçındağ completed his art education at Dokuz Eylül University in İzmir and at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, where he earned his master’s degree under Hermann Nitsch.
As a contemporary artist who has lived and worked in Europe for many years, Yalçındağ has developed a distinctive visual language rooted in geometric and floral motifs, repetition, rhythm and interwoven patterns, creating a bridge between art and design. His work has been exhibited extensively in Türkiye and internationally and is represented in museum, institutional, corporate and private collections including Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich, the Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik, Istanbul Modern, Sammlung Goetz in Munich, Borusan Contemporary and Yıldız Holding.
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A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/34248f81-8fc5-4b69-b69a-7e298be770c1