Nicka, Mr. No, Nicholas... Such were the various names given to the enigmatic Nicholas V Artamonoff, the son of White Russian émigrés and a student at Robert College in the 1920s. During his 25 years in Istanbul from 1922 to 1947, Artamonoff fell in love with the city and set out to photograph its many faces, especially the Byzantine remains, some of which were to disappear in the subsequent urban transformation. The above photo of the bostans (gardens) by the Land Walls of Yedikule, taken in 1935, demonstrates this all too poignantly. If you have been following our blogs about what is currently going on with the Yedikule bostans, you will understand why photographs such as these might soon become simply cultural artefacts – images of a bygone era. 

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The exhibition space at the RCAC

Many of these photographs are of great importance to scholars and those with an interest in Turkish history, and an exhibition of Artamonoff’s amateur photography – 1033 of his pictures are held by the Images Collections and Fieldwork Archives (ICFA) part of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library Collection and the Freer and Sackler Archives – has now been organised by Koç University's RCAC (within the scope of the International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium) in collaboration with Dumbarton Oaks, the Freer and Sackler Galleries and Robert College. As well as Istanbul, Artamonoff also photographed archaeological sites in Western Turkey and other cities such as Bursa, Izmir, Selçuk and Yalova, and the exhibition, curated by Günder Varinlioğlu, displays a meaty selection of his pictures, alongside personal documents from the Robert College archives.

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Piles of Artamonoff's untitled photographs – which you are allowed to pick up and examine more closely – are scattered on a table which greets you just as you enter the exhibition space. This feature of the exhibition humanises Artamonoff and is akin to being in the living room of a friend and looking at his or her travel snaps. It also gives a feeling of what it was like to handle the mass of the original photographs and potentially encourages you to delve deeper into Artamonoff's work and life. Computer screens linked to Artamonoff's entire digital collection on the ICFA website are set up outside the exhibition space allowing you to do just that. As well as that, a book entitled Artamonoff: Picturing Byzantine Istanbul, 1930–1947 has been published alongside the exhibition. Edited by Varinlioğlu and published by Koç University Press, it is available for purchase through the Cornucopia store.

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Nicholas V Artamonoff

Artamonoff was born in 1908 in Athens, the son of a Russian major-general. The family moved regularly to wherever Artamonoff’s father was stationed, which explains Nicholas's birthplace. Returning to Russia in 1914, the family was on the move again right after the 1917 Revolution. Nicholas continued his primary-school education in England between 1918 and 1922, and at the age of 14 entered Robert College. Having completed high school he studied for a BS in electrical engineering, graduating in 1930. But it was at Robert College that Artamonoff’s passion for photography took flight. He was picture editor of the college's 1928 yearbook, and the comment below, taken from the yearbook of his graduation year (which in turn is taken from the aforementioned book on Artamonoff), offers insights into both his photography and his personality: ‘An ardent photographer with a complete knowledge of his subject, Artamonoff has given the College much valuable service with his camera. He specializes in writing reports and handing them in on time. He is quiet and refined.’

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View of Karaköy square and the Galata Bridge, 1931. Raimondo D'Aronco's 1903 Karaköy Mosque was demolished in 1958

After graduation, Artamonoff took an administrative engineering position in the Department of Buildings and Grounds of Robert College and its sister school, the American College for Girls (Robert College has since become Boğazici University, and the American College for Girls is the present Robert College). Appointed superintendent of buildings and grounds in 1938, he served in that capacity until 1947, at which point he and his wife migrated to the United States. It was during his working years that he took the majority of his photographs.

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Using a Rollei camera, Artamonoff photographed the city’s Byzantine treasures, capturing minarets, cisterns and sculptural decorations from every angle. These photos, both taken in 1935, show the columns of a Byzantine cistern inside the land walls near Edirnekapı, known as the Ipek Bodrum (top) and the arrangement superimposed capitals (above) supporting its ceiling.

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Artamonoff was interested in exploring the Byzantine Istanbul which had previously captured the attention of architectural historians and archaeologists. The above photo shows an unidentified man at the entrance of the Prison of Anemas, holding the 1899 seminal work Byzantine Constantinople, by Alexander Van Millingen, a scholar of Byzantine architecture (and an ex-Robert College professor), who himself had once stood in that very entrance.

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Artamonoff wasn’t just interested in monuments and architecture. He was also mesmerised by people’s daily lives – shops, markets, festivals, children playing. The above photo taken in 1937 shows boys on the doorstep of a shop in Tahtakale where they probably worked.

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This photo shows a female ensemble, possibly Romani, performing in front of the Imrahor Fountain in Kağıthane, at the top of the Golden Horn, in 1937, most probably entertaining picnickers in the popular park there known to foreign travellers as the legendary Sweet Waters of Europe. Such scenes can no longer be witnessed in modern Kağıthane.

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Artamonoff was especially beguiled by Istanbul’s architecture. He was fascinated both by the multitude of old buildings that had been reused for some new purpose or simply abandoned, and the new inhabitants of old quarters. This picture, taken in 1935, shows the Imrahor Camii (St John’s Studios) in Samatya, on the Sea of Marmara. Historically, it had been part of Constantinople’s most important monastery. After a turbulent history, the only part to survive into the 20th century was the 5th-century Cathedral of St John Baptist.

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Another photo shows the extent of the metamorphosis of Istanbul in the 1930s. The fresh debris of recently demolished buildings in front of the Aqueduct of Valens and Fatih Camii, captured in 1936, reminds us how many of Istanbul's historic quarters have been destroyed in the past 80 years. The area is now an leafy park divided by a four-lane highway.

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Ceiling detail with Artamonoff's shadow, location unknown (somewhere in Bursa), date unknown

What is nice about Artamonoff’s photography is that he obviously didn’t take himself too seriously. Enamoured of Istanbul and Turkey, he explored them zealously, taking pictures, it seems, mostly for himself. He wasn’t afraid to be candid, sometimes capturing unidentified subjects, sometimes accidentally catching his own shadow. His work gives a valuable glimpse not only of Byzantine and sometimes Ottoman structures, but also of Turkish everyday life. As the city faces ever more rampant development, Artamonoff’s photographs stand as an important testimony to what the city has, sadly, lost forever. 

The main image and images 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10 are courtesy of the Nicholas V. Artamonoff Collection, Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. Images 3, 7,8 and 11 are courtesy of Myron Bement Smith Collection, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Image 4 is courtesy of the Robert College Archives. Images 2 and 3 are taken by Victoria Khroundina.

The exhibition is on at the RCAC Gallery until October 6.

What appeared to be a cousin of this chap (photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) dropped by for tea in Yeniköy yesterday. Perfectly good manners. Enjoyed a walnut. Could any reader explain what on earth it was doing on the Bosphorus? Our friendly black squirrel sported an elegant patch of white on its chest.

With 41 world titles to his name, the Danish-Dutch-born Bjørn Dunkerbeck (left) is an icon of the windsurfing world, and one of the most successful professional athletes alive. He was among the galaxy of windsurfing stars in Alaçatı last week for the five-day PWA Pegasus Airlines World Cup, part of the PWA World Tour. And where were the TV cameras to record the thrills and spills, may we ask? Presumably sport without property deals isn't fair game for today's TV barons. Hang loose, or shocka, as they say with this Hawaiin Island non-verbal greeting. This year's event was tough, with fickle winds, false starts and drifting buoys, according to reports. The winners were Antoine Albeau and Delphine Cousin, who clinched her maiden world cup title. (Photograph: Derya Torolsan)

Nihat Gökyiğit (photographed here by Kenan Kaya) is a hero of Cornucopia's, so it was good to see an FT tribute to the 88-year-old Turkish industrialist and philanthropist this weekend. In Istanbul botanic garden is Turkey’s answer to spaghetti junction Matthew Wilson describes how the 32-hectare Nezahat Gokyigit Botanik Bahcesi (NGBB) is 'defiantly holding its ground' on the Asian side of Istanbul in the midst of the relocation 'en bloc of the entire Turkish banking industry'. It has to be 'a contender for the title of “place least likely to play host to a brand new botanic garden,” writes the managing director of London's famous inner-city Clifton Nurseries.

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'Led by Professor Dr Adil Guner, the team at NGBB have initiated a master plan to create ecological niches within the eight islands where as broad a range as possible of plant material from Turkey and beyond can be grown… There is an eclectic, energetic feel to this young garden. Perhaps that comes from Nihat himself, who seems to have an unquenchable appetite for ecological projects.'

Wilson also describes Nihat Bey's other achievements. 'A serial philanthropist with age-defying vigour, his interests range from the Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra – featuring Eurasian and Middle Eastern instrumentation and musicians from a dozen countries – to TEMA, the Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion, for Reforestation and the Protection of Natural Habitats, which he co-founded. The scale of some of TEMA’s schemes is  huge; an afforestation campaign for Anatolia, a region notable for 23 endemic oak taxa, aims to “put 10bn oak acorns in the ground”.' And then there is the amazing story of 'the Caucasian bee (Apis mellifera caucasica), a crevice-nesting subspecies of the western honey bee found primarily in Georgia and northern Turkey. Believed to be locally extinct, colonies were rediscovered after a nine-month search.' The bee is 'docile', 'productive' and 'pure', and Nihat has started a programme to raise tens of thousands of queens to generate income for the region.

If you haven'tt yet discovered this wonderful garden, we strongly recommend it. Even though it is still pretty young in gardening terms, and therefore more of a botanical than a pleasure garden, the creation of micro-climates already makes it a fascinating place to explore. And each time you go back, it is hugely rewarding to watch it mature. A visit does involve quite a lot of serious walking, though, so good shoes and a hat againstt the sun are essential. Because of its location on motorway property any kind of selling of refreshments, let alone plants, is strictly forbidden. However, the island closest to the Ataşehir carpark has shady picnic tables, so bring your own sandwiches. The tunnels between the motorway islands have been used for lavishly illustrated poster exhibitiions. A catalogue of the Ottoman horticulture exhibition, prepared with the help of Prof Dr Nurhan Atasoy, will be available from cornucopia.net in the coming few days.

Read Matthew Wilson's complete article here.

The Cornucopia Arts Diary desk received news this week that art space TANAS will close its doors for good on November 3 at the end of the forthcoming exhibition The Unanswered Question. Iskele 2, which opens on September 8.

The project space opened in the autumn of 2007 in Heidestraße in the centre of Berlin in partnership between Edition Block Berlin (an exhibition space which was founded in 1966) and the Vehbi Koç Foundation. It was initiated as a free and independent space in order to introduce the latest Turkish art to an international audience in Central Europe. As the press release from TANAS stated: ‘this self-imposed task has been accomplished’ and so the space will close.

Over the years, TANAS has introduced an extensive educational programme and established itself as a place for exchange between international artists, authors and curators of Turkish origin. Earlier this year, the space hosted a prologue exhibition to the 13th Istanbul Biennial. Entitled Agoraphobia, it ran between May 25 and July 27 and focused on the theme of freedom of expression in public spaces – a subject which was very fitting to the events which were unfolding in Turkey at the time.

It is sad news indeed that this space is closing down but as TANAS’ Communications Manager Karin Barth says ‘the [Vehbi Koç] Foundation runs so many other important cultural venues and ventures (e.g. the Biennial), TANAS was just one among many others’. I guess we have the opening of Koç Contemporary to look forward to in 2016 in Istanbul, however, the existence of exhibition spaces such as this outside of Turkey are extremelly important in order continue the discourse between Turkish artists and curators, and the international audience.

Tense times for those watching developments on the Yedikule gardens front. Much seems to depend on whether the Greek community decides to abandon 1500 odd years of history for a couple of flats. A fatal signature could be applied any day now. Meanwhile, a grain of hope must be gained from the echo-credentials of Patriarch Bartholomew (Al Gore called him the 'Green Patriarch'), who on Sunday morning, at 9.00, will be holding a special prayer for the environment. On September 8, the birthday of the Virgin Mary, the Patriarch traditionally visits the market gardens on the Land Walls to confer hs blessing on them. He will surely not wish give his blessing to a brand new block of flats, which the Fatih municipality is keen to add to its bulging portfolio (a famous mint field has been marked down by them as a car park).

Meanwhile the newly formed School of Historical Yedikule Gardens is gaining momentum. On Sunday afternoon, Aleksander Shopov, one of the key figures in the initiative to save the gardens, is presenting a workshop at the exceptionally beautiful Kilise Bostan, a garden known to date back to at least the 16th century, to which all are welcome. Shopov is a lively and engaging speaker, and his talk will be quite fascinating. The garden is very easy to find, just inside the Belgrade Gate, the second gate as you make your way along the walls from the Sea of Marmara. The workshop starts at 4pm and will last an hour. The theme, appropriately enough, is remedies for ailing plants in the 16th century. It will conclude with a symbolic planting of ruccola to mark Peace Day –  'roka against rockets'. On Tuesday, September 3, Emrah Altınok of Istanbul Technical University is holding a seminar at the garden entitled 'It was full of mulberry trees here', in which he will discuss the Küçükçekmece Water Basin, on the Thracian edge of the city, and the prevailing regime of de-agriculturalisation in Turkey.

Cornucopia, meanwhile, strongly urges its Greek readers to exert as much influence as possible on the Greek foundation that has the power to sign away the Belgrade Church's most precious heirloom.

When Hüseyin Çelikel, a 64-year old shopkeeper, set out to paint the steps leading from Fındıklı to Cihangir last week, all he wanted to do was to brighten up people's day and ‘make them smile’. At first, Çelikel painted just three of the steps, but then, after positive comments from passers-by, he decided to paint them all. Joined by three friends, he spent around 1500 Turkish liras on 40 kilos of paint and spent four days painting. The results were a spectacular display of rainbow colours.

Çelikel wasn't making a political statement. This wasn't an act of solidarity with the LBGT community (although he did become an ‘accidental hero’ of the community). He simply thought the stairs looked boring in grey and wanted to liven them up. Alas, Çelikel's rainbow dream was to come to an abrupt end.

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Last Saturday (August 31), just three days later, the steps were painted back to grey by the Beyoğlu municipality. Adding salt to the wound, the steps were repainted overnight, undoubtedly to avoid any protest from Çelikel, the steps' supporters or from residents who thought Çelikel's work added a much-needed dose of colour. To make matters even worse, the municipality then denied having anything to do with it.

Although eventually the municipiality admitted to the act and, according to Hurriyet, Beyoğlu's mayor had personally expressed his regret over the controversial "graying" of the previously rainbow steps’, attributing it to a ‘complaint’ (from whom is not clear), could it be that the real reason the steps were repainted has more to do with the increasingly authoritarian nature of the government? Indeed, Beyoğlu's mayor, Ahmet Misbah Demircan, told the media that even though Çelikel had offered Beyoğlu ‘a beautiful project’, he had made a ‘methodological mistake’ in that he did he hadn't applied to the municipality or informed the neighbourhood's residents. Well, it would be nice if the municipality applied to residents each time they wanted to carry out a project. But that doesn't happen, does it? 

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The backlash came almost immediately, with countless social-media posts and plans to paint the steps back that very day. It seems the neighbourhood's reidents hadn't been ‘complaining’ about the colourful steps at all, though they definitely were complaining about them being re-painted. Steps were painted in other cities and neighbourhoods around Istanbul, including the above effort on the steps leading from Dizi Sokak to Nüzhetiye Caddesi in Beşiktaş. The peace symbol is a nice touch. 

As Sebnem Arsu and Robert Mackey write in their blog in the New York Times: 'For many Turks who visited the Findikli stairs this weekend, the paint duel seemed to be yet another demonstration of a government bent on controlling their public and private lives.’ But when will enough be enough?  

The bid to save the ‘lungs of Istanbul’ – the city’s northern forests – continues. An initiative calling itself the ‘Northern Forest Defence’ is organising a two-day camp this weekend (September 7 and 8) at a campsite in the coastal village of Riva in Beykoz (above) on the Black Sea.

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Don’t be fooled by the initiative’s name – this is not a group of eco-warriors or tree huggers aimlessly protesting. In reality, the group comprises of institutions and individuals from all walks of life and industries who simply want to protect their city and its natural habitat from such projects as the third airport, the third bridge and Kanal Istanbul (which plans to build an artificial sea-level waterway to connect the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea, and which will run through the Riva area).

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The Belgrade Forest is facing destruction

As millions of trees have already been cut down in the forests, the camp will aim to discuss future plans to save the forests, as well as directly examine the cutting areas. During the camp, forums, workshops, panel discussions, concerts and theatre performances will take place. See below for the full programme.

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The campsite

Everyone is welcome to attend. Comfortable tents can be rented at the site. Attendees are encouraged to bring food and drinks, and essential items such as mats, sleeping bags, crockery, cutlery, torches, rubbish bags and first-aid supplies to share with others at the campsite. Buses will pick up attendees from various points around Istanbul and take them to the campsite. See below for the bus schedule.

This is an important event in the fight to save the northern forests and will feature some fascinating discussions and workshops. Camping under the stars in the very place that faces destruction will add meaning to exactly what this fight is about.

Programme:

Saturday September 7

10.00 – Pick up from Istanbul
12.00 – Arrive at the campsite
13.00 – Lunch
14.00 – Information session and announcements
15.00–16.30 – Workshops
17.00–19.00 – Panel: Mega transportation projects and their effect on the northern forests
                           Moderator:  Çiğdem Çidamlı

Discussion topics: ‘Lack of policy in transportation’ by Prof. Dr. Zerrin Bayraktar (Yıldız Technical University, Department of Transportation); ‘Understanding Istanbul’ by Çare Olgun Çalışkan (City Planner); ‘Agricultural lands’ by Beyhan Uzunçarşılı (Gümüşdere Village); ‘Northern forests and birds’ migratory routes’ by Istanbul Bird Watching Society, Northern Forest Defence and Besim Sertok (Forest Engineer) and ‘Watersheds’ by Ayşegül Mıhoğlu (Environmental Engineer) 

19.00–19.30 – Dinner                       

20.00–24.00 – Concerts and theatre performances
                           Music from Karmate, Meluses and Cenk Taner
                           Plays: Vava and Diren Ağaç (Resistance of Trees) by theatre group Vava
                      
Sunday September 8

08.30 – Breakfast
09.30–12.00 – Northern Forest Defence Forum                     
13.00–14.30 – Workshops
16.00 – Press statement (cutting area)
17.00 – Buses back to Istanbul

Buses:

Saturday September 7

Bakırköy:
Pick up at the front entrance of Incirli Doğtaş Mobilya (furniture shop) – 09.30
Contact:

Sarıyer:
Pick up at Sarıyer IDO – 09.30
Route: Büyükdere – 09.45; Maslak ITÜ stop – 10.00
Contact: 0507 554 50 99

Pick up at Sarıyer IDO – 09.30
Route: Tarabya Meydan (square) – 09.45; Yeniköy Villa Park – 10.00; Baltalimanı Minibüs stop – 10.15
Contact: 0507 445 84 35

Pick up at the 4. Levent Metro stop –10.00
Contact: 0533 554 04 09

Beşiktaş:
Pick up at the Beşiktaş Demokrasi Anıtı (democracy monument) – 10.00
Contact: 0545 942 42 39

Kartal:
Pick up at the front entrance of the Ahmet Şimşek College – 10.00
Contact: 0536 711 27 47

Maltepe:
Pick up at the front entrance of the Maltepe Meydan Mosque – 10.00
Contact: 0538 956 15 81

Ataşehir:
Pick up at the front entrance of the Ataşehir Migros – 10.00
Contact: 0535 456 89 92

Kadıköy:
Pick up at the front entrance of the Kadıköy Evlendirme Dairesi (marriage bureau) – 10.00 and 13.30
Contact:  0545 203 62 77

Pick up at the front entrance of the Altunizade Capitol – 10.00 and 14.00
Contact: 0533 558 58 99

Üsküdar:
Üsküdar Evlendirme Dairesi (marriage bureau) – 10:00
Contact: 0554 445 45 39

Sunday September 8

Kadıköy
Pick up at the front entrance of the Kadıköy Evlendirme Dairesi (marriage bureau) – 09.00

Pera Museum is hosting selected works from the workshops of the 6th International Student Triennial in collaboration with Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts between August  6 and September 22, 2013.

It’s Yours if You Resist is a workshop of images of the Gezi protests by 14 fine art students, most of postcard size, on strings across the room, at eye level, an ‘in your face’ response. One wall shows agonizing black-and-white video montage of an injured man lying prone on the pavement. The photographs range from a simple shot of the Taksim metro stop, barricaded with wood and bars of metal, to a man clinging to a traffic light amid jets of water.

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Main

Bridges over the Bosphorus is an exploration of mobility, and the “suppression of sensation” in a multi-cultural city. The stand-out work was Building a New City, a ‘video tutorial’ by Can Kurucu. In this graphic animation, a bridge and motorway across a waterway resembling the Bosphorus leads to new building plastered across green space: sky scrapers, parking lots, factories are dropped down like a video game, in a witty transformation. (see Pera Museum Blog.)

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In Connecting the Dots on the Body, students of various art forms used the body as a tool to express sculptural ideas. In Tüketim (Consumption), by Ahyan Mutlu, blue-bottle flies have settled on a man’s face. In Isimsiz (Untitled), by Derya Kazan, the photographs show a line of red peppers making a fringe along the smooth skin of a girl’s face. The images were striking, the message a little unclear.

Sharing Public Space: Istanbul Dogs documents a public space project using stencils to draw attention to the right to life of street dogs in Istanbul. Simple, Banksy-like spray stencils of dogs appear alongside short messages, like Children: Why are you afraid of Us? (Cocuklar: Neden Bizden Korkuyor?).

Main Illustration:Sharingh Public Space. Stencil design: Hazal Arslantaş, Doğukan Karapınar. Workshop leaders: Ahu Antme, Didem Dayı

A small but attentive group gathered in the beautiful bostan (garden) behind the Belgrade Church in Yedikule (above) last Sunday (September 1) to hear a talk on 16th-century remedies for ailing plants by Aleksandar Shopov – the PhD candidate at Harvard University who has spent the last month or so in Istanbul fervently trying to save from destruction the 1,600-year old bostans surrounding the land walls of the Old City. Shopov is one of the founders of the Yedikule Bostanları group, dedicated to disseminating information about the historical significance of the bostans and their importance to the local community. Last month they invited Dr Chantel White, an American archaeobotanist, to do an assessment of the land around Yedikule and write a research report that can be used to lobby the relevant groups. Chantel also conducted an engaging and informative workshop to mark the formation of the School of Historical Yedikule Gardens, which also organised Sunday’s event (click here and here to read more about Chantel's workshop).

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Aleks conducting the workshop, with Suna translating

Aleks's workshop (conducted in English with Turkish translation by Suna Kafadar, an enthusiastic proponent of the bostans movement), focused on the Revnak-i Bostan (Splendour of the Garden), the first known horticultural treatise written in the Ottoman-Turkish language, which discusses the science behind the cultivation of fruits and flowers. Although the exact date of the of the text – and the identity of the author  – is unknown, it is thought to have come from the second half of the 16th century. The oldest copy, dating back to 1577, is kept in the Topkapı library. As Aleks tells us, ‘The text’s appearance on the Ottoman intellectual horizon in the 16th century has not received much attention by modern historiography, which has ignored changes in the horticultural techniques, technologies and science in Ottoman history.’

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First few pages of the Revnak-i Bostan 

The Revnak-i Bostan has been an object of fascination for Aleks for a while. In a presentation at Boğaziçi University two years ago he discussed the origins, structure and significance of the book. ‘From the introduction we learn that the anonymous author decided to create such a book on the science of farming following his involvement in the restoration (ta'mir) of a garden (ravza-i cenet-i bahçet) in the vicinity of Edirne (Edrene-i mahmiyye),’ Aleks told his listeners. Revnak-i Bostan’s author apparently incorporated the ‘opinions of the wise man’ (akval-i hukemaya itiba) from farming books (kutub-i felaha) and from his own experiences in the garden. The first section of the book covers categories of soil; the second the planting of fruit trees; the third pruning and grafting, and the fourth pests and remedies. There is also an addendum about bostans and flowers in general, with special emphasis on the cultivation of melons and watermelons.

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Inside pages of the Revnak-i Bostan

Aleks also offered some insights into why farmers and others of that era were becoming increasingly interested in the creation of ‘written horticultural knowledge’. One such reason is attributed to the ‘repetitive cycle of establishing highly profitable market gardens and their frequent destruction’. In this sense, the ‘Revnak-i Bostan may have been the fruit of very favourable climatic conditions for agriculture in the region of Edirne on one hand, and the periodical devastation inflicted by the rising waters on the other,’ Aleks says. 

In Sunday’s workshop Aleks brought the Revnak-i Bostan directly to his audience and read from its pages to answer such questions as: ‘Why do fruit trees get sick?’, ‘How can we tell if a tree is getting sick?’ and ‘How do we identify the disease?’ The main part of his presentation, however, centred on ‘Remedies for ailing plants’.

According to the Revnak-i Bostan, fruit tree diseases can be caused by the climate (weather that is too hot or too cold), or by attacks from maggots. In summer tree roots can become damaged by the sun. In winter their veins, just like human veins, contract in the cold and provide insufficient circulation to produce heat. According to older Arabic agricultural manuals such as ibn Wahşiya, Aleks tells us, ‘Trees are humans turned upside down. The root of the tree is its head, and the trunk and branches are his legs and arms.’

There are a number of ways to establish whether a tree is sick. Leaves are a good indicator of health. If the leaves of one tree fall before every other tree, it can be concluded that the tree is sick. If the green of the leaves is fıstıkı rengi – that is, the pale green of pistachios rather than a bold green – the tree is sick. To identify the disease of the tree, the Revnak-i Bostan provides us with a long list of suggestions: if leaves have spots on them (benek benek alaca), worms or maggots have attacked the tree; if the leaves appear scorched (kavruk gibi imuş) and shrink, there is a good chance that the tree’s root has encountered a stone or a hidden hard surface; if the leaves are greyish (boz olup) and dry, the tree needs water. To identify the disease, it is recommended that the roots are cut open and examined closely. 

As Aleks begins describing the various remedies for sick trees as detailed in the Revnak-i Bostan, the first thing he tells us is that the majority involve the use of different types of manure and/or human urine. For example, burning the stones (çekirdek) of almonds (badem) or apricots (kayısı) and mixing the ashes with manure (half-and-half) can cure soft-fruit trees such as fig (incir) and pear (armut). For hard-fruit trees, rather than apply the mixture directly to the tree itself, dig into the root and sprinkle the mixture and water there. Dog faeces mixed with human urine (or the urine of any four-footed animal) can cure trees attacked by worms. Another method for getting rid of maggots and worms is to apply ox manure (sığır ödini) to the tree. According to Kastos Hakim in Geoponika – another discovery of Aleks's, a 10th-century document detailing the gardening calendar for Istanbul – digging a trench around the tree the size of one or two spans of the trunk and pouring in human urine is also an acknowledged remedy.

There are, however, Aleks assures us, treatments that can be implemented without using manure or urine. For a guava (amrud) or pear tree that is drying out, expose the roots, take out the soil and apply pebbles, together with soil from the surface. Then pour in water, re-cover the roots and watch the tree get better. Applying nut grass (somun çim) or buckthorn seeds (topalak otu), both invasive weeds, chopped and mixed with water was a favourite technique of the Ottomans. Revnak-i Bostan also mentions the human factor as a remedy for ailing plants. Aleks reads from the book: two people approach a tree and one of them says, ‘I will cut down this tree.’ The other person says, ‘Insallahu tealla min ba’d yemiş verür' (‘Great lord, after some time it will give fruits’).  The lesson here is simple: don’t be too axe- or bulldozer-happy, and let nature take its course.

As the bostan where the workshop took place grows mostly vegetables and herbs, Aleks outlined some remedies for these too. One method is to soak the seeds of melon (kavun), squash (kabak) and cucumber (salatalık) in liquorice (meyankökü) and then spread them around the garden. To keep insects away, soak devil’s weed (Tribulus terrestris) in vinegar and then spread that around. Marinating salt in water for a day and then sprinkling it around the garden protects also protects plants from insects. Planting mustard (hardal) around a garden can promote the health of crops in general. Another good tip is soaking the vegetable seed in a mixture of ox dung and water before planting (prevention is better than cure, after all) to protect it from insects.

How many of these remedies were actually used in the Yedikule bostans historically, Aleks admits, is unknown. But there is one method for preserving seeds recommended in the Revnak-i Bostan that is being used today by Yedikule farmers – such as Ahmet, who comes from three generations of Yedikule gardeners. Vegetable seeds are wrapped up in a cloth with cow dung before planting to ensure that they grow into healthy, pest-resistant plants.

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Sunday's group united. Photo: Mimar Ufak, one of the proponents of the Yedikule bostans movement

After Aleks’ presentation and question time, we were taken around the bostan to see the various vegetable crops and the water-supply system.

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Rocket from the gardens: perfectly peppery (top); Mehmet's rocket lesson (bottom)

The workshop ended with one of the Yedikule bostans farmers, Mehmet, giving a short lesson in growing rocket (roka). Although it was in Turkish and my understanding was limited, watching as Mehmet delicately handled the rocket and hearing the emotion in his voice was enough to tug at my heartstrings. Some of us purchased bunches of rocket, as well as the other vegetables and herbs on offer. On my way home with a bag of tomatoes, rocket and mint, numerous people on the minibus and tram commented on the powerful smell of the mint. Indeed, the crops in these bostans are healthy and plentiful, and they smell and taste like no other. This blog ends, like all our others on the Yedikule bostans, by reaffirming that these gardens must be preserved. Of that there is no question.

Anticipation is always high as the Istanbul Biennial approaches but with the recent events that have taken place in Turkey, the anticipation for this year’s Biennial is at fever pitch. When the curator of this edition, Fulya Erdemci, announced the theme for the Biennial – taken from the title of the economist-turned-poet Lale Müldür’s 1998 book Mom, am I barbarian? and exploring the notion of the public domain as a political forum – in January, no one realised just how pertinent this theme would become just five months later. And, when I attended the Biennial’s prologue exhibition in Berlin in late May, I also could not imagine the events that would unfold just a few days after my return to Istanbul.

The advent of the Gezi movement which swept the country starting in Istanbul on May 31, and soon reaching cities such as Izmir, Ankara, Bursa, Bodrum, Antalya and many others, has seen the history of the politics of space and collective public action in Turkey completely rewritten. As the protest itself – taking place in the city’s parks which became sites of resistance – and its issues are directly related to Biennial’s theme, the organisers had to go back to the drawing board and rethink the programme. After all, if the Biennial does not address the issues of the movement, it would become immediately irrelevant. In the lead up to perhaps the most anticipated Istanbul Biennial in its history, I spoke to the Biennial’s director Bige Örer about what’s in store.

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One of the exhibiting artist groups is UK's Freee and in their performative work entitled ‘The Manifesto for a New Public’, a spoken choir formed of Freee and other participants read through a prepared manifesto – the participants only reading aloud the statements that they agree with.

The ‘vision’ of the Biennial organisers is ‘to question and discuss the nature of the public space in Istanbul and to open it to constructive dialogue’. Örer thinks that the Biennial is a ‘crucial’ institution for the development of political dialogue, ‘particularly outside of traditional political trajectories’. In addition, it allows for a local issue to be viewed from an international perspective. The Biennial’s theme is far-reaching and important, and I was interested in finding out how it came about.

The theme, Örer tells me, is a ‘reflection of the curatorial practice of Fulya Erdemci’, who has always been interested in the relationship between art and the city. Erdemci’s Istanbul Pedestrian Exhibitions in 2002 and 2005 were the first major urban public space exhibitions in Turkey that adopted a critical stance on the position of the individual in the city. The potential of the public domain to become a political forum is also of fascination to Erdemci. In addition, Erdemci is herself from Istanbul so the country’s current socio-political issues are of utmost importance to her.

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The book from which the Biennial takes its title

Another critical component of the theme is poetry, and its role in the interplay between the personal, the public and the political. Borrowing the title from Müldür’s text is likewise significant. Müldür ‘is one of the most influential poets in Turkey, and someone who has developed a unique poetic language. Drawing inspiration from her language, we hope to rediscover and remember the relationship between poetry and contemporary art in this Biennial,’ Örer tells me.

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LaToya Ruby Frazier's 2011 photo series, ‘The Grey Area Series’, explores the urban transformation happening in the artist's home town of Braddock, Pennsylvania. The above photo is entitled ‘Fifth Street Tavern’, and shows the Tavern and Braddock Hospital in the background.

The theme, according to Örer, is important to contemporary art in Turkey, which has gained incredible momentum and grown more diverse in the last decade. ‘Exploring questions around notions of citizenship, urban transformation, marginalisation and socio-political change, among many others, the Biennial corresponds not only to the social and political context in Turkey, but also touches upon many crucial questions and debates around contemporary art in the country, namely, relation of art and the public and political spheres, collective imagination and coproduction, institutionalisation and capital,’ Örer says. 

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A still from Egyptian artist, the late Amal Kenawy's, 2009 video work ‘Silence of Sheep’, in which Anaway staged a public performance in downtown Cairo which saw a group of people cross streets in peak-hour traffic on all fours – a work that landed 15 people in prison. 

Originally the organisers wanted to stage events in ‘contested urban public spaces’ such as Gezi Park, Taksim Square, Tarlabaşı Boulevard, Karaköy and Sulukule, and planned to carry out a number of projects that would actually ‘intervene’ in these spaces. The organisers didn’t intend to ‘commission or include the spontaneous protest interventions and performances that happen on the streets’ as they believe ‘that they shouldn’t be domesticated or tamed in the institutional frames to which they are reacting’, but they perhaps wanted to ‘highlight’ these if they already existed. But then Gezi happened.

After the Gezi movement began, the Biennial’s organisers ‘questioned what it meant to realise art projects with the permissions of the same authorities that do not allow the free expression of its citizens’. According to Örer, the organisers ‘understood that the context was going through a radical shift that would sideline the reason d’etre of realising these projects. Moving away from urban public space was a decision made by Fulya Erdemci and the Biennial team’. In her statement, Erdemci elaborated further: ‘I believe that by withdrawing from urban public spaces, thus marking the presence through the absence, we can contribute to the space of freedom, to the creative and participatory demonstrations and forums, instigated by the Gezi resistance.’

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5533

The decision to withdraw from urban spaces was a positive one, according to Örer. It meant the organisers were able to ‘establish collaborations with art institutions’ such as ARTER and Salt Beyoğlu, and independent artist initiative 5533, which was founded by young Turkish contemporary artist Volkan Aslan and Nancy Atakan, an American visual artist and art historian . 

This year’s Biennial, Örer tells me, differed greatly from the previous biennials, especially when it came to its preparations. ‘Following the [Gezi] events, which were remarkably relevant to the Biennial’s theme, we revised all decisions about the exhibition and made some radical changes. We relocated the works from public spaces to indoors. This showed us once again how important it is to have a flexible format for the Biennial. We also decided for the first time to have free admission to the Biennial, which we feel is very much in line with the exhibition’s vision,’ Örer says.

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Christoph Schäfer' 2013 work ‘Nika Riots’ (pastel and acrylic on paper) questions what happens when the ‘audience leave their seats and take to the streets’.

Many ‘exciting’ projects will be shown as part of the Biennial, with 88 artists and artist groups being featured. Some works have been produced directly for Istanbul such as the collaborative video pieces from German conceptual artists Alice Creischer and Andreas Siekmann, and Spanish video artist Maider López’s ‘commentary on the making of routes’. German artist Christoph Schäfer presents his ‘visual narrations’ of Gezi Park (main image shows his photo ‘Park Fiction is Now Gezi Park Hamburg’ taken on June 16, 2013 in the midst of the protests in Turkey) and his above work ‘Nika Riots’. Örer says that projects which combine poetry and literature with visual elements, such as works by Mexican mixed-media artist Jorge Méndez Blake and Pakistani-American artist Shahzia Sikander known for exploring the integration of Muslim and Hindu cultures, ‘are worth waiting for’.

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Mierle Laderman Ukeles' 1974 performative work ‘Washing’ involved the artist getting on her hands and knees and scrubbing the floors of a museum to tackle the stereotypes of women's roles in society at the time (depicted here by black-and-white photographs). 

There will also be works about public domain and urban transformation from the 1960s and 1970s from Nil Yalter, a pioneer in the French feminist art movement of the 1970s; the late Gordon Matta-Clark, an American artist renowned for his 1970s site-specific installations and New York-based Mierle Laderman Ukeles who features a lot of performative aspects in her work (above). 

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‘Hotel Italia’

A plethora of parallel events will also take place. These include the new multi-media exhibition by 2012 Full Art Prize winner Işıl Eğrikavuk, which was conceived in response to the Gezi protests and explores the rapid urban transformation of Istanbul. And, a number of events will take place as part of the Italian cultural programme, including Roman artist Angelo Bucarelli’s installation exploring the theme of water and what it means to Istanbul, and a group show by Palermo-based arts organisation Nostra Signora which takes the abandoned and crumbling Hotel Italia in Tomtom in Beyoğlu and ‘aims to renew its spirit’ through various media such as painting, photography and sculpture (above).

The 13th Istanbul Biennial opens to the public on September 14 and runs until October 20. Click on our event listing for more information.

Art lovers are eagerly anticipating the 13th Istanbul Biennial to open on September 14, but in the meantime, there is a plethora of exciting new shows (big and small) opening in Istanbul's galleries. This is the first installment in a what will be a regular series of gallery walks around various neighbourhoods of the city.

Begin in the city’s new cultural hub – Karaköy/Tophane (scroll to the bottom for a map) – at the current daddy of Turkey’s modern art scene, Istanbul Modern. A big red sign on Meclis-i Mebusan Caddesi (visible from the Tophane tramstop) invites you down to the warehouses (antrepo) lining the quay, often dwarfed by cruise liners. The white warehouse in the far corner of the shadeless car park houses the country’s first private modern art museum. A lot to choose from here, from a collection of highlights of the permanent collection entitled Past/Future, on the first floor, and two temporary exhibitions on the ground floor – Close Quarters (in the photography gallery, above image) and the calligraphy-inspired Erol Akyavaş retrospective. On your way out, pause to contemplate the pleasing hovering discs of Sky Spotting Stop – by young architects in a MoMa–Istanbul Modern collaboration.

Back at the Tophane tramstop, turn left at the pretty 18th-century Mahmud I fountain and head for the sea (past an arcade of noxious nargiles). On the corner of Tophane Iskele Caddesi, Egeran Gallery is hosting the Gezi-inspired installation Reverse Corner by Işıl Eğrikavuk, winner of the 2012 FULL Art Prize (Turkey's first contemporary art award, open to artists under 40). A parallel event to the Biennial, it is all about ‘us’ and ‘them’ – the title comes from the deliberately confusing soccer tactic.

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Sarkis' Rainbow exhibition

On then into the backstreets behind Egeran, where Tophane becomes Karaköy – a delicious mix of motorbike repair shops and fancy cafés. Galeri Mana, housed in a converted 19th-century wheat mill, is offering a very conceptual new show Rainbow, by the Paris-based Turkish-born Armenian artist Sarkis (Zabunyan). Nearby at Istanbul’74 are photographs of pop culture icons by the Dutch duo Inez & Vinoodh.

Inland from the Tophane tramstop, across a park, look out for the appetising Falls in Galata café, at the bottom of Kumbaracı Yokuşu, the steep straight lane leading up to Istkiklal. Brace yourself for another strong dose of Gezi at the non-commercial artspace DEPO, the warehouse next to the café, where the current exhibition is called Gezi: The Beginning.

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Meriç Algün Ringborg's ‘A Work of Fiction’, 2013, part of her The Apparent Author exhibition

Backtrack across the part to the next artery leading up to Istiklal, directly opposite the Kılıç Ali Pasha Mosque. Boğazkesen Caddesi – and its side streets – have a few more galleries of interest including Daire Gallery (at No. 65D) which is showing a group exhibition entitled Lost; industrial art space Mixer (at No. 45 in the basement) which is showing another Biennial parallel event, a site-specific installation entitled Hotel Italia; and Galeri NON (on a side street called Nur-i Ziya Sokak), which has the first solo exhibition of Istanbul-born, Stockholm-based Meriç Algün Ringborg, entitled The Apparent Author. 

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Gülsün Karamustafa's ‘Prison Paintings’ series, 1972–1978

A vigorous climb up brings you to the always-hectic Istiklal Caddesi and SALT Beyoğlu (Istiklal Caddesi No. 136), in which the Turkish contemporary artist Gülsün Karamustafa offers A Promised Exhibition. Karamustafa’s abstract paintings have never been exhibited before, and her unique installations and videos (she had a career as an art director in yeşilçam melodramas in the 1980s) reveal a passion for detail and composition.

Backtrack to Istiklal 163, on the fourth floor of the famous Mısır apartment, a building packed with galleries, Galeri Nev is hosting Turkey’s renowned video artist Ali Kazma’s Book, his first show focusing on his photography.

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Elio Montanari's photograph of artist Matthew Barney and assistants setting up for Barney's show ‘Ottoshaft’ for Documenta IX, Kassel, Germany, 1992

For more photography, head back down to Bankalar Caddesi from the Tünel Square, at the end of İstiklal. This is the grand street leading down to the main square of Karaköy, opposite the Galata Bridge. At the substantial former HQ of the Ottoman Bank, SALT Galata is exhibitiing the work of the Italian Istanbul-based ‘photographer of the artists’ Elio Montanari. Although One, No One and One Hundred Thousand is interesting in content, series of photographs are hung in different areas over three floors of the building, isolating each series, and depriving the show of any sense of coherency.

If you still have it in you, head down to Karaköy boat station, and catch a ferry to Kadıköy, where a five-minute taxi to Gallery Park Art (Osmanağa Mh. Yoğurtçu Park Caddesi No. 44, Kadıköy) brings you to a lovely gallery exhibiting a sequel to their Gezi protests show entitled Discovering Unity.

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Key: Blue with dot – Istanbul Modern; red with dot – Egeran Galeri; green with dot – Galeri Mana; yellow with dot – Istanbul'74; light blue with dot – DEPO; purple with dot – Mixer; blue – Daire Gallery, red – Galeri Non; light blue – Galeri Nev; green – SALT Beyoğlu, purple with dot – SALT Galata

Click here for the interactive map.

After months of secrecy about its venues and participating artists, the 13th Istanbul Biennial opened to the public last weekend. Exploring such ideas as freedom of expression in the public domain, poetry and visual language, the voices of the oppressed, the artist as ‘barbarian’, and the privatisation of culture, this year’s festival showcases the works of 88 artists and collectives from Turkey and beyond. There is a strong concentration on Latin American artists and – to a lesser extent – artists from the Middle East, the Balkans and North Africa. The aim of the curator, Fulya Erdemci, was to prioritise less-privileged geographies in order, she says, to ‘challenge the dominant structure in the field of art in the public domain, which consists mainly of artists of European and Anglo-Saxon origin’ – a strategy which has made this Biennial all the more compelling. 

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The majority of the exhibits are displayed at Antrepo No 3. The venue, a former warehouse, is itself set up as a public space, another strategic decision by the organisers. We are greeted by a brick wall, the work of the Mexican artist Jorge Méndez Blake whose oeuvre is marked by a tension between architecture and literature. Look closely, you see that the wall stands upon Kafka’s 1922 novel The Castle, in which the protagonist struggles to gain access to a castle governed by mysterious authorities. Three constructed ‘squares’ – two focusing on urban transformation and collective living practices, one showcasing works that challenge the concept of the ‘monument’ – further contribute to the idea of the venue as a public space.

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Another feature of this year’s Biennial is the heavy concentration on video, with one particular work garnering a lot of attention. Wonderland (February 2013), by the Turkish artist Halil Altındere is a staged hip-hop clip using in-your-face imagery and lyrics to give a voice to the communities of Sulukule (especially the Roma community which has resided in the area for over six centuries), now being pushed out of the neighbourhood to make room for Public Housing Project (TOKI) apartments. The use of hip-hop is a clever device, for the genre has a long history as the music of the oppressed, and the sight of young boys rapping is even more so – reminding us just whose future is at stake, thanks to this rampant gentrification.

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In Maider López’s video Making Ways (2013), made especially for the Biennial, the artist questions what makes a space public. She filmed the traffic at a busy junction in Karaköy and presents her findings on three screens – one showing a black-and-white recording overlaid with a street grid, one with a colour wide view and the third with a colour close-up. These contrasting views (isolating vs intimate) effectively explore the intricacies of co-existing in a public space.

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Moving away from video but staying in the domain of public space is Rietveld Landscape’s Intensive Care (2013), in which the spectator is invited to enter a pitch-black room where the only light comes from a small, breathing installation of the façade of the Atatürk Cultural Centre. The artists' collective describe Istanbul as a ‘patient’ that is ‘consistently roving between life and death’. Before they could ‘intervene’ in a public space – they had planned to erect the work in front of the actual Atatürk Cultural Centre in Taksim Square – a real intervention took place with the advent of the Gezi protests. The way events unfolded undeniably added a somewhat ominous dynamism to the work.

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For his work Music for a Small Boat Crossing a Medium Size River (2012), the Mexican artist Fernando Ortega commissioned Brian Eno to write a piece of music especially for the boatmen who transport passengers across the Bobos River in Mexico. Ortega presents his piece with eight photographs showing the crossing, a CD of the music, and his correspondence with Eno. However, we cannot hear Eno’s composition – that is exclusively reserved for the passengers on the boat. In constructing a situation where something can be experienced only by undertaking a certain action, Ortega explores the importance of where we live and the journeys we take.

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Carla Filipe’s work, among other things, is designed to read like a ‘chronicle of modern Portuguese history’. Her installation at Antrepo No 3, If There Is No Culture, There Is Nothing (2011–2013), is a powerful look at the way culture is impacted by gentrification. The display of antique books eaten by worms, a sight that will affect any book lover, is an ode to Filipe’s favourite bookstore in her hometown of Porto which is struggling to keep its doors open, largely due to Portugal’s unstable economic situation. Making the work even more pertinent is the fact that a direct connection can be made to Istanbul and the recent news that the Beyoğlu bookstore Robinson Crusoe is likewise ‘fighting urban renewal onslaught’.

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The Turkish artist Ipek Duben invites us into the domain of visual language with her work Manuscript 1994 (1993–1994), in which 51 paintings, each depicting a part of her naked body, are arranged around a room. Her poem, in both Turkish and English, is written on a placard that stands in one corner. Duben grew up in a culture which dictates that the female body must be kept away from the public eye. Her subtly beautiful paintings and her poetry both address the female body in a way that challenges the preconceptions set out in religious texts.

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The Dutch duo Wouter Osterholt and Elke Uitentuis take up a large proportion of the third Antrepo ‘square’ with their work Monument to Humanity – Helping Hands (2011–2013). The work centres on a public debate that arose after the Turkish artist Mehmet Aksoy’s sculpture Monument to Humanity, in the city of Kars on the Armenian border, was demolished before it was finished after Prime Minister Erdoğan described it as a ‘freak’. The monument, showing two standing figures facing each other with one extending his hand, was commissioned as a kind of peace monument in acknowledgement of the deep-rooted Turkish-Armenian conflict. Osterholt and Uitentuis wheeled a model of a giant hand, extended in peace – the only part of the original monument that wasn’t completed – in a cart around Tarlabaşı and other neighbourhoods to capture the reactions of passers-by and question how a monument can be destroyed without public participation. As Erdemci pertinently says: ‘How can the prime minister decide what is art and what is not when he is by no means an expert?’

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The Belgian artist Guillaume Bijl’s installation Suspect was originally exhibited in 1980. In a brand-new reproduction – reminiscent of a ‘whodunit’ film set – we are presented with two interconnected spaces: in one room, a recreation of an artist’s studio ransacked by police after the artist’s neighbours accuse him of ‘unusual’ behaviour; in the other, glass cases displaying the objects deemed suspicious. The accompanying text on the wall lists the ‘unusual’ behaviour which landed the artist in hot water, such as spending a lot of time in bookshops and parks, coming home late at night, and participating in left-wing demonstrations. For Erdemci, this work is ‘emblematic’ of the Biennial and its themes, and its set-up is certainly effective. Artists, Erdemci says, ‘make the utopic moments possible and are therefore deemed suspects’.

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The German-born documentary film-maker and writer Hito Steyerl’s filmed lecture/performance Is a Museum a Battlefield? (2013) attempts to link the contemporary arms trade with the contemporary art world. Steyerl’s friend Andrew Wolf, a radical leftist activist and PKK militant, was killed in Van, East Turkey. The artist went to the area to collect paraphernalia such as empty bullet casings to question how the two seemingly different worlds of art and weapons are connected. The artist talks to the viewer directly in her performance, raising controversial topics such as the potential relationships existing between the funders of the Istanbul Biennial, for instance, and the arms companies. Confrontational stuff.

Stay tuned for the cream of the crop in the other Biennial venues in forthcoming blogs.

High culture is about to come to busy Beşiktaş, when the Naval Museum opens in October, but until recently it wasn’t even remotely associated with an art scene. The Biennial still seems a long way away. A pity. The neighbourhood is home to no fewer than three top-notch universities, including the state conservatory and a leading architectural faculty. The conservatory, in an annexe to Dolmabahçe Palace, is next to what was for years the Museum of Painting and Sculpture. It faces a street of pretty town houses known as Akaretler (above), the row houses built at the end of the 19th century to accommodate palace servants. W Hotel, a sort of disco-boutique hotel, is on the corner of Akaretler, an uncomfortable fit for everyone concerned. The building could and should have become a museum to Fausto Zonaro, the greatest painter to work in Istanbul in the dying years of the Ottoman Empire, who lived and worked there. Until the two streets of Akaretler were otherwise admirably spruced up, he would have recognised every bare brick of the building.

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Claudia Parducci's work ‘Use Your Words’ (2013) is exhibited as part of A Marginal Revolution; gouache on paper, 107 x 76 cm 

Up the hill, past inviting brasseries and Café Nero, the consistently good Kuad Gallery is hosting a tongue-in-cheek mixed-media group show of local and international artists entitled A Marginal Revolution.

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Daniel Canogar's ‘Vortice IV’, 2011

Şair Nedim Caddesi, the lower of the two Akaretler streets, is actually where most of the Akaretler galleries are located. Art ON Istanbul, a newbie at No 4, has a striking solo show by the audio-visual artist Daniel Canogar: Vortex includes super-detailed, large-scale photographs of people swimming in what appears to be rubbish, with a video of the artist providing much-needed explanations.

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Cengiz Çekil's ‘With a Cleaning Cloth (Detail)’, 2012–3; acrylic paint, lace, tulle, string and cleaning cloth on 144 canvases, 81 x 60 cm (each)

At No 20, past another heady mix of alluring cafés and exclusive boutiques, is the second exhibition hall of Rampa Istanbul, a spacious, all-white basement, where the veteran Cengiz Çekil is showing pastel-coloured canvases emblazoned with cleaning cloths and lace in With a Cleaning Cloth.

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Nilbar Güreş' ‘BERF’ from the series Open Phone Booth, 2011; C-print, 150 x 108 cm

Opposite, at No 21, next door to Kahve Dünyası, Rampa’s main space has a memorable exhibition by the Turkish artist Nilbar Güreş, who caused a stir at London’s Frieze Art Fair back in 2011. Her latest exhibition, Open Phone Booth, documents an Alevi-Kurdish village with stunning photography and an ironic, poignant video.

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Sevim Sancaktar's work ‘Forget Me Not’ (2013) is exhibited at I Can Do This As Well; mixed media on diasec, 50 x 50 cm

Two doors down, C.A.M. Galeri’s letters are etched on cool steel on the façade. Inside, Emre Zeytinoğlu has curated a mixed-media group show entitled I Can Do This As Well.

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Gazi Sansoy's work ‘Faceless’ at Themeless/Contactless 3

Now onto the final stop located on the outskirts of Beşiktaş – more precisely Teşvikiye, the neighbourhood leading to fashionable Nişantaşı. Perhaps it's easier on the legs to hop in a cab for this one. Otherwise if you need to walk off lunch, follow Şair Nedim Caddesi for a few hundred yards past fruit markets and kebab shops, and turn left up the steep Hüsrev Gerede Caddesi (a one-way street coming down the hill). About half way up at No 37, Galeri Ilayda has a playful, wonderfully laid-out group show entitled Themeless/Contactless 3, now in its last week.

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Key: Blue – Kuad Gallery; Red – Art ON Istanbul; Purple – Rampa basement hall (No 20); Light blue – Rampa main space (No 21); Green – C.A.M. Galeri; Yellow – Galeri Ilayda

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Boğaziçi University – originally founded as Robert College in 1863 by a missionary, Cyrus Hamlin, and a businessman, Christopher R Robert  – is celebrating it's 150th birthday by hosting international academics, artists, writers, philosophers and historians as part of its ‘Boğaziçi Chronicles’ programme. The residency programme, says the programme's co-ordinator, Deniz Erbas, 'will provide the artists, thinkers and writers with the the time, space and context to gain a better understanding of Istanbul and Turkey.’ 

Each guest will be accommodated at the Tubini house on the Bebek Campus for two to four weeks. They will meet students and academics, become part of university life and keep a journal of their experiences, which will then be published as a compendium by Boğaziçi University Press. Meanwhile, the public will be treated to various activities, such as presentations, conferences, exhibitions, concerts and performances.

The university’s first guest, the American philosopher and historian Susan Buck-Morss – who lectures on political philosophy, literature, art history, architecture and urban studies at the New York City University Graduate Studies Center – stays on campus until November 11. This Thursday, October 31, she mediates a public colloquium on ‘trans-local’ formations at the Albert Long Hall. A diverse range of topics will be discussed, including ‘bulldozer neoliberalisation’ in Turkey and the state of politics beyond elections. Buck-Morss will end the day with a lecture entitled TransLocal Commons and the Global Crowd. 

Future guests will include the Lebanese filmmaker and photographer Akram Zaatari (March 1 to 29, 2014); the English-born, Denmark-based composer Juliana Hodkinson (April 7 to May 3); the American literary theorist Michael Hardt (May 12 to 28); the Bengali novelist Amitav Ghosh (June 2 to 15) and the Argentine author Alberto Manguel (sometime in 2015), who is currently in town for the Istanbul Tanpınar Literature Festival and the International Book Fair.

For more on the programme, visit the programme’s website and watch this space.

On October 24 the Orient-Institut in Cihangir was packed with an enthusiastic audience ready to hear the historian Dr Philip Mansel talk about the economic, political and cultural alliances that existed between the Ottoman Empire and European strongholds for over three centuries. Istanbul was so important during the Ottoman Empire, Dr Mansel began, that ambassadors who were sent there often went on to have highly lucrative foreign diplomat careers. A good example is the Comte de Vergennes, the French ambassador to Istanbul in the mid-18th century (his portrait, above, painted by Antoine de Favray in 1766, is on display at the Pera Museum as part of the Intersecting Worlds exhibition).

Dr Mansel's lively lecture focused on each ‘friend’ of the Ottoman Empire individually. Fascinating titbits of information were accompanied by visual examples, the majority of them paintings commissioned by the various ambassadors.

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The Ottomans had friendly relations and treaties with a number of countries. Transylvania was one of the first to form an alliance and was a tributary principality of the Empire in the mid-16th century (today it has a repository of the richest and best-preserved Turkish carpets outside the Islamic world). In 17th-century Venice more books were written about the Ottoman Empire than any other, and the image above shows an example of a drawing depicting the Bailo of Venice entering Pera (date unknown) that would have been found in such a book.

But the Ottoman Empire's most important alliance was undoubtedly with France. From the moment the first French ambassador arrived, in the mid-16th century, the French-Ottoman alliance became ‘one of the few fixed points in European diplomacy’. The ‘fully functional military, as well as political, alliance’ was so strong, according to Dr Mansel, that it wasn't long before the French started calling their sons Constantine. The long-term consequences of this alliance were well captured at the recent Treasure of the Holy Sepulchre exhibition at Versailles.

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One of the most important painters to come out of the French-Ottoman alliance was Jean-Baptiste Vanmour, who arrived in Istanbul in 1699 in the suite of the French ambassador, the Marquis de Ferriol. Vanmour is often credited with capturing the ‘European-Ottoman intimacy’ most comprehensively. There are no equivalent paintings of ambassadors in other European cities during this period, Dr Mansel told us. Vanmour remained in the city until his death in 1737 and painted hundreds of pictures during his lifetime (a number of these are on display at the Intersecting Worlds exhibition). The above image shows Vanmour’s 1724 painting of the reception of the French Ambassador, Comte d’Andrezel, by Sultan Ahmed III, at a dinner hosted by the grand vizier, Ibrahim Pasha.

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Another favourite subject was the ambassadorial procession. These had to be very flash ‘if you were an ambassador worth your weight’, according to Dr Mansel. The rumour was that ‘every window was packed’ when a procession was taking place. The above image shows an ambassadorial procession painted by Vanmour sometime in the first half of the 18th century. Dr Mansel alerted us to the number of accompanying janissaries – a telltale sign of the importance of an ambassador.

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Vanmour did not paint only ambassadors and the court – he was also interested in Istanbul’s other power structures. The painting of his above, completed in 1817, shows the revolutionary figure Patrona Khalil, a former marine who instigated the mob uprising that resuled in the replacement of Sultan Ahmed III with Mahmud I in 1730. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam holds the largest collection of Vanmours painted during his time in Istanbul.

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European-Ottoman relations were often based on trade. French trade (through Marseille) was extensive and was rumoured to have ‘kept half of Provence alive’, Dr Mansel told us. Interestingly, there were no mosques in Marseille until the 20th century. In the early 17th century, Dutch-Ottoman relations warmed up. They shared the same enemy (Spain) – a factor that often brought regions together. The above anonymous painting from the late 17th or early 18th century depicts the presentation of the Dutch consul Jan Baron Daniel de Hochepied in Izmir.

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Another ally was Poland. The relationship brewed in the 16th century, when Suleiman the Magnificent was apparently on ‘brotherly’ terms with the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus. Three wars between Poland and the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century cooled the relationship but eventually they became friends again. The Ottoman Empire’s 1768 declaration of war on Russia was mostly in order to get Polish troops out of Russia. Polish dress was greatly influenced by Ottoman styles and King Stanisław I Leszczyński built Turkish-style kiosks in Lorraine. The above 1790 painting by Luigi Mayer shows Governor Piotr Potocki and his embassy entering Pera. Mayer was one of the most important late 18th-century European painters of the Ottoman Empire , and produced over 400 views of Istanbul. Dr Mansel hopes for an exhibition, and so do we.

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Sweden’s alliance with the Ottoman Empire dates from the early 17th century. Dr Mansel tells us that Selim III made formal written alliances with Christian powers, including Sweden. When Sweden failed to observe the agreement (and betrayed the Empire by secretly signing a treaty with Catherine the Great), the Sultan remarked: ‘Infidels are so unreliable.’ One of the most impressive collections of paintings showing the Swedish-Ottoman alliance is the Celsing Collection. Gustaf Celsing was a diplomat sent as an envoy to Sultan Mehmed IV’s court by King Charles X in 1657. Following in their father’s footsteps, Celsing’s sons would become Swedish ambassadors to Turkey in the mid-18th century. The fate of the collection of paintings each Celsing commissioned during his post ‘hangs thick in the air’, Dr Mansel tells us, for the Celsing family wants to sell. The above painting shows Gustaf Celsing in an audience with the grand vizier (date unknown).

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Diplomatic relations between Britain and the Ottomans was established in the late 16th century, though the alliance reached its zenith in the 18th and 19th centuries. The above (top) painting shows John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich, in Turkish dress, painted by Joseph Highmore in 1740. Fausto Zonaro, an Italian painter known as the ‘darling of the palaces’, according to Mansel, was the man behind the famous painting (above bottom) depicting the British ambassador’s daughter being carried through an Istanbul park in 1896 (also on display at the Intersecting Worlds exhibition).

The final alliance was with Germany – an alliance that proved ‘fatal’, as it brought the Empire to its end. For more on this fascinating topic, Cornucopia has a significant library of Dr Mansel's books and articles covering different aspects. 

11:30 am. The sound of drums reverberated through the hills of Üsküdar's Kuzguncuk neighbourhood as a children’s band, comprised mostly of girls in white pleated skirts, red polo shirts and high-top sneakers, marched through the streets. Proud parents and onlookers followed, and men and women leaned from their windows to applaud.
 

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2 pm. Fliers handed out by a young student called for a meeting at Istiklal –Tünel. The leaflet was endorsed by ten activist groups. Blocked from entering Istiklal by police in riot gear and water-cannon trucks, the demonstrators spilled down narrow stepped alleys into a street below, where they chanted, ‘We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal.’  An hour later the square in front of the Tünel station began to fill. People danced to a drum and cheered as a man scaled a tall, metal sculpture to hang a flag.

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Just then, the group from the street below marched up the hill carrying a large banner of Atatürk and a big white box to face the line of police.

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It was hard to find news of the event afterwards, though the Hürriyet Daily News noted briefly that the demonstrators were dispersed by teargas.

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4 pm. Publicity was not lacking for Erdoğan’s opening of the Marmaray Project, the main official Republic Day celebration.

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Seen from the ferry approaching Üsküdar, a line of coastguard boats sent plumes of water up into the air behind them like proud floating peacocks, as a large crowd filled the square in front of the new Metro stop at the tunnel entrance. A decade-long construction project, this tunnel under the Bosphorus promises to reduce commuter time to Sultanahmet to four minutes. Here a more sedate,  more conservative-looking crowd milled in the large square, overlooked by the Mihrimah Sultan Camii, whose restoration screens had been removed just in time. Erdoğan’s voice boomed across the square, speaking of the Ottoman dream of an underwater Bosphorus link and of the even larger transportation projects that he himself envisions.

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6 to 10 pm. Back in Kuzguncuk, more light-hearted Republic Day celebrations continued with joyous street dancing, delicious food and mobs of people leaving their cars in the middle of the road as they rushed to watch the fireworks. ‘I feel like I’m in a dream,’ said the indefatigably cheerful chef and proprietor of Blue Betty – all her tables happily full.

Alice Greenway is the author of White Ghost Girls. Her second novel The Bird Skinner will be published by Grove Atlantic in January.

Cornucopia was honoured to be invited to this year’s Frieze Art Fair and its sibling, Frieze Masters. London’s megafair was as shiny and glitzy as ever, provoking a flurry of newspaper articles and commentaries on the state of the art world in the British press. Having recently returned from the madness of Istanbul’s Biennale it was curiously comforting to hear echoes of the same questions about what art is for, the role of the country’s oligarchs in supporting it, the tortured but lucrative relationship between art and commerce.

Frieze is astonishing in its chaos, the glitzy crowds almost obscuring the elegant booths. This year two Istanbul galleries attended. Sylvia Kouvali’s astonishing Rodeo gallery presented a collection of elegantly abstruse works by Ian Law and James Richards, and paintings by the incomparably wonderful Apostolos Giorgiou.

Rampa, the other Turkish gallery at the show, paraded a selection of Turkish greats – an all-star cast of Erinç Seymen, Nevin Aladağ, Hüseyn Bahri Alptekin and Nilbar Güreş, with Below Elsewhere's Palm Trees (main picture), among others.

Frieze Masters, meanwhile, on the other side of Regent’s Park, was a far cry from the hectic madness of its sibling. With storied exhibitors like Lowell Libson and Johnny van Haeften showing Breughels and Turners, the elegantly designed grey and white tent exuded elegance. These dealers had little need for the hype that fuels the contemporary art world, their booths exuding hyper confidence

Although little Turkish art was on sale, here and there gems presented themselves. In particular the Nil Yalter installation at Espaivisor – a Spanish contemporary gallery showing the Turkish artist as part of the curated ‘Spotlight’ event, focusing on artists working through the 20th century.

Elsewhere Moshe Tabibnia, a carpet dealer from Milan, showed gorgeous Ushak carpets, in among huge Chinese and Cairene offerings.

Finally at Ben Elwes’s booth, two early 18th-century portraits of Moroccan ambassadors by Enoch Seeman (1694–1745) were especially fine, vivid and characterful.

The biggest week for contemporary art in Istanbul has landed, with the launch this Thursday of the city's most important and exciting art fair, Contemporary Istanbul. Meanwhile, the accompanying festival, Art Istanbul, officially starts today and promises a week of special exhibitions, guided tours and performances.

This evening at Nişantaşı’s Merkur Gallery there will be a guided tour of the current exhibition by the Turkish Bulgarian-born artist Şevket Sönmez. Entitled La Vida Fake, the highly conceptual show pays homage to Alexander Dumas’s historical romance, Black Tulip. The event kicks off at 6.30pm and the artist will also give a talk after the tour.

It’s always nice to see new talent and a group exhibition of young Turkish artists entitled Painting Matters opened yesterday at Akaretler’s Art ON gallery. Akaretler is fast making a name for itself as the new gallery hotspot, and with big shots like Rampa and C.A.M, Art ON finds itself in very good company. The gallery’s director will conduct a guided tour of the exhibition on Thursday at 11.30am. It is also worth making the trip across town to Grid Istanbul in Kadiköy on Thursday to see the one-day-only pop-up exhibition from the British-born, New York-based artist Jon Burgerman (the above image shows his piece Babble, made as part of a 2012 series called Fast Food Paintings). His street-art-style paintings have been described as ‘vibrant, neo-scrawls of shapes and colour’ by Francesca Gavin, the visual arts editor of Dazed and Confused magazine. They are certainly dazzling to look at.

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Ryan Paul Simmons, ‘Imagine’, Oil and acrylic on wood, 48 x 48cm

On Friday Artwalk Istanbul is conducting a tour of the galleries in Tophane/Karaköy (meeting at the front of Galatasaray High School at 3pm). In the evening there’s a choice of two events: the flamboyant American artist Ryan Paul Simmons, whose brand of pop art calls to mind Andy Warhol, will talk about his new show A.I.R at ALAN Istanbul, starting at 7pm. Famous for his work Barock The Vote, which sold for $US 515, 000, and a regular face on the fair circuit, this is one event not to miss. Cocktails will be flowing.

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Arik Levy, ‘ROCKGROWTHRG3’, 2011, mirror-polished stainless steel, 129 x 117 x 83 cm

Meanwhile, the Galerist adopts a more serious tone and opens the new solo show from the Israeli artist Arik Levy, also from 7pm. Levy’s first show in Istanbul, Activated Nature, will showcase his signature ‘rock’ sculptures which clearly demonstrate his training in industrial design. ALAN and Galerist are less than a five-minute walk from each other, so you can probably make it to both. 

On Saturday don’t miss the exhibition tour of Murat Germen’s latest show, Facsimile Vol. 2, at C.A.M. Galeri in Akaretler at 12 noon. Following the tour there will be a conversation with the artist. In the evening Art 350 in Kadiköy hosts a concert by the jazz pianist Kerem Görsev, starting at 9pm.

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Barış Cihanoğlu, ‘Mental harmony’, 2013, 70 x 50 cm

Round off the week with a visit to Galeri Ilayda, which is not usually open on Sundays but makes an exception this week. Coincidentally, it will also be the last day of the veteran artist Barış Cihanoğlu’s exhibition, Find Yourself.

The week of Art Istanbul is also a good time to visit Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence in Cihangir, if you haven’t done so already. A 30% discount on the entrance fee is offered from today until Sunday.

On Thursday November 21 Alessandra Ricci will give a timely lecture at Rutgers University in New Jersey that will explore what became of the Byzantine archaeological heritage that French architect and urbanist Henri Prost wanted to incorporate into his urban representation of modern Istanbul.

‘In the 1930s, at the formal invitation of the Turkish Government and following the relocation of the capital from Istanbul to Ankara, Prost was asked to prepare the former capital's Master Plan. Prost's projected transformations for the city placed at the forefront a process of public beautification. The focal points of this new concept of urban beauty were the ‘espaces libres’, or public open spaces, two of which were designated as urban archaeological parks. The Master Plan envisioned these archaeological parks as areas that would be genuinely free and open to all of Istanbul’s residents. Ancient monuments would serve as the backdrop, and oftentimes the centerpiece, for the recent and modernist interpretation of Turkey's newly acquired social organisation. The city's Byzantine monumental heritage was to be at the heart of both parks. While neither of the archaeological parks became a reality, one of Prost's public green esplanades, the Inönü or Gezi Park in Taksim, was completed and rapidly emerged as the ‘validator’ of the Turkish Republic's new society.’ 

Alessandra Ricci is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Archaeology and History of Art at Koç University, and is an active proponent in the fight to save the Yedikule bostans. 

The lecture, presented on behalf of Rutgers University's Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies Program, Modern Greek Studies Program and the Department of Art History, will take place at the Zimmerli Art Museum's Maxwell Multi-Purpose Room, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ, commencing at 4.15pm.  

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