If you find yourself holidaying in Bodrum or around the Muğla region in the next few weeks, we can’t recommend the Gümüşlük Classical Music Festival more strongly. Taking place in the small fishing village of Gümüşlük, the month-long festival is co-curated by Turkey’s leading pianist Gülsin Onay, who, unsurprisingly, delivers a programme rich in piano recitals.
Seven superb concerts have already taken place but there’s still five nights of music left. The veteran English pianist Martin Roscoe takes the stage on Sunday evening (July 26), followed by a night of Mediterranean sounds performed by the French-Algerian violinist Gilles Apap and the young Serbian pianist Misha Dacić on Wednesday (July 29). Then, on Friday July 31, another Serbian pianist, Anika Vavic, who studied under the great Noel Flores at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, will perform both classic and modern reinterpretations. The following week, Onay herself takes the stage in a concert enigmatically titled ‘A Serenade to the Stars’ (August 4). The festival concludes with the imaginative AyşeDeniz Gökçin, who plays a selection of Nirvana and Pink Floyd songs, reinterpreted and remixed, on August 8 (read Tony Barrell’s piece on the piano virtuoso in Cornucopia 50).
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All concerts start at 9pm and take place at the beautiful Antique Stone Quarry (above), the same quarry from which King Mausolos collected the stones for his palace and mausoleum. Tickets are a bargain at TL35 a pop. They’re on sale through Biletix or from the festival office at Turgutreis Caddesi No. 30/1, Gümüşlük, Bodrum. The office is open from 10am to 8pm, but if you’re buying tickets for a concert that evening, make sure to get them before 5pm.
But that’s not all. From August 1, Gümüşlük will also host Turley’s first open air chamber music festival. The Eklisia Chamber Music Festival will take place at the Eklisia Church, which dates back to Byzantine times, until August 13. The programme includes the dancer Kadir Sonuk who, accompanied by the wind ensemble Camerata Smyrna, will perform the Egyptian dance Tanoura with Sufi influences (August 1); the Dimitrios Dounis quintet from Athens, named after the influential 20th-century violinist, perform with the Italian soloists Raffaele La Ragione and Camilla Finardi on August 3; the renowned Borusan Quartet performs on August 5; four cellists known as Çellistanbul will take the stage on August 7; Fuego Trio will wow audiences with the Argentine tango composer Ástor Piazzolla’s compositions on August 9; the Olten Quartet will perform on August 11; and concluding the programme on August 13 will be Camerata İzmir, under the baton of Nazi Özgüç, with the prolific drama actor Genco Erkal as the soloist, who will perform Stravinsky’s ‘The Soldier’s Tale’. All concerts start at 9.30pm. Visit Biletix's website to purchase tickets.
Main image shows this year’s opening night concert of the Gümüşlük Classical Music Festival with Gülsin Onay on the piano (photo: İbrahim Hakkı Zırh).
The winner of this year’s Ancient & Modern Prize was announced on Frday. The award of £1000 is offered to anyone 26 or under or 60 or over (age groups rarely catered for by grant-givers) with a yearning to learn, discover, confirm or experience something, preferably very specific and ideally slightly out of the way. Originality and a certain passion as well as unwordy applications are encouraged. The judges never meet. No strings are attached. It was the brainchild of the scholar, writer, sculptor and Morgan-owner John Carswell, a world authority on Chinese Blue and White and Iznik pottery, and is offered by Cornucopia and Hali, with additional support from the big three London salerooms, Bonhams, Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Projects have to appeal to the interests of one or other of the two magazines, in other words things Turkish or textiles. A second prize of £500 was added in memory of the great Ottoman architectural historian Godfrey Goodwin.
So tight was the race this year that the prize had to go to a re-count. ‘The results were extremely close this time,’ reports the Secretary, Julie Witford, with the most points, ‘after much double-checking’, going to Pat Yale, 60, for her travel and book project to follow Gertrude Bell's pre-First World War travels around Turkey. The Godfrey Goodwin prize for the runner-up went to Dr Steven Cohen, 66, for his research into the carpet collection of the Maharajas of Jaipur.
There were lots of superb entries. Sadly the younger entrants very narrowly missed out this year. You can read more about them in John Carswell's column in the next Cornucopia and I hope that some them will also feature Cornucopia.
Pat Yale, an architectural historian and journalist based in Cappadocia, is pictured above at Binbirkilise, near Karaman, on the Konya plain, visited by Gertrude Bell in 1905 and the subject of her book The Thousand and One Churches (an edited edition by Robert Ousterhout is available from Cornucopia). ‘Thrilled to have won the prize,’ Yale writes. ‘It’s the perfect spur to get me going on part two of the trip, the extreme heat of the southeast combined with Ramazan having forced me to a beat a brief retreat to Cappadocia from Urfa. I set off again on August 1’.
Gertrude Bell (1868–1926), born into an County Durham family, was a formidable and fascinating traveller, diarist and correspondent, but more of an Arabist and Classical archaeologist rather than a Turcologist. Her Istanbul diaries are described by Ousterhout in his article Socialite, Traveller, Scholar, Spy… in Cornucopia 49. Bell's photographs and papers have been archived by Newcastle University, with an excellent online library. Amazingly, Yale seems to be the first to attempt to retrace the intrepid, boyish Gerty’s every footstep across Anatolia. An account of her experiences will appear in a future Cornucopia. And we look forward to the book.
Applications for the 10th Ancient & Modern prize open on August 1, 2015. For more information visit www.ancientandmodern.co.uk. Please forward this link to anyone who would be interested.
On display until the end of summer on the terrace of the Istanbul Chamber of Architects in Karaköy is a 50-square metre painting paying tribute to the Gezi protests. The colossal work (above) was painted by the artist Haydar Özay, the son of the former head gardener of Gezi Park, Cemal Özay, who has worked there since 1979.
The painting took a year to complete and was unveiled on the first anniversary of the Gezi protests on May 30. It features the people and things that have become the icons of the ‘hottest’ summer of Istanbul’s recent history: those who died, including the children and their mothers, the Beşiktaş football fan group Çarşı, penguins, the ‘woman in red’, one of the members of the Taksim Solidarity Platform Mücella Yapıcı, a yellow canary and a bulldozer chasing riot control vehicles.
It is an impressive and emotional work, and one that deserves our attention.
Özay, who’s a graduate of the Mimar Sinan University Painting Department, said his father was one who inspired him to do the painting.
‘I drew designs and took notes and photographs during the Gezi protests. I painted Yapıcı as a witch who dedicated herself to Istanbul. She has the Haydarpaşa building on her lap. Berkin Elvan is there with his marbles, dog and kite,’ Özay told Hürriyet Daily News back in May.
Paid entirely by volunteers, the artwork has already been seen by many, including the families of Berkin Elvan and Hasan Ferit Gedik, the two young men who lost their lives during the protests. The painting will travel abroad in autumn.
Gezi Park stands untouched by bulldozers today but the question is: for how long? Earlier this month, it was reported that Turkey’s Council of State reversed its previous decision to cancel both Taksim Square’s controversial pedestrianisation project and the Artillery Barracks project that will take over Gezi Park (the reason protesters occupied the park in 2013). So the construction of yet another shopping mall (like we need it), disguised as the barracks, might still go ahead. Will this ignite Gezi protests round 2? We'll have to wait and see...
‘Turkey’s greatest classical sight can come as a shock, even to a die-hard art historian,’ writes Roger Williams in the introduction to the Cornucopia guide entry on Ephesus. Well, I’m not an historian, but even to a layman (albeit a curious one), the sight is every bit as fascinating.
After living in Turkey for two and a half years, I’ve realised just how little travel I’ve done outside of Istanbul. So I promised myself this summer would be different. Two weeks ago, I camped on the Black Sea, in the charming village of Kıyıköy. Next weekend, there’ll be sailing around the Turquoise coast (don’t be jealous), and the week after that, Cappadocia. But last weekend, I finally got around to visiting Ephesus.
In hindsight, I shouldn’t have chosen the middle of summer to go, but c’est la vie. I would recommend visiting in the spring or autumn, which is when most people want to come to Turkey anyway (unless you plan to spend your entire holiday on the seaside, the only thing acceptable in the July and August heat). If you do visit in summer, go early (the site opens at 8am) or late (after 3pm; it closes at 7:30pm). We made the mistake of arriving at noon – and no hat, sunscreen or amount of water can help with the oppressive heat.
Attic and Ionian Greek colonists built Ephesus around 1000 BC on the site of the former Arzawan capital. It was a wealthy trading port, especially prospering when it came under the control of the Romans in 1290 BC. It was most famous for the Temple of Artemis (named after the goddess Artemis; Anatolian Cybele, Roman Diana), on the outskirts of Selçuk (the entry town to the sight), which used to be one of Wonders of the Ancient World. It was famously set on fire by Herostratus in 356 BC. Today, it is a scattering of sparse remains and one can only imagine its former glory. For a taster, you can visit the British Museum to see the best-preserved marble column drum and two enormous ionic capitals of the temple, unearthed by the British archaeologist John Turtle Wood in 1869.
You can walk to the sight, which takes around 30 minutes from Selçuk’s town centre, or take a five-minute dolmuş (TL6). There’s also taxi, but it’s really not necessary with the regular dolmuş service. You need separate tickets for the main section (TL30) and the Terrace Houses (TL15), both on the main site. Outside the main site, you can visit the Basilica St John (TL10), the Ephesus Museum (TL10), the House of the Virgin Mary (read Donald Carroll’s feature ‘Mary’s House’ in Cornucopia 29), and the Isabey Mosque.
Two rows of columns remain of the Basilica, the trade centre during Roman rule. The capitals of the columns are Ionic, with three naves, and were built in first century AD, during the reign of Emperor Augustus, in the shape of bullheads.
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Incredibly preserved reliefs on a sarcophagus
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The Trajan Fountain, named after the Roman Emperor Trajan, was built at the beginning of the second century AD. It had columns with two stories and was decorated with statues. Today, only the foot of the big statue of Trajan remains.
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The Temple of Hadrian was built in honour of the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the second century AD. You can still make out the frieze of the goddess Fortuna in the middle of the vault, which is supported by four columns with Corinthian capitals. On the semicircle in the back, there’s a relief of Medusa. A visitor adds some colour with her red umbrella, trying to cope with the heat.
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The Gate of Hadrian
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The Celsus Library is undoubtedly the pièce de résistance and truly remarkable. You’ll find most of the other visitors conjugated here gaping at its beauty. It was built in honour of Tiberius Julius Celsus, the general governor of the Asia Minor province. He died at the age of seventy in 114 AD and his son, Tiberius Julius Apuila, began building a library near his tomb. But he himself became ill and it was his son who completed the library in 125 AD. It was rumoured to have 12,000 books during its time and was destroyed but the Goths when they invaded in 265 AD.
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Although construction of the Grand Theatre started in the Hellenistic Period, it was much more widely extended during the rule of Emperor Claudius (41–54 AD) and completed during the rule of Emperor Trajan (98–117 AD). The three-storied theatre is 18 metres high and fits almost 25,000 spectators. Concerts took place and so did gladiator and animal fights, with the high peripheral wall around the stage acting as a barrier from the audience.
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The Isabey Mosque was built by Aydınoğu İsa Bey around 1375. The western facing door is covered in marble. Minarets on the eastern and western sides were originally built, but today only the western minaret is still erect. The courtyard with its pretty fountain is a quiet spot to rest your feet and contemplate all that history you’ve just ingested.
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Selçuk itself is nothing short of delightful. If you visit on the weekend, stop by the Saturday market with its piles of light red, fragrant tomatoes and grapes of the darkest purple. It doesn’t have the hustle and bustle of an Istanbul market and so is a pleasure to explore. There are little cafés to stop for Turkish coffee. We had all our meals at Tat restaurant, which I would never have discovered unless it was recommended to me. I would have walked past it, seen the generic menu and kept walking – thus missing an absolute gem. The food is excellent. Lightly spiced chicken and kebabs, hearty kiremitte köfte (meatballs baked with tomato sauce and cheese), and truly superb mezes. Simple cooking with good ingredients never fails. The owners are lovely and found it hilarious that we came there for lunch and dinner two days in a row. The lesson: don’t judge a book by its cover. Lucky for us, our hotel was up on a hill, and so the balmy evenings were spent on the balcony watching the sunset with a glass of Aegean rosé. Bliss.
Street art is gaining popularity in Turkey, with the Pera Museum even staging its first-ever graffiti and street art exhibition last autumn. But the best place to see street art in the city is undoubtedly Kadıköy, where Istanbul’s most laidback and progressive municipality is beautifying its neighbourhood with massive bold murals, as part of the Mural-Ist festival. The series of street-art festivals had its first edition in 2012, continued in 2013, and is back this year. International and local street artists are invited to repaint the walls of Kadıköy, giving the neighbourhood an edgy, young feel. Artists have a week or so to paint the wall, and visitors can visit during those times to watch them at work and then take a walk around the neighbourhood to see the other murals.
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The festival started on June 12, with the Russian artist Rustam QBic painting the wall of the Emek Apartment on Ağabey Sokak. He depicted a creature with a rose for a head sitting in a garden of flowers. The artist’s use of colour is superb – he chose a pink that matches the original colour of the building and doesn’t clash with the nearby building.
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Between June 25 and 30, the Spanish artist DEIH painted No 7 on Yeni Duygu Sokak, giving the neighbourhood a new superhero.
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On June 27, the popular Turkish artist Cins (he’s previously painted the façade of the Tophane art space Mixer) started painting the Eren Apartment on Sarraf Ali Sokak in his signature style. He completed the mural – which perhaps looks the most street art-y of all – on July 4.
The renowned American street artist Levi Ponce and Kristy then produced a collaborative work on Buzhane on Karakolhane Caddesi, completing it on July 11 (main image). The artists’ styles are totally different – but somehow it works. The blue is eye-catching and this mural could very well be on the streets of Berlin or Buenos Aires; its appeal is universal.
On August 17, Istanbul native Canavar will begin work on his piece at the Acıbadem Campus of Marmara University. You can watch him work until the 24th. Between September 2 and 9, the Barcelona-based artist Aryz will work on the Timur Apartment on Sarraf Ali Sokak. And rounding off the festival will be Wicx, Nuka and Esk Reyn who will work on the Kadıköy Belediyesi on Fahrettin Kerim Gökay Caddesi between September 23 and 30.
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Works from previous years include a delightfully geometric tribal creature from the well-known French artist Amose, simpler and subtler than most of the others. You can find it on Kırmızı Kuşak Sokak.
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Fu, Lakormi̇s, Wi̇cx and Esk Reyn collaborated the produce the above mural on Mühendis Sarı Ali Sokak. It’s a lively melange of faces, plants and animals, with a thoroughly modern feel.
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The ox-blood red mural by the pioneering Argentinian street artist Franco Fasoli (aka JAZ) on the building near the Otopark on Iskele Sokak is perhaps the most conventional in style, calling to mind an Ottoman battle, and is very majestic.
Below is a map showing the murals mentioned in this blog. Click here for the interactive version. City Bosphorus: Anatolian Side in Cornucopia 52 has more on the festival, with photographs by Monica Fritz of some of the murals not shown here. This is an excellent resource showing all the murals on the Anatolian side. Our guide has the places to stop for food or a glass of something. Once you’re done there, grab Cornucopia 51 and explore Beyoğlu to spot more murals, especially in the Galata, Karaköy and Cihangir neighbourhoods.
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Key: Red – Rustam QBic, Yellow – DEIH, Blue – Cins, Green – Levi Ponce and Kristy, Purple – Canavar, Orange – Aryz, Brown – Wicx, Nuka and Esk Ryen, Grey – Amose, Navy – Fu, Lakormi̇s, Wi̇cx and Esk Reyn, Pink – JAZ
A British naval vessel built in 1915 that was employed in bombarding the coast in the Gallipoli campaign has opened to the public this week in Portsmouth Historic Dockyards after a £2.4 million restoration programme. Armed with two six-inch guns, HMS M33 was a ‘568-ton metal box lacking in comforts’, according to the museum. The 72 officers and men who sailed for Gallipoli were crammed inside and away from home for more than three years.The ship complements ‘Gallipoli: Myth and Memory’, a large and thoughtful exhibition in the Dockyards’ National Museum of the Royal Navy, which gives both sides of the story of the terrible campaign.
With Nelson’s flagship Victory and the 16th-century warship Mary Rose among its other attractions, Portsmouth Historic Dockyards make a good a pleasant day out from London. Also not to be missed here is HMS Warrior, a steam sailing ship built in 1860 and the largest fighting ship in the world at the time. She never fired a shot in anger, and was a leading vessel in the 1867 Fleet Review given in honour of the state visit of Abdülaziz, the first Ottoman sultan to visit Europe.
If you live or find yourself in London on August 14 or 15, the city’s only Turkish theatre, the Arcola in Dalston, is staging a version of Dikran Tchouhadjian’s (1837–1898) Gariné. Considered the first opera composer in the Ottoman Empire and known in his lifetime as ‘the Armenian Verdi’ and ‘the Oriental Offenbach’, Tchouhadjian fused European and Eastern traditions to pioneer a thrilling new musical style.
Since its composition in Turkish as Leblebici Horhor Ağa (Master Hor Hor the Chickpea Vendor) in 1875, Gariné has been adapted three times for film (including by Nâzım Hikmet), and has delighted audiences all over Europe and the Middle East. Even after the tragedy of 1915, the work continued to be extremely popular with Turks and Armenians alike.
The version being staged at the Arcola is by Gerald Papasian who directs a semi-staging in English of his own adaptation, previously performed at the Théâtre de Saint-Maur, Paris and the Théâtre de l’Odéon, Marseille. Fusing the Armenian and Turkish settings, this rare production will mark Tchouhadjian’s extraordinary contribution to Turkish and Armenian opera.
Gariné is an operetta bouffe, a style associated with the late 19th-century French composer Jacques Offenbach. The genre contains elements of comedy, satire, frivolity and farce, which is not surprising since its inventor Florimond Ronger, known as Hervé, was an organist in an insane asylum.
The story follows Armen who dreamed of creating the first great theatre company in Constantinople. But on opening night, disaster strikes – his leading actress defects to a rival troupe. Everything seems over until Gariné arrives on the scene. Armen is inflamed with passion for her voice, but her father detests the theatre. Can she be persuaded to defy him, and to sing on opening night? Will it be Gariné that saves the day?
There are two shows, on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 August, both commencing at 7.30pm. The tickets are a bargain at £15, £12 concessions or under £10 with an Arcola Passport. Running time is to be confirmed and seating is allocated. Click here to purchase tickets; they’re selling fast.
Below is a video of highlights from Papasian’s original full staging at the Théâtre de Saint-Maur (Val-de-Marne) in 2010.
Tonight the Istanbul Modern will hold a special event to watch the annual August Perseid meteor shower. Every year, from around July 17 to August 24, Earth crosses the orbital path of the Comet Swift-Tuttle (rediscovered in 1992), the parent of the Perseid meteor shower. The debris will slam into the Earth’s upper atmosphere at around 210,000 kilometres per hour, lighting up the night-time sky with fast-moving meteors, which will be visible with the naked eye or a telescope.
Fortunately, this year, the waning crescent moon comes up shortly before sunrise so a dark, moonless sky is almost certainly guaranteed. This means you should be able to see 50 or more meteors per hour from northerly latitudes during tonight’s meteor shower.
The museum is hosting various activities in its fabulous open-air site-specific installation ‘All That is Solid’ (read more here), including a telescope observation workshop led by astronomers; educational, art and play workshops; discussions on astronomy and art history; a yoga session; and acoustic concerts. The programme is as follows:
18.00 – 18.30 Playlist: ‘Star! Star!’ with Can Von Kant
18.00 – 20.00 Art workshop
18.00 – 20.00 Notebook workshop with Hoşaf Atölye (Şeyda Ünal & Timuçin Önçül)
18.30 – 19.30 Yoga with Hüsne Çiğdem
19.00 – 20.00 Talk: ‘Skies through the lens of myths’ with Serap Yüzgüller (in Turkish)
20.00 – 20.30 Presentation: ‘Where exactly are we in the universe?’ with Yeliz Aksoylu Nuranoğlu (in Turkish)
20.30 – 21.30 Telescope observation with the Nuranoğlu team
21.00 – 22.00 Concert: Barış Diri (vocals)
22.00 – 23.00 Concert: Çağıl Kaya (vocals)
Main image shows the 2009 meteor shower (courtesy of Nick Ares, WikiMedia Commons).
If you want to get up close and personal with Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, there’s no better way to do so than by boat. You can stay in a town such as Fethiye, Kaş, Kalkan or Antalya, and take daily boat trips from there, or better still, you can hire your own boat and spend a few uninterrupted days out on the water. This is what we did last weekend and it was nothing short of lush.
Our boat, Lilac, rented from Lila Yachting, was very comfortable for six people. The crew, a captain, a cook and another young boy who did odd jobs, was competent. The captain was a bit of a grump, but the two young boys were friendly, respectful and helpful. The chef cooked some of the best food I have tasted in Turkey. His father owns a kebab joint in Gaziantep so cooking is obviously in his blood.
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Turunç Pınarı (photo: Turunç Pınarı Restaurant)
After some logistical issues, we set off late Saturday afternoon from Fethiye’s port. The bright sunshine was gone and the light breeze was most welcome after a scorching hot day. After about 30 minutes, we arrived at Turunç Pınarı, a well-known place among sea travellers. The 6,000-square-metre bay is owned by an elderly couple, Osman and Tülay, who also own and run the restaurant and guesthouse on shore. The natural beauty is almost an eyesore: the mountains are covered in lush greenery, the water is tranquil and crystal clear, the gentle music coming from the restaurant is soothing. After a long swim, it was almost time for dinner. That evening, Can the chef, prepared a simple meal of perfectly grilled levrek (sea bass), deniz börülcesi salatası (seaweed salad), fasulye (beans) in a Gaziantep-style spicy sauce and a few other delicious mezes. We washed it down with Aegean rose and nibbled on fruit for dessert.
The next morning we visited a tiny bay nearby for a swim and breakfast. We saw the goat farmer on shore get into his fishing boat and go off to (presumably) get supplies from a bigger town. Goats in an array of colours – white, brown, black – and sizes stared at us as they chewed their breakfast and we ate ours.
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Then, it was onto the main event: we were sailing to Manastir (Cleopatra) Koyu, where swimming in the waters could make you look five years younger, as our 17-year old and 22-year old crew boys attested (for whom ageing is clearly not a concern). The setting, as these photos attest, is nothing short of exquisite. The air is heady with the fragrance of pines and the see-through water covers Greek monastery ruins. An hour’s hike inland leads to the ruins of ancient Lydae, which features tombs, agora foundations, statue remnants, bits of Corinthian columns and inscribed pedestals from the Roman and Byzantine eras. It is rarely visited and would have been worth going to but alas we were in our bathing suits and too concerned with swimming and relaxing.
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The bay is nicknamed Cleopatra because legend has it that Cleopatra visited it twice, in 46 and 32 BC, the latter while honeymooning with Marc Antony. She is said to have bathed in these waters. The fine sand on the small beach is unique to Turkey – again, legend says that Marc Antony brought it for his bride especially from Africa. It’s a nice story and whether it’s true or not is irrelevant.
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In the afternoon, we visited a bay that a modern art lover such as myself gets particularly excited about. The Bedri Rahmi Koyu is named after the important 20th-century artist Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu (1911–75). It is named after him because of the above fish painting, which the artist painted in 1974, one year before his death. As we were looking at the black, red and white tribal-inspired work, my Turkish friend searched for its story online. Apparently, Eyüboğlu visited this bay (he was one of the first people to experience the ‘Blue Voyage’) with a bunch of friends – which included intellectuals such as his brother Selahattin Eyüboğlu and the author and archaeologist Azra Erhat, who all went on to write about the beauty of these bays – and saw a large bare rock that was calling out his name. He painted a piece that at first looks like a giant fish, but on closer inspection reveals six other animals. I could only spot four.
The artist left an extraordinary body of work besides his paintings – ceramics, calligraphy, glass, mosaic, sculptures and even poetry – and he left it in some of the most unusual places. The real attraction of the Özlem Et butcher shop in Karaköy Square, for example, is not the good-quality meat but two works of art by Eyüboğlu.
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There’s also a 2003 version by ‘Mavi Gezi’ on the next rock…
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…and a 2004 version by the contemporary artist Sena.
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Nearby, there are Lycian remnants: ones we could see from the boat such as an embroidered gate and pigeon-hole tombs carved into the face of the bedrock (which date to the 4th to 5th centuries BC and belong to the ancient city of Crya, located up on the hill), as shown above – and others that we had to find.
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A few minutes inland, we came across some more ruins, including the one above with trees growing out of it, calling to mind Angkor Wat.
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The landscape here is gorgeous, not only because of the staggering mountains peppered with Lycian ruins, but also because of the bold flowers in dizzying arrays of pink and magenta.
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On the final day, we visited an underwhelming bay, spending way too long there for anyone’s liking (the captain had a toothache), before sailing somewhere nearby to Katrancı Adası (above), the wildest place we visited, which although it is only an hour from Fethiye, feels remote and removed from the other bays. There were more goats on the hillside, we spotted a huge turtle and a bevy of wasps joined us for late afternoon cocktails. Wild.
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The sunset that day was spectacular, casting an ethereal glow on the mountains and the water, and painting the perfect picture of the Lycian coast’s mystical beauty.
All photos, unless otherwise stated, are by Daniel Salinas Conejeros.
Turkish cinema is going from strength to strength year in, year out – and with the recent announcement of next year’s Venice International Film Festival competition entrants and jury members, it looks like things are about to get even rosier.
The first piece of exciting news is that Turkey’s prime export, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, will be a jury member this year. Ceylan, darling of smaller film festivals around the world, has won a plethora of awards, including the prestigious Palme D’Or at last year’s Cannes (for the atmospheric Winter Sleep, set in Cappadocia), and it’s high time he became a jury member at an important festival such as Venice. He joins the Oscar-winning Polish-British director Pawel Pawlikowski, the French author and director Emmanuel Carrere, the Italian director Francesco Munzi and others on the nine-member jury headed by the Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón.
Second piece of exciting news is that the rising director Emin Alper’s sophomore feature Abluka (Frenzy) is one of 20 films vying for the festival’s main award, the Golden Lion. A co-production between Turkey, France and Qatar, the film is financially supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Council of Europe’s co-production fund Eurimages. The story follows two estranged brothers, one recently released from prison, as they struggle to survive against a backdrop of political violence in Istanbul. The actors Mehmet Özgür and Berkay Ateş lead what looks like an excellent cast in a two-hour film that promises to be gritty and poignant, with a stark colour palette and intimate cinematography, a sure-fire way to succeed at a film festival these days.
The film’s competition includes The Danish Girl, from The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper, the American-Japanese director Cary Fukunaga’s latest offering, Beasts of No Nation, the French director Xavier Giannoli’s upcoming comedy-drama Marguerite, and the Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov’s Francofonia, as well as many others. Turkish cinemagoers will be able to see Abluka in theatres this autumn. You can watch a teaser below.
And finally, a documentary about Orhan Pamuk’s book Museum of Innocence and its museum in Çukurcuma will have its world premiere at the festival. The film, Innocence of Memories, directed by Grant Gee (known for his documentaries about the British band Radiohead), will be screened as part of Venice Days.
‘I wrote a 30-minute long original script,’ Pamuk told Hürriyet Daily News in late July. ‘The new text tells the love story in Museum of Innocence from the eye of a secondary character. I do not tell which character it is now, but it will be in Venice… The documentary is both about the Museum of Innocence and Istanbul. My other books also take place in the documentary.’ Check out the trailer below.
If you’ve been following the blog, you will know I have been travelling these past few weeks. Last weekend I finally got around to visiting Cappadocia, and out of all the places I have been to in Turkey this awed me the most.
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The otherworldly landscape peppered with fairy chimneys, rock-cut Byzantine churches and multi-coloured rocks that look like they belong underwater have impressed many before me – not least John Henry Haynes, the pioneer of American archaeological photography. During an 1884 expedition Haynes wrote: ‘Altogether these rock formations and the multitude of excavated dwellings… appear to me now the most wonderful thing I have ever been permitted to rest my eyes upon in all my travels and among all the wonderfully interesting things it has been my good fortune to see in the land of wonders.’ (Robert Ousterhout pays tribute to the photographer in Cornucopia 44 and John Henry Haynes, available from the Cornucopia store, has a selection of his incredible photographs).
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The volcanic lands of Cappadocia stretch across 400km of the high plateau of central Anatolia. Ancient eruptions covered the area with thick ash which solidified into a soft rock tens of metres thick. Add wind and water and you are left with hard elements which formed the cones, pillars, pinnacles, mushrooms and chimneys – some stretching 40 metres into the sky – that you see today.
The area was the domain of the Hittites’ during the Bronze Age, briefly passed on to the Lydians, and then fell into the hands of the powerful Comnenus dynasty of Byzantium (famous for its horsemanship). In fact, the area’s ancient name was Katpatuka, meaning ‘Land of the Beautiful Horse’. (In a 30-page feature in Cornucopia 35, Susan Wirth describes a five-day ride from Avanos to Mustafasa, beautifully illustrated with photography by Jürgen Frank).
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We didn’t explore Cappadocia’s magical valleys on horseback (and had little desire to try a hot-air balloon, despite the fact that it's on most people’s bucket list), and opted to go by foot instead. Arriving in Göreme on Saturday morning and filling up on a hearty breakfast at our hotel, our first stop was the World Heritage-listed Göreme Open-Air Museum (TL20), shown above.
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The site was originally an important Byzantine monastic settlement, housing around 20 monks, and became a famous place of pilgrimage from the 17th century onwards. There are six main churches and a nunnery, all decorated with frescoes, most depicting saints, others simple geometrical patterns, mythological animals and military symbols. The difference in how they’ve been preserved is stark – some are almost indecipherable while others look as though they were painted yesterday. Spend the extra TL10 for the Karanlık Kilise (Dark Church) – the frescoes here are the finest.
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Kılıclar Vadisi
Once the heat of the day had passed it was time for our four-hour walk through Cappadocia’s valleys. If you’re a hiker, which I fancy myself to be, I would rate this walk as intermediate. It started off rather strenuously, with a 10-minute trek uphill and we thought we were doomed. But for the majority of the walk the terrain was flat, with a number of narrow passageways and uphill rocks to climb. We stopped for four five-to-ten-minute breaks, the penultimate one to watch the sunset.
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Kılıclar Vadisi
I can't recommend this walk highly enough. Whereas from a hot-air balloon you can see the unparalleled grandeur of Cappadocia’s landscape, the walk (like the horse ride, I imagine) let’s you get up close and personal with the rock formations. There’s an intimacy the hot-air balloon cannot provide and you can imagine, even if abstractly, the life of the people that once walked these parts. And one advantage of the walk over a horse ride is that you have the luxury of stopping more often to take photographs or simply to ponder the crazy beauty in front of you. We could also climb into and explore the pigeon houses (Cappadocian dovecotes) and churches on a whim. (David Barchard tells of the Byzantine sancturies and cathedrals in valleys undisturbed since the Dark Ages in Cornucopia 11).
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The walk started in Göreme and covered three valleys. First up was the Kılıclar Vadisi (Swords Valley), one of the smallest in Cappadocia but worth a look for its unique grey-capped fairy chimneys alone (above). If you’re not going on a walk and just want to see the valley, the entrance is right above the Göreme Open-Air Museum. Turn right at the museum's exit and head up the S-bendy road for about 100 metres. You will see the entrance on your left.
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The Church of the Saints Joachim and Anne, painted with early-9th-century iconoclastic patterns in Kılıclar Vadisi
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Güllüdere
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Güllüdere
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Güllüdere
The valleys grew more exciting as we went on. Next up was Güllüdere (Rose Valley), which has some of the most interestingly formed caves (with a temperature of 13 degrees Celcius, perfect for storing fruit and vegetables) and a number of pigeon houses. (For even more pigeon houses, take a walk in Güvercin Vadisi (Pigeon Valley), which leads from Göreme town to Uçhisar.) The views from Güllüdere are some of the best, so there was plenty of stopping for photographs.
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Red-Rose Valley
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Finally, it was onto the mother of all Cappadocian valleys, the Red-Rose Valley. Rated as one of the world’s best walks, your path is sprinkled not only with some of the most spectacular rock formations in a kaleidoscope of colours, churches with well-preserved frescoes, and dramatic 360-degree views, but also an abundance of greenery, bold flowers, grapevines and apple trees.
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The above shows a fresco inside the Haçlı Kilise (Church with the Cross), atop a hill and reached by a narrow path.
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We stopped at the sunset point near Ortahisar, but compared to the landscape the sunset seemed somehow underwhelming.
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The next day we visited Ihlara Valley, a one-hour drive from Göreme. (I should mention here that having a car in Cappadocia is wise, giving you the freedom to visit the area’s districts and sights such as Uçhisar and Ürgüp, as well as its underground cities and – perhaps most importantly – wineries).
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The Ihlara Vallery is more of a canyon than a valley, with smooth cut-rock walls enclosing a richly vegetated corridor through which once flowed the Melendiz River that formed the canyon thousands of years ago.
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Once there were more than 4,000 dwellings here, housing a population of around 80,000, as well as over 100 cave churches decorated with frescoes, around a dozen of which remain today. Beginning in Ihlara village and stretching to the Selime Monastery, the whole valley stretches for 14km. We walked four of those.
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Straight out of Tolkien’s dreams
Be warned: there are four entrances to the valley. We made the mistake of entering the first one, at the start of the Ihlara village. This means a rather treacherous climb down rocks and badly-marked paths to the river. Not for the fainthearted, but a challenge for adventurers. The second, main entrance has a civilised staircase down to a pleasant part of the river where you can dip your feet in the cool water or stop for a packed lunch.
Besides its obvious attractions, Cappadocia is also known for its cuisine and great wine. In Cornucopia 31, Kevin Gould visits some of the regions’ wineries (some of the oldest in the world). ‘Until a generation ago, wine-making would have taken place in every home,’ he writes. ‘Clamber up to any disused cave or chimney-dwelling and the grape-pressing area is seen as a rock-carved, shallow rectangular trough, with a spout leading to a depression in which an amphora would rest and be filled.’ He also gives tasting notes and details of Cappadocian wineries, and if I'd had more than a weekend I would have been dedicating a day to wine tasting for sure.
One final note: don’t miss the Topdeck Cave Restaurant on your visit. Yes, yes, it’s the highest-rated restaurant on Tripadvisor and you will hear a lot of English being spoken, but it has a simple menu of sensational home-cooked food. You can order a meze plate, and either a lamb, chicken, beef or vegetarian dish. Skip the vegetarian dish (the mezes will you give you your fill of veggies) and go for the lamb and/or chicken – the former melts in your mouth and the latter is some of the most flavourful chicken I have eaten in Turkey. And that’s a big call for this food-rich country.
It’s almost time for another edition of the Istanbul Biennial – and the 14th instalment promises to be bigger, bolder and braver than ever. There will be works by 80 artists, hailing from every continent, displayed in over 30 venues on both the European and Anatolian sides of the city. Venues range from museums and dedicated art spaces to more unusual venues such as hotels, boats, former banks, schools, gardens, garages, shops and private homes.
The curator, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev – who was voted the most influential person in the international art world by the UK magazine Art Review in 2012, so it’s really exciting she’s at the helm – had a lot of work to do to put together a biennial spanning so many venues. The biennial’s highly conceptual theme is ‘Saltwater: A Theory of Thought Forms’, which she describes as follows: ‘This sprawling exhibition spans from Rumelifeneri on the Black Sea, where Jason and the Argonauts passed searching for the Golden Fleece, through the winding and narrow Bosphorus… and down to the Princes Islands… where ancient Byzantine emperors exiled their enemies and where Leon Trotsky lived from 1929 to 1933. It presents over 1,500 artworks, some very tiny, including over 50 commissions by artists as well as other visible and invisible manifestations such as materials from the history of oceanography, environmental studies, marine archaeology, Art Nouveau, neuroscience, physics, mathematics and theosophy.’
Works range from an 1870 painting of waves by Santiago Ramón y Cajal (who received a Nobel prize in 1906 for discovering the neuron) to the ground-breaking abstract ‘Thought Forms’ by Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater (1901–1905), a new installation by Aslı Çavuşoğlu that reflects on an ancient and lost Armenian technique for extracting red dye from an insect, and a new multichannel installation by William Kentridge inspired by Trostky’s passage through Turkey. Some of the country's most important artists and writers were involved in the organisation, including Orhan Pamuk (honorary chairman of the International Council of Friends and Patrons of the 14th Istanbul Biennial), Emre Hüner, Füsun Onur, Emin Özsoy, Elvan Zabunyan, Başak Şenova and İnci Eviner. A number of international artists also lent a hand.
It is suggested you set aside at least three days to fully visit the biennial. The main venues – Istanbul Modern, ARTER, the Özel İtalyan Lisesi (Italian High School) and the Galata Greek Primary School – display works by a number of artists, but other locations will each showcase a work by one artist or artist collective only. If you have the time it is highly recommended that you do the three-day tour so you can appreciate not only the artworks but the lesser-known sights and historical buildings of the city. Here are the recommended routes.
If you have only one day to spare, follow this itinerary. Start early – it’s going to be a long day. Begin at SALT Galata on Bankalar Caddesi 11, just west of Karaköy Square, and then pop into the recently opened Vault Karaköy The House Hotel (above) at No 5. Then make your way to Kasa Galeri on the corner, and when you’re done there, it’s a five-minute walk to the next venue along Kemeraltı Caddesi, the Galata Greek Primary School, which was also a venue last year. Follow the big red sign to Istanbul Modern for a large group exhibition, and then head to DEPO at Lüleci Hendek Caddesi 12.
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Next, take the long street leading up to İstiklal Caddesi, Boğazkesen Caddesi, which has several biennial venues off it. There’s the Museum of Innocence on Çukurcuma Caddesi 2 and the Italian High School (above), located at Tom Tom Kaptan Sokak 3, where visitors will find new works by five artists on the ground floor, the gym and the attic. The French Orphanage, known as the Palace of St Eugène and built in 1869, is one of three fictional biennal venues. Today it is rented by the plaster-cast man, Kemal Cımbız, and is to be imagined as a venue only. Up in Galatasaray, there’s a work in a room of the House Hotel Galatasaray at Bostanbaşı Caddesi 19. Across from the hotel, a house (No 30) will display a work of one artist and another nearby building, housing the Cezayir Restaurant, at Hayriye Caddesi 12, presents another artist’s project, as well as events forming part of the biennial’s public programme.
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Turn left when you reach İstiklal Caddesi, and you’ll soon come across the second fictional venue, Casa Garibaldi (above, currently being restored), which belongs to the Società Operaia, an association founded by Italian workers in 1863 and named after Giuseppe Garibaldi, who lived in Constantinople in the 19th century. Spend a bit of time at ARTER at No 211, which hosts the biennial on all its floors. FLO, housed in the Anadolu Han, built at the end of the 19th century and now a shoe store, will host one artist’s work on its fourth floor.
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There are two more biennial venues in the Pera district: the Pera Museum hosts the biennial on its third floor, while a room in the Adahan Hotel and the Adahan Cistern (above) are also venues.
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Day 2: Kabataş–Kadıköy–Büyükada
Take a ferry from Kabataş to Kadıköy, where you can visit the small studio of Tunca Subaşı and Çağrı Saray on Yeldeğirmeni Sokak (above). Then take the Kaptan Paşa Seabus – which will be one of the venues as well as transporting visitors but will itself be one of the venues – to Büyükada, the largest of the Princes Islands.
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On Büyükada, there are six venues: the public library, five rooms and the courtyard of the Hotel Splendid Palas, the Rizzo Palace, built in the 19th century and used as a residential house until 1961, the Mizzi Mansion (above), built in the second half of the 19th century and renovated by the prominent Italian architect Raimondo D’Aronco after an earthquake, Çankaya 57 (main image), a twin house built by an Armenian tradesman for his daughters in 1907–1908 and where Trotsky is said to have lived briefly when he was exiled on the island – more recently the location for a Turkish soap opera – and the Trotsky House or Yanaros Mansion, built in 1850s by Nikola Demades, where Trotsky lived between 1932 and 1933.
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Day 3: Şişli, the Old City and the Bosphorus
Start in Şişli, where there are two venues: Hrant Vakfı and Agos, the new headquarters of the Hrant Dink Foundation on Papa Roncalli Sokak 128, and the Hrant Dink Vakfı and Agos–Parrhesia Centre, both dedicated to the Turkish-Armenian journalist and editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, who was assassinated in 2009. Then walk (20 mins) or take a five-minute taxi to Taksim, from where you can take the 55T bus to the Küçük Mustafa Paşa Hamam (above), which is located between Sultanahmet and the Byzantine walls, and is a short walk from the south coast of the Golden Horn.
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The final venue is located in Village Bosphorus: European Shore and can be reached by the 150 bus from Hacıosman metro station. Located in Sarıyer, Rumelifeneri, a coastal village near the northwestern end of the Bosphorus, will host an artist’s work at the lighthouse. Opposite on the Asian side, in Beykoz, is the third imaginary venue, the Riva Beach.
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A map showing the Istanbul venues (copyright CNES 2013, satellite images provided by Yandex, sourced from iksvphoto.com)
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Outside Istanbul, a provisional biennial venue will be Kastellorizo, a Greek island two kilometres away from the Turkish coast. This week-long project in collaboration with the Fiorucci Art Trust will take place from September 7 to 13, 2015.
The 14th Istanbul Biennial takes place from September 5 to November 1, 2015.
In this blog series, the photographer Lynn Gilbert takes us on a journey through Turkish homes.
Huge kitchens like in the above photograph are found in old stone houses in remote areas of Çamlıhemşin, built high in the mountains by Russian refugees in the early 20th century. They were often successful bakers and one of them, a baker to the Tsar, went on to open a renowned bakery in Ankara. (In Cornucopia 12, Patricia Daunt visits a home in Çamlıhemşin and shares a family’s memories of a Chekhovian rural life.)
A formal dining room in a traditional Turkish home is almost unique. In nearly a decade of photographing houses throughout the country, I can’t recall ever seeing anything like this. Rooms in which meals are served are multi-purpose. Most of the time, the midday meal is eaten around a huge round tray, sometimes made out of metal, sometimes a large wooden tabletop, positioned on a low pedestal. This low cocktail table can fit up to 10 people. Some sit on the banquette, others on the floor – rugs and large pieces of fabric are used to catch any food that might drop. People are absolutely meticulous about protecting their rugs. You never ever go into a house with shoes on. The owners provide house shoes if you want, but I always just wear my own socks.
The gigantic blackened arch-framed stonewall, with two smaller alcoves below it, was used as the cooking area. The what-appears-to-be ‘moss’ on the room’s surface is actually just the light reflecting of a green globe.
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From the outside, this house looks weathered, fragile, as if it might collapse – and to step inside would certainly not be safe. But once inside, the interior looks solid and clearly built to stand for many more years.
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This designer touch is reflected in the rest of the house, each of the large rooms painstakingly cared for and beautifully composed like a painting. I photographed the lady of the house with her back to the glorious view of the mountains, leaning on a table with a plastic cover, peeling beans.
These images are part of a selection of photographs that will be displayed at the ‘Along the Silk Roads’ exhibition, which opens in October at the Queens College, Godwin-Ternbach Museum, in New York.
Lynn Gilbert, an established photographer, has been fascinated with people’s living environments since her early teens. Visiting 60 countries in six decades, she has seen more than 3,000 houses and 20,000 rooms. In her nine extended trips to Turkey, Gilbert became fascinated with the unique quality of the Turkish home. Her photographic study documents – for the first time – the beautiful old houses, both humble and affluent, that form part of Turkey’s cultural heritage. Please visit her website for more photographs.
From next month, events continue as part of the ‘Australia in Turkey 2015’ festival. Taking place until December, the festival is the biggest celebration of Australian culture in Turkey to date, and aims to enhance social and cultural understanding between the two countries. That it’s being celebrated in the same year as the centenary of the Battle of Gallipoli is no coincidence.
A number of cities are taking part, including Bodrum, Mardin, Izmir, Diyarbakır, Göreme and cities in the Black Sea region, but the programme predominantly spans events in Istanbul and Ankara.
‘It is our historical, cultural and community connections that form the foundation of our close relationship with Turkey,’ said the Australian minister for foreign affairs, Julie Bishop, in a press release. ‘It comes at a time when Australia is closely engaged with Turkey on global challenges and in international forums through the MIKTA (Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, Australia) initiative and the G20.’
A number of events have already taken place in the first half of the year but there’s a lot to still look forward to. The Gaia Gallery in Galatasaray has opened Neverwhere earlier this month. The works of eight renowned contemporary Australian artists are displayed in a show curated by Vikki Mcinnes and organised in collaboration with the Australian Embassy. And this weekend, the Tophane-i Amire has opened Concrete, an exhibition in which 16 Australian and international artists consider the impact of time upon built and monumental form, to mark the centenary of the First World War. It is organised in collaboration between the Monash University Museum of Art in Melbourne and the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. As well as that, there will be various artists in residence programmes, in which innovative Australian artists will share their skills, knowledge and networks with local artists.
In performance art, this coming weekend (September 4–7), the Melbourne-based Ranters Theatre will stage performances of Song at garaj in Galatasaray. This unique installation aims to be like a performance but removes the stage and transforms the space into an atmospheric listening room filled with songs, and the colours, smells and sounds from Australian nature. Tickets can be purchased through Biletix. Later this month, Australia’s leading indigenous performing arts company, Bangarra Dance Theatre, will perform Spirit (main image), a deeply moving programme that includes some of the company’s most iconic pieces. Performances take place at 8:30pm on September 17 and 18 at the Zorlu Performing Arts Centre and are free of charge to attend. Please email festival@dfat.gov.au to get an invitation. Australia’s youth circus Flying Fruit Fly Circus will do a round of shows in Istanbul, Ankara and Diyarbakır. Shows for Istanbul have been announced and take place September 18, 19 and 20 also at the Zorlu Performing Arts Centre. Tickets can be purchased through Biletix. Another highlight will be a hypnotising show from the award-winning Melbourne company Strange Fruit, which fuses theatre, dance and circus, on five-metre-long flexible poles (taking place in Göreme, Istanbul and Ankara). Check here for show times and locations in Istanbul.
In film, the world’s largest short film festival, which was founded in Melbourne, Tropfest, will be held at Babylon in Istanbul, Ankara IF, Eskişehir Peyote and Çanakkale Hayal Kahvesi. Screenings will be followed by concerts of the Australian/Turkish band Bashka, and will take place in November. A number of Australian films will also be screened as part of the SineMardin Film Festival, taking place between October 2 and 9.
The Melbourne Ska Orchestra performs a series of concerts from September 4 to 6 at garaj. After, the Darwin duo Sietta will continue the party (tickets here). Australian musicians will also perform at the Babylon – Australia Music Festival and the Göreme Contemporary Music Festival.
There will also be a number of culinary events. This Friday, the Istanbul-born chef Somer Sivrioglu, who owns the Sydney restaurant Efendy and is the author of the best-selling cookbook Anatolia, will do a book launch and drinks at Homer Kitabevi on Yeni Çarşı Caddesi from 6pm. The Melbourne-based landscape designer Joost Bakker will operate a number of pop-up restaurant that are completely sustainable and waste-free in Şişhane park for the month of September. ‘Everything will be made from scratch, we’ll use locally sourced produce, including ancient Turkish grains, and we’ll cook over a fire,’ Bakker told the Sydney Morning Herald back in November. ‘I’m most excited about connecting up with some of the best chefs in Istanbul. Together we’ll be collaborating on our interpretation of their food.’ In October, SALT Beyoğlu will host Food & Film, a collaboration between the Adelaide Film Festival and Gastronomika. Food-themed Australian short films will be presented with matching Australian food, with interpretation provided by Turkish chefs.
With the publication of The Poetry of Simple Things (Die Poesie des Einfachen), Harry Koll and Sabine Steinbock have provided a valuable new resource for those interested in Anatolian kilims. The limited edition monograph, which is written in both German and English, displays 131 Anatolian kilims from the authors’ private collection.
One significant draw to this beautiful volume is the wide range of kilims that are featured. Some of the textiles, which range from wholly intact kilims to small fragments, have not been previously published, while others are more well-known; certain textiles included in the monograph have also been displayed in five different German museum exhibitions arranged by the authors from 1999 to 2014. Photographs from the exhibitions are even featured in the book to demonstrate how these textiles can be displayed in a museum setting.
While The Poetry of Simple Things features some spectacular early examples of kilims, it is the large number of unexpected textiles from the 18th and early 19th century that will likely garner the most attention and have a significant contribution to the previously published spectrum of Anatolian kilims from this time period. Readers will also be interested in the large number of patterned kilims based on the fascinating rhythms of stripes, as well as those flatwoven items containing camel hair.
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The book is divided into chapters according to the geographical aspects of the kilims, and each chapter contains a short introduction describing these different kilim types and the aesthetic appeal that they hold for the authors. The presentation of individual flatweaves over two pages, together with the photographs of certain details from the kilims, allow the reader to identify the structure of the weave and the changing color shades.
In addition to the sumptuous photographs of previously unpublished textiles, The Poetry of Simple Things offers more practical information that kilim owners will find especially useful. Concerned with the conservation of rare kilims and kilim fragments, the authors emphasise the broader importance of preserving cultural heritage while also providing detailed advice on cleaning and caring for Anatolian kilims. The authors’ many years of experience in collecting, studying and displaying antique textiles particularly shines through in this section.
This monograph not only demonstrates Koll and Steinbock’s combined expertise in Anatolian kilims, but also reveals their perspective and attitude towards collecting textiles of this sort. The text’s title – The Poetry of Simple Things – has served as the inspiration behind the authors’ collection, as is clear from the simple beauty of the kilims published in this book.
The monograph can be purchased for €90 (plus postage) direct from the publisher, Aachen 2015.
In this blog series, the photographer Lynn Gilbert takes us on a journey through Turkish homes.
Camili is not your typical tourist destination. For one, it’s difficult to reach: Located in a remote area near the Black Sea on the border between Georgia and Turkey, it is surrounded on three sides by mountains. But those who make the effort to get there will be amply rewarded.
One of Camili’s biggest draws is that it has been named a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. Not only is it a significant part of the bird migration route within the Black Sea basin, but it is also one of the most important plant areas in Turkey. Moreover, Camili is the only place where the Caucasus bee has remained untouched, making it a prime location for honey production. I can say, without a doubt, that the honey in Camili is unlike any I have ever tasted; it’s ambrosia for the Gods.
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Yet, there is much more to discover in Camili. For one, it’s a place of great contrasts. When you look out at the horizon, you feel part of a vast universe. But once you bring your gaze back to your immediate surroundings, you become immersed in the intimacy of life in a small, rural village.
Each day my guide and I travelled on bumpy dirt roads and around scary hairpin turns to visit houses that I would photograph. Anytime my guide spotted someone on the side of the road, it was someone that he knew. He would stop to chat or give the friend a lift. This is what one calls ‘wave’ country.
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Life, at least on the surface, is simple: the main concerns of the villagers in Camili are farming and family. Leisure time is virtually non-existent since animals require care seven days a week, and there are none of the trappings of urban life.
Yet what is surprising is the sophisticated level of design that one finds in the homes and mosques of this isolated area. The people in Camili, as in the other areas of the country, have managed to create spectacular environments.
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Lynn Gilbert, an established photographer, has been fascinated with people’s living environments since her early teens. Visiting 60 countries in six decades, she has seen more than 3,000 houses and 20,000 rooms. In her nine extended trips to Turkey, Gilbert became fascinated with the unique quality of the Turkish home. Her photographic study documents – for the first time – the beautiful old houses, both humble and affluent, that form part of Turkey’s cultural heritage. Please visit her website for more photographs.
In my experience, modern art fairs are a mixed bag: there is everything from exceptional, cutting-edge artwork to overwrought, reductionist drivel. Both big names and relative unknowns are on display. Unlike exhibitions, which have a particular perspective and focus, art fairs often bring together galleries from many different countries and with varied artistic pursuits under one roof.
In this way, ArtInternational, held at the Haliç Congress Center, was like any other modern art fair. Featuring galleries from over 20 countries, the fair provided attendees with a glimpse of the wide spectrum of what's on offer in the modern art world, all under a particularly massive roof.
The fair was spread out over five sprawling exhibition areas, in addition to larger auditoriums for specially commissioned works. You were even met with artwork when taking a quick breather outside: the By the Waterside series of sculptures stretched along the boardwalk, punctuating the all-white cafes and lounge areas.
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Ahmad Morshedloo, 'Resonance of Silence', Assar Art Gallery
There were more highlights than I can recount. Two artists working with pen were particularly successful. The large-scale work titled 'Resonance of Silence' by Ahmad Morshedloo (Assar Art Gallery) featured the faces of everyday Iranians, one on top of the other to create a mass of individuals, which is made even more impressive by the fact that the artist was using pen on cardboard. The simplicity of the composition allows the viewer to appreciate the nuances of each individual's portrait while the scale of the piece highlights the importance of collective action. Golnaz Fathi (Pearl Lam Galleries) also created a series of untitled works using pen on canvas. What was interesting about these pieces, which utilized uneven lines to create peaks and valleys of different densities, were the questions they raised about borders and continuity.
There were also a number of pieces that played with texture and used materials in such a way that spoke to both perception and the process of making art. Ramazan Bayrakoğlu's 'Sena' (Galerie Lelong), one of my favorite pieces at the fair, utilized small pieces of stitched fabric on canvas to create a large portrait of a girl. Up close, the work looked more like a topographic map, whereas from a distance, the unique materials and method used were hardly perceptible. Zhu Jinshi's 'Master of the Washboard' (Pearl Lim Galleries), meanwhile, featured a canvas covered in a patchwork of massive clumps of oil paint that gave the work an architectural feel. The oil paint was textured in a way that was reminiscent of an artist's palette.
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Du Zhenjun, 'The Tower of Babel – The Crusades', Pearl Lam Galleries
Some of the most popular pieces at the fair, at least according to the crowds gathered in front of them, spoke of upheaval, change and conflict; they were representative of a society in flux. Robert Montgomery's 'All Palaces' (Anna Jill Lupertz Gallery) displayed the text 'All Palaces are Temporary Palaces' in LED lighting. While I often find artwork consisting only of text to be too overt, the addition of LED lighting gave it more depth. By far the biggest crowd-pleasers, though, were Du Zhenjun's two pieces 'The Tower of Babel – The Crusades' and 'The Tower of Babel - Old Europe' (Pearl Lam Galleries) – you could barely slip in to get a proper look at them. Both were intricate, captivating creations that heavily referenced current affairs and continued to draw you back in just when you thought you had gotten a grasp on them.
One of the other main draws of ArtIstanbul is the chance to see so many Istanbul-based galleries in such a short period of time. Erdal Duman's sculptures at the artSümer booth, which featured common subjects such as men and birds with slight distortions, were commanding. Hera Büyüktaşçıyan's work – two of her drawings with oil pastels and one of her sculptures were displayed by Rampa Gallery – was appealing in its simplicity; she clearly knows how to edit herself and you can be sure that each part of her work is there for a reason.
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Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, 'Up and Beyond', Rampa Gallery
As for the site-specific works commissioned by ArtInterational, well, they were a bit of let-down. The most noteworthy was Güneş Terkol's piece. Staged in an auditorium, the work featured a painting on stage and certain seats covered in white fabric that featured the faces of women. Inspired by her time in China on an artist's residency, Terkol described in an accompanying text how the women in the painting held balloons that were filled with their dreams. With this work, she aims to define zones of freedom and multiply the voices of women in the struggle for visibility in a male-dominated contemporary art environment.
It almost feels unfair going into an event like this. With so much to see, your impressions are inevitably influenced by where you begin and the route you take; you won't be able to give each artist a fair shot. By the time I reached the final exhibition area, my eyes were dry and my head slightly ached. Even though I vowed to just 'take a peek', I still found myself stopping and picking up my notebook, jotting down names. Servet Koçyiğit's photographs of the interplay between humanity and nature, displayed by Officine dell'Immagine gallery, were vivid in their clarity, while Jorge Mayet's two psychedelic hanging tree sculptures, with both soil and roots, at Galeria Horrach Moya's booth were interesting both for their bright, almost neon colours and their realism.
But here's the rub – even though I could recognize that there were artworks still to ponder and artists to discover, my brain had shut off, overwhelmed by all that had come before. I wasn't able to truly contemplate how they made me feel, what they brought to mind. But thus is the plight of the art fair, I reasoned as I went to catch a Haliç ferry: with such a wide range of artists, some stones just have to remain unturned.
In this blog series, the photographer Lynn Gilbert takes us on a journey through Turkish homes.
Bodrum, located in southwestern Turkey, is a town full of beautiful, charming seaside resorts. But it is also a place full of history. Going back to ancient times, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus – an ancient Greek city at the site of modern Bodrum – was recognised as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Antipater of Sidon.
In more recent history, namely over the course of the past century, there has been a shift in the public perception of Bodrum and its environs. While it was considered beyond the pale of the civilised world in the 1920s, this little-known fishing village began attracting Istanbul intellectuals who were seeking spiritual renewal in the 1960s. In turn, the more adventurous middle class began flocking to this growing port town in the ‘70s. Today it is a destination for travellers from all around the globe, and rightly so.
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With a population of 36,000, Bodrum is small enough to retain its charm and large enough to have something for everyone: there are luxury hotels and marinas for the well-heeled yachting crowds. For nature lovers, there are country walks. At night, the city pulsates with energy, providing more than enough options for those looking to go out and have a good time.
Yet what tourists often miss are the numerous traditional houses scattered across Bodrum. In fact, they may never get to see them, as they’re slowly but surely being replaced by more modern dwellings: many owners cannot make the essential repairs necessary to maintain these structures, and the younger generations prefer the comforts of modern housing.
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Bodrum’s traditional houses are difficult to identify from the outside as their exteriors are nondescript; it is the interiors that make these homes special. While the rooms are not particularly interesting from an architectural perspective, they explode with unexpected colours and patterns. In fact, the bold colours and pattern on pattern styling reminded me of the English interior decorator David Hicks, who brought a similar style into the mainstream of the design world.
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What makes a traditional home in Bodrum so captivating is the way in which its interior embodies the imagination of its owner. In Great Britain, where I visited houses for over two decades, the style of the exterior and interior were most often determined by the architecture of the specific period: Tudor, Georgian, Victorian and countless others. During my travels in Turkey, meanwhile, I’ve found that either the exterior or the layout of the interior generally determines the character of a traditional house.
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In Bodrum, however, it is the creativity and ingenuity of an individual owner that transforms these nondescript structures into enchanting and magical dwellings. Going from house to house was like dipping my hand into a cookie jar and each time pulling out something new and tasty – no two houses were alike, but each one was extraordinary.
Lynn Gilbert, an established photographer, has been fascinated with people’s living environments since her early teens. Visiting 60 countries in six decades, she has seen more than 3,000 houses and 20,000 rooms. In her nine extended trips to Turkey, Gilbert became fascinated with the unique quality of the Turkish home. Her photographic study documents – for the first time – the beautiful old houses, both humble and affluent, that form part of Turkey’s cultural heritage. Please visit her website for more photographs.
For devotees of Islamic art, there is much to look forward to this autumn. Over the next few months the two major auction houses in London will stage their biannual Islamic art sales, and a quick glance through the catalogues illustrates the many superb works on offer. We wanted to give you a head start on compiling what is sure to be a long wish list.
Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s is holding two sales this autumn which will appeal to Islamic art enthusiasts: the Arts of the Islamic World (October 7) and Rugs & Carpets (November 3). The former is part of Sotheby’s ‘Indian and Islamic Week’ and features fine works such as the 16th-century Ottoman talismanic shirt shown above (Lot 315, est £60,000–80,000).
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Two of the sale’s highlights are the rare and important Ottoman tombak sections of armour from the 16th / 17th century: a breast plate (krug) (Lot 401, est £180,000–220,000) and a shield (kalkan) (Lot 402, est £150,000–200,000, shown above). Although they were too soft to be used in battle, tombak pieces of armour were luxurious objects and important ceremonial accoutrements for war. The intricate detailing on both pieces is simply stunning.
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Sotheby’s Arts of the Islamic World sale also features this unique Ottoman box, c 1640, characterised by its opulent use of tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl (Lot 410, est £70,000–80,000). The classic crescent moon and star design is an iconic Ottoman theme.
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Pottery aficionados will be intrigued by the rare Iznik Damascus-style pottery dish, c 1540, being sold by Sotheby’s (Lot 418, est £70,000–100,000). Characterised by its floral design, the dish belongs to a small group of similar ceramics featuring a palette of sage or olive green, cobalt blue and pastel pink shades; some scholars consider these vessels to be the finest ever made at Iznik.
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As for its November Rugs & Carpets sale, Sotheby’s will be offering pieces from renowned carpet and rug manufacturing locations within Anatolia and Persia, among other places. Of note is the Saryk main carpet from West Turkestan, shown above (approx 261 x 263cm, est £20,000–30,000).
The Oriental Rugs and Carpets sale features this early-18th-century rug from central Anatolia (Lot 8, est £6,000–8,000). The border design of interlocking blocks of colour is most unusual and reminisicent of small-pattern Holbein carpets from the early 16th century.
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While the Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds sale is more focused on Iranian and Indian art, there are a certain number of Kutahya dishes from the 18th and 19th centuries on offer, such as the one shown above (Lot 106, est £5,000–7,000). What makes this example unique is that it portrays a man smoking a pipe; the most common subjects for these dishes are women dressed in kaftans and turbans.
The Istanbul Photography and Cinema Amateurs Association (İstanbul Fotoğraf ve Sinema Amatörleri Derneği – IFSAK) has mined its archives to organise a group exhibition featuring some of the most important names in Turkish photography. Housed in the front rooms of a cosy apartment in one of the stately older buildings off Istiklal Caddesi, the small exhibition is at once accessible and tantalising.
With one original black-and-white photographic print from each artist, this show provides a wide sampling of Turkish photography and succeeds in piquing your interest. The big names like Nuri Bilgi Ceylan and Ara Güler are on display, but it is the work of less familiar names that really shines. When portraying Turkey’s landscapes, architecture and people, these photographers turn to the vernacular rather than the nostalgic.
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Nuri Bilgi Ceylan
The most dynamic photographs are the portraits, both of individuals and groups, that radiate a sense of tension. Yılmaz Kaini's photograph of four boys standing in front of a doorway and barred window is particularly engaging. The beam above the window connects to the top of the doorway, creating a frame for these posing boys. One is crossing his legs, another has his hands on the back of his head, with his elbows out, while the other two are leaning against the structure; yet all their faces broadcast a playfulness that captivates the viewer.
Where Kaini’s photo captures a moment of idleness, Selahattin Giz's picture of workers with chains around their necks being escorted by men in policemen's hats is full of strife. The defiant men, centered in the photo, seem immune to the attempts of the authority figures – located on the peripheries – to rein them in. It’s no wonder that Giz’s photographs of the early Republic, illustrating the lives of all kinds of individuals in this period of colossal change, were one of the major inspirations for Charles King's latest history book Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul.
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Ersin Alok
There are also a number of formal portraits, of which Ersin Alok's photograph of a woman in a turtleneck sweater is the most compelling. The older woman, adorned with big baubles and with disheveled grey hair, gives a sidelong glance with a bemused and slightly surprised expression.
In addition to the photographs of individuals and groups, many of the prints on display have a strong sense of place; the architecture and landscapes of Istanbul and greater Turkey are emphasised in stark silhouettes.
For instance, Hüsnü Gürsel's photograph of a modern Yenikapı tea house in the international style of architecture looks futuristic. It demonstrates the ways in which the old and the new of Turkey commingled in the second half of the 20th century.
Some of the most fascinating landscape photographs, though, rely on silhouettes to illustrate the ways in which the environment influences and shapes society. Gültekin Çizgen's shot of what looks to be a promenade alongside the Marmara Sea – judging by the fishing boats and tankers – is one example. The composition, with the sea in the background and some sort of waterway in the foreground, with a path full of people separating the two, creates an interesting play of light and shadow. Salim Okumuş's photograph of miners working at night – they are hunched at the edge of a pool of water with a plume of smoke illuminated behind them – has the same balance and dramatic effect seen in Çizgen's work.
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Ara Güler
The work of the photographers with whom I was most familiar were some of my least favourites – though not for any lack of skill. Rather that because their work is so widespread and so often displayed as a collection, the presentation of only one or two photographs provides an incomplete picture. The two photographs of Ara Güler, displayed side by side, are individually compelling but seem disjointed when placed next to one another. One is a shot of Istiklal Caddesi in the wintertime, with a man leading a horse-drawn cart in front of a waiting tram. The second features a wall – presumably in a mosque – with the word 'Allah' written on it, and with the silhouettes of two seated covered women in front of it. Meanwhile, Nuri Bilgi Ceylan’s portrait of a woman lacks the depth that makes his landscapes so impressive.
While the exhibition doesn’t probe the depths of Turkish photography or display the original photographs in a particularly analytical light, it does give the viewer a base from which further to explore the many illustrious but less well known photographers to come out of Turkey. For this reason it’s a wonderful introduction to those itching to dig a bit deeper and learn more about this particular field of Turkish art.
The first image featured in this post is by İbraham Akyürek.
