What's on in Istanbul (6 October 2024)
A regular roundup of selected events and news in the worlds of art and culture, mostly in Istanbul but also elsewhere in Turkey and beyond
Top Picks from 212 Photography Istanbul
One of the most striking exhibits in this year’s 212 Photography Istanbul doesn’t involve photography at all. Displayed in the nave of a 19th century church, Pia Männikkö’s installation piece “Midsummer Night's Dream” swells and ripples hypnotically, flowing like a sparkling sea toward Sebahat Karcı’s iceberg-like paper sculpture “Induction.” (Männikkö also has another eye-catching piece downstairs in the building, which is now the cultural center Yeldeğirmeni Sanat in Kadıköy.) Though they’re still pretty Instagram-friendly, these works have an underlying fragility that gives them a reflective side too.
Rightly or wrongly, I tend to associate this annual festival with a glossy, commercial, hyper-saturated style that I don’t particularly love. This style can of course be used to good effect, such as in Patty Carroll’s “Anonymous Women” series, photographic tableaus of female figures overwhelmed by consumerism, on display at the Akaretler 37–39 venue in Beşiktaş. Fellow fans of architectural ruins and brutalism shouldn’t miss the photography of James Kerwin and Stefano Perego in the same multi-story pair of 19th century row houses, which once served as homes for Dolmabahçe Palace officials.
But there are quieter works featured this year too. At Taksim Sanat (inside the metro station), Hungarian documentary photographers take a sobering look at water scarcity around the world in the Breaking the Waves exhibition (which will stay up until 31 October), while four female photographers interpret old black-and-white family pictures in another group show, Finding the Way Back Home, at Studio Karaköy. At St. Anthony’s Church on İstiklal Caddesi, Dune Varela’s moody photos of archaeological fragments reverberate disconcertingly with her three-screen video installation fraught with geological peril.
I loved the artist duo Ahmet Rüstem Ekici and Hakan Sorar’s work at the Mardin Biennial, but their AI-heavy show currently at Vision Art Platform left me rather cold, so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked into the lovely Saint Benoit Church in Karaköy for their 212 exhibit. Though the same digital aesthetic predominates, the site-specific interplay with a historical space again seems to elevate the work, with the artists’ fanciful, jewel-encrusted AI-created objects evoking the lavish, mysterious power with which traditional religious icons and relics have been viewed over the centuries. (Personally, I think you can skip downloading the “augmented reality” Artivive app, though.) The crowd of spectators holding their phones aloft in unison like worshippers of the future completes the picture.
212 Photography Istanbul runs through 13 October, with most venues open daily 11am-8pm. The pdf program is easier to scan that the somewhat aggravating event website, though it doesn’t contain information about the cost or language of workshops and other side events (as far as I can tell, most of them are in Turkish.)
➡️ Find the shows more easily with my map of exhibit venues.
ICYMI: 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.
A Nişantaşı gallery outing
Anyone who knows me knows I have a bit of a Beyoğlu bias, but arts and cultural events and venues are increasingly popping up all around the city. I’ll write about some of the more far-flung ones in future newsletters but this past week I visited another longstanding gallery hub, the upscale Nişantaşı neighborhood, where three architecturally inclined exhibits have some unexpected resonances.
The photo above doesn’t begin to capture the luminous light of painter Pierre Bergian’s Drawing Rooms at Ferda Art Platform, a series of beautifully melancholy interiors stuffed with historical remnants but devoid of life along with a few de Chirico-esque exterior scenes. At Kalyon Kültür, artist Kenan Işık's Beyond Time: Istanbul-Rome layers the textures and landmarks of the two great cities on top of each other, evoking how new civilizations are built – literally or figuratively – on the ruins of the old. And at Galeri/Miz, Murat German’s digital deconstructions of modern urban transformation in Don’t Touch This! highlight the spatial violence of many of these changes.
Drawing Rooms is at Ferda Art Platform until 30 October; Maçka Caddesi, Ralli Apt. 37/7 K:5 Teşvikiye; open 11am-7pm Tue-Sat.
⏰ Beyond Time: Istanbul-Rome is at Kalyon Kültür until 13 October; Rumeli Caddesi, Taş Konak 6B, Nişantaşı; open 11am-7pm Tue-Sun.
Don’t Touch This! is at Galeri/Miz until 30 October; Hüsrev Gerede Caddesi No:64 Deniz Apt., Teşvikiye; open 11am-7pm Tue-Sat.
Also on view this week:
ART: Artweeks İstanbul 10th Edition (until 14 October) – More than a dozen Istanbul galleries showcase the artists they represent in this free exhibition/art fair. Open daily 11am-7pm at The Ritz-Carlton Residences, B Blok Fulya Girişi, Öğretmen Haşim Çeken Cad. No:4, Şişli.
ART: Istanbul Street Photography Festival Exhibition (until 20 October) – An exhibition of the works of Turkish street photographers alongside that of Vineet Vorha, the first Indian photographer to be named a Leica Ambassador. Open daily 10am-8pm at Terra Santa Culture and Art Center on Tomtom Kaptan Sokak in Beyoğlu.
ART: Emel Kurhan: Karkadé (until 17 October) – This solo show of gently playful embroidery and painting works is a good excuse to peek inside a beautiful 1940s art deco house, one of the city’s hidden architectural gems. Open 12-7pm Tue-Sat at Ark Kültür, Batarya Sokak No:2, Cihangir, Beyoğlu.
FYI: Friend, colleague, fellow Substacker, and wonderful photographer Bradley Secker is having a print sale of some of the powerful, poignant and just plain pretty works from his archives, including images taken in Turkey, Greece, Syria, Armenia, and elsewhere over the past two decades. Why not get some art to hang on your walls? (This is an unsolicited personal recommendation, not a paid advertisement btw!)
Recommended Reads 📚
‘There is a sense of safety here’: the artists keeping culture alive in Kharkiv – War has created a “new era of collaboration” among the Ukrainian city’s creatives, with artists, poets and curators working together. by Charlotte Higgins for The Guardian.
Two more articles looking at how artists and cultural organizations are affected by conflict and crisis: Lebanese Arts Organizations Scramble as Israel Ramps Up Airstrikes by Maya Pontone for Hyperallergic and War Again Shatters Life in Beirut, a Cultural Hub Constantly on Edge by Arie Amaya-Akkermans for DAWN.
The LGBTQI+ platform Velvele’s interview with photographer Ceren Saner on her award-winning project Inside the Ring , queer art, immigration, and Berlin.
“Modern diva” Melike Şahin talks about literary inspiration, stage costumes, protest, and her new album, Akkor, with Hannah Lucinda Smith for Monocle.
A review of The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World, a new exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts, by Veronica Esposito for The Guardian.
A Bronze Age Ship Sets Sail in the Persian Gulf – A single cuneiform tablet provided the basis for reconstructing a 4,000-year-old vessel. by Anna Zacharias for New Lines.