What's on in Istanbul (22 September 2024)

A regular roundup of selected news and events in the world of art and culture, mostly in Istanbul but also beyond

Sep 22, 2024

And the award goes to…

One of the most inspiring evenings in Istanbul each year is the International Hrant Dink Award Ceremony, which was held last Sunday, 15 September, the birthdate of its namesake. A Turkish-Armenian journalist and intellectual, Hrant Dink was murdered in Istanbul in 2007, but the annual award ceremony celebrates his life by recognizing people and organizations from around the globe that share his values.

The event is always full of music, with (live or recorded) performances this year by singer Lara di Lara, the alternative rock group Peyk, and Armenian composer Vartan Harutyunyan. This year’s awards went to Mor Çatı Women’s Shelter Foundation from Turkey and Rugiatu Neneh Turay, a campaigner against female genital mutilation in Sierra Leone who gave a powerful speech about her work and her own life experiences. As always, one of the highlights was the video tribute (watch it here in English) to more than a dozen other “Inspirations” fighting for a more free, just, equitable and peaceful world.

⏰ LAST CHANCE: Istanbul As Far as the Eye Can See

If you didn’t get enough historical views of Istanbul at the recent panoramas exhibition at the Pera Museum, the nearby gallery Meşher is still showing a selection of more than 100 rare images of the city – not only panoramas but also paintings, engravings, books, photographs, and more – spanning five centuries. Perhaps most interesting is to see the way Istanbul scenes became popularized and commercialized for a mass market, appearing on ceramic plates and painted trays and in peepshows and souvenir postcard books – think of them as the 19th century predecessor to an Instagram carousel.

Exhibition runs until 29 September

Meşher

İstiklal Caddesi No: 211

Open Tue-Sun 11am-7pm

Warm Earth Sounds for Plants and the People Who Love Them

What is the sound world of a plant? That’s one of the odd but intriguing questions that classically trained musicians Nicoletta Favari and Christopher Salvito asked themselves when they were invited to create a site-specific sound installation for Salt Beyoğlu’s top-floor Winter Garden. The pair, who collaborate as Passepartout Duo, often use technology “as a way to access micro and macro sound worlds we can’t access with just our ears,” they explained in an artist talk and performance in the space last week.

Using the rammed earth surfaces of the garden as inspiration, they dropped pieces of dried clay into a a purpose-built water tank that served as their blank canvas. As water seeped into the clay, underwater microphones captured sounds that the artists likened to what water might sound like going through the capillaries of plants, reflecting the similar mechanisms that recur in nature across different organisms. The recording of Passepartout Duo’s sound installation “Of Soil and Water” plays in the serene Winter Garden through 6 October; after that, other sound artists will present their own works at various intervals until 6 April 2025 as part of the ongoing series Warm Earth Sounds for Plants and the People Who Love Them.

Salt Beyoğlu

İstiklal Caddesi No. 136

Open Tue-Sat 11am-7pm, Sun 11am-6pm

NEW! Calendar of arts and culture events in Istanbul (and beyond)

I’ve started a Google Calendar of Arts and culture events in Istanbul and beyond, but it’s for paid subscribers only. If you’re a paid subscriber (thank you!) and did not receive an email with the subject line “Jennifer Hattam has shared a calendar with you” (check your spam folders, please 🙏🏻) or cannot access the calendar, do drop me a line.

Coming up this week:

ART: Distilled from Scattered Blue (24 September to 2 November) – This group exhibition on the “melancholic connotations of blue” brings together works by well-known international artists including Max Ernst, William Kentridge, Gustav Klimt, Dora Maar and Joan Miró with contemporary artists from Turkey such as Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Ahmet Doğu İpek, Fatoş İrwen, Şahin Kaygun, Lara Ögel, Sarkis and Elif Uras. Galerist, Meşrutiyet Caddesi No:67/1, Beyoğlu, open Mon-Sat 11am to 7pm.
FILM: Too Much Red (26, 28 and 29 September) – Istanbul Modern’s latest cinema series continues with screenings of Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, Jean-Luc Godard’s The Chinese, Pedro Almodóvar’s Talk to Her and other films “where the color red plays a central role.” Tickets are 190 TL, screenings have Turkish and English subtitles. İstanbul Modern, Tophane İskele Caddesi No:1, Beyoğlu.
TALKS: Textile Conservation Symposium (26 to 27 September) – One for all the carpet connoisseurs out there: a two-day symposium on textile conservation organized by the Sadberk Hanım Museum. Free, from 9am to 4pm at the ANAMED Auditorium in the Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, İstiklal Caddesi No:181, Beyoğlu.
ART: SAHA Studio (27 to 28 September) Artists Hüseyin Aksoy, Betül Aksu, Kıymet Daştan, Nadir Sönmez and Zeynep Yılmaz from Mardin, İzmir and Istanbul present their works-in-progress at an open studio. Friday 27 September from 3-7pm and Saturday 28 September from 1-7pm at SAHA Studio, İMÇ 5. Blok, Atatürk Bulvarı No.66, Fatih.
ART: Three Doors (27 September to 28 December) – The multidisciplinary research institute Forensic Architecture is one of the organizations behind this award-winning exploration of police negligence and complicity in two racist attacks in Germany. Opens Friday 27 September at 6pm at DEPO, Lüleci Hendek Caddesi No.12, Tophane, Beyoğlu; regular hours Tue-Sat 11am-7pm.
MUSIC: Akbank Jazz Festival (28 September to 13 October) – The 34th Akbank Jazz Festival opens with a free concert by Kenan Doğulu on 28 September at 8:30pm at Müze Gazhane in Kadıköy and continues with a full program of events. Various venues.
ART: 212 Photography Festival (28 September to 13 October) – Contemporary photography exhibitions, mostly free, at more than a dozen venues around Istanbul, plus film screenings, talks and workshops (mostly in Turkish). I’ve got my eye on Ahmet Rüstem Ekici and Hakan Sorar’s “In Circulation” at the Saint Benoit Church in Karaköy and the architectural photography of James Kerwin, Stefano Perego and Thomas Mayer at Akaretler 37-39 in Beşiktaş. Various venues.

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Tickets go on sale 27 September at 10:30am on Passo for the Filmekimi film festival, which runs 4-13 October in Istanbul followed by stops in Diyarbakır, Ankara and İzmir. The program and schedule for Istanbul is out now; do note that all films will be screened in their original language(s) with Turkish subtitles only.
First-time filmmaker Murat Fıratoğlu from Turkey received the Special Orizzonti Jury Prize at the 81st Venice International Film Festival for his feature film One of Those Days When Hemme Dies (Hemme’nin Öldüğü Günlerden Bırı).
Author Yavuz Ekinci is facing "terror propaganda" charges related to his novel Rüyası Bölünenler (Dreams Divided), a work of fiction that draws on the stories of the Saturday Mothers seeking justice for disappeared loved ones.

Istanbul etc.

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