What's on: Everyday Objects, Young Artists Award, Botanical Illustration, and more
A biweekly roundup of art exhibitions, cultural events, and arts and culture news in Istanbul and elsewhere in Turkey.
Finding Inspiration in Nature and the Everyday
From weathered nails dancing across a stage to a mirror-covered chair creating the illusion of dappled sunlight on the walls of an interior room, Serkan Aka’s kinetic (and often sonic) sculptures find the magic in the everyday, giving new life to discarded objects and causing the viewer to look at the potential of the quotidian with fresh eyes. I loved his work at Tokatlıyan Han last year so it’s a bit embarrassing that I slept on his solo exhibition at Kıraathane, Where Things Linger, until almost the last minute (it closes tomorrow!). The playful nature of the work lightened a tough week while also offering some welcome resistance to our overly high-tech and commodified world.
Also inspiring is the strong work by young artists in the annual Akbank Contemporary Artists Prize Exhibition, this year focusing on the interconnectedness – and changing relationships – between humans and the natural world. (For those not in Istanbul, selected works are online.) Highlights for me included Ceren Aydoğdu’s gentle videos of city dwellers and urban plants; Özge Kahraman’s architectural drawings of caves; Defne Cemal’s book of clouds; Hüseyin Güler’s Bernd & Hilla Becher-esque photographic typology of the homes of charcoal makers; Yeşim Özkan’s henna landscape paintings; Ömer Tevfik Erten’s apocalyptically tinged images of swimmers in an urban river; İrem Sur’s biomaterial earth blanket; and Selin Özçiftçi’s installation of her grandmother’s recipes, featuring handwritten notes, herbal mixtures, and botanical drawings.
You might think the dawn of photography would have put botanical illustrators out of business, but the field has stayed relevant by enabling the depiction of a plant’s entire life cycle and its individual parts within a single composition, thereby playing a crucial role in documenting endangered species and securing their place in scientific literature, as the Anatolian Plant Legacy exhibition at SALT Beyoğlu explains. Beautifully detailed depictions of Turkey’s richly diverse (but threatened) endemic flora by local illustrators are accompanied by informative texts detailing the history of botanical illustration and its development in Turkey, as well as a small browsable library on the upper level of books about plants in Turkish and English. There’s also a fine accompanying website and a series of exhibition talks (including two in English) online.
⏰ Serkan Aka’s solo exhibition Where Things Linger is at Kıraathane İstanbul Edebiyat Evi until tomorrow, 11 July (Meşrutiyet Caddesi, Yemenici Abdüllatif Sokak No:1, Asmalımescit, Beyoğlu; open 11am to 7pm; free).
The Akbank 43rd Contemporary Artists Prize Exhibition is at Akbank Sanat until 31 July (İstiklal Caddesi No:8, Beyoğlu; open Tue-Sat 10:30am to 7:30pm; free).
Anatolian Plant Legacy is at SALT Beyoğlu until 10 August (İstiklal Caddesi No:136, open Tue-Sat 11am to 7pm, Sun to 6pm; free).
Cultural News in Brief 🗞
The satire magazine LeMan faced a violent attack on its Istanbul offices, followed by the arrest of some of its staff, the confiscation of its 26 June print issue, and a government-imposed access ban on its website. (For more on the importance of such magazines and the pressure they have faced over the years, watch this recent France24 interview with Ersin Karabulut, the co-founder of satire magazine Uykusuz, or read my 2019 article “The serious business of satire in Turkey.”)
Photographer Cansu Yıldıran was detained in Ortaköy while observing Istanbul Pride gatherings last weekend; after being held for 24 hours, Yıldıran was among 50 people released but banned from traveling abroad. Meanwhile the Pera Museum cancelled a screening of the 1991 film My Own Private Idaho that had been scheduled during Pride, citing the district governor’s blanket ban on events.
Turkey's competition authority has reportedly launched an investigation into Spotify after a deputy minister demanded legal action over "provocative" playlists.
Locals and preservationists are protesting plans to close the Antalya Archaeology Museum in the middle of the tourist season and are calling for the building – which was the first museum in Turkey to be built as a result of a national architectural competition and features decorative ceramic panels by artist Tufan Dağıstanlı – to be seismically reinforced rather than torn down.
The Latest from Me 🙋🏼♀️
I’ve been following artist Ateş Alpar’s work for some time now, from their photos of queer nightlife in Istanbul to walking performances dedicated to Osman Kavala and Hasankeyf, and I’m so pleased to have the chance to write at some length about Alpar’s recent solo exhibition. Read my piece “Repression and Resistance in the Work of Artist Ateş Alpar” in The Markaz Review.
Other Recommended Reads etc 📚 🎧
The ongoing trial of prominent talent manager Ayşe Barım on charges related to the Gezi Park protests of 2013 is seen as a “warning” to Turkey's culture industry, Çınar Özer reports for Turkey Recap.
The Istanbul Jazz Festival playlist features tracks by artists performing at this year’s event, which continues through 17 July.
See the annual (since 1360!) Kırkpınar oil wrestling competition through the lens of photographer Bradley Secker.
What will it take for artists to return to Syria after the fall of Assad? Arie Amaya-Akkermans looks at artistic life in Damascus, concerns about cultural heritage protection, and the dilemmas facing Syrian artists abroad for The Markaz Review.
From Byzantine liturgical chants to Ottoman classical music, state-sponsored orchestras to Anatolian rock, the Istanbulite Journal takes readers on a tour through Istanbul’s sonic identity, past and present (with an accompanying playlist).