Enough is enough. This Sunday December 22 the people of Istanbul will ‘reclaim their city’. The brainchild of a number of organisations, movements and forums (some notable ones include Istanbul Urban Movements, Defence of the Northern Forests, Abbasağa Forum, Archaeologists’ Association Istanbul Branch, People’s Engineers and Architects, Istanbul Assembly for Urban and Housing Rights, Inter Forum Group on Urban Transformation, The Black Sea Uprise Platform, Pangea Ecology, Social Rights Association, Taksim Gezi Park Preservation and Development Association, Yedikule Gardens Preservation Initiative, Yoğurtçu Park Forum, Chamber of Environmental Engineers Istanbul Branch, Democratic Student Associations, and many more), a solidarity march will take place in Kadıköy to raise awareness and stand up for what Istanbul is quickly losing – its environmental treasures, archaeological and historical sites, and the plethora of communities who are being displaced daily without permission.

The manifesto of the December 22 initiative is simple: to say NO to ‘those craving money and power who have commodified Istanbul and put its neighborhoods, public squares, forests, history and culture on sale’.

Cihan Baysal, spokesperson for Istanbul Urban Movements, a group that is committed to stopping urban planning that might have negative environmental and other impacts, said that the idea for the march has been a work in progress spawned from many dissatisfactions. Since the Third Bridge project was first announced, there have been many meetings and rallies against it, mobilised under the Platform Against the Third Bridge (comprising of various groups, initiatives, activists and academics). When Gezi happened, two other projects – the Third Airport and the Canal – started being questioned and various other groups formed, such as the Abbasağa Forum and the Northern Forests Defence. Along with Istanbul Urban Movements and others, these groups decided to band together and ‘organise an event before the local elections to voice their discontent and show the power of urban opposition,’ according to Baysal. ‘Each and every parcel of Istanbul is under threat of demolition and destruction. Mega projects destroy forests, water basins, nature and also threaten neighbourhoods,’ Baysal adds. Besides Belgrade Forest, the 1600-year old Yedikule bostans are under severe threat. Something had to be done.

Çiğdem Çidamlı, a member of the Northern Forest Defence and one of the seven people forming the organising committee of the march, also says that Gezi is, in a way, responsible for this march being possible. ‘A march uniting our struggles was a kind of dream for all of us. During our June Revolt we experienced a moment where this dream became a reality. So after Gezi it was inevitable to organise something in which all of our struggles, demands and dreams will be united,’ she says. 

Baysal and Çidamlı agree that the aim of the march is ‘to unite, organise and reclaim the city’. ‘We do not expect a miracle or an immediate return. We are realistic. We want to raise awareness, we want to make the government think again. It is a message to the government, the opposition and the local candidates on what we, the people of Istanbul, want and don’t want,’ says Baysal. 

The message from both Baysal and Çidamlı is clear: those who have ‘besieged Istanbul with their unlawful laws, exceptionally empowered ministries, law-enforcement forces, bulldozers and co-conspiring local authorities, turning the city into a scene of struggle for survival’, as according to the manifesto, have to be stopped. A solidarity march that will spread throughout the city is a very good notch on the belt for the various fights that are being fought in Istanbul (click here to read the full manifesto). 

People are encouraged to come to either Söğütlüçeşme or Haydarpaşa Numune at 12 noon and walk to Kadıköy Square where the two groups will converge at around 1pm.

Naval officer, traveller, poet, painter, photographer and the ultimate French Orientalist, Pierre Loti, was, like many others before and after him, absolutely beguiled by Istanbul. He lived in the city from 1903 to 1905, allegedly fell in love with a Circassian girl named Aziyadé, whose name graces his most famous novel, and even had a hill named him – the now legendary mount in Eyüp overlooking the Golden Horn on which he stood many times and photographed (above photo) extensively during his two-year sojourn in the city.

An exhibition at the Notre Dame de Sion French High School in Harbiye from September 27 to December 14 brought together Loti’s black-and-white and sepia photographs capturing the city’s monuments and everyday neighbourhood scenes. Although the exhibition has now ended, I could not help being captivated by Loti’s romanticised photographs on my visit and wanted to share some of them with Cornucopia readers.

The ‘troubadour des réalités humble’, as Loti was known, photographed the city’s monuments but never in isolation – he always captured the surroundings, thereby somehow humbling the monuments and humanising their grandeur. The above shows a man and two women walking towards the camera in front of the Fatih Mosque.

An outdoor market with shoppers outside the Blue Mosque.

Life on the Galata Bridge, the pontoon bridge across the Golden Horn which connected the Yeni Cami (New Mosque) and bazaar districts of the Old City to the European Quarter.

Some of the most charming photographs are those highlighting the daily life of the colourful characters who call Istanbul home, such as the porter in the centre of this picture and the simit-seller, on the right, outside a shady café.

A young imam relaxes in a mosque courtyard after prayer time. Loti had a wonderful eye for both unusual viewpoints and textures – a useful lesson for today's high-earning ‘restorers’.

Houses and shopfronts were another focal point of Loti’s photographs. The above shows a group of men sitting outside a furniture store.

Families in their Sunday best make their way past some delightful wooden houses.

The various residents of another cobblestoned neighbourhood full of traditional two-storey houses with overhanging bays (cumba). Modern municipalities have a particular allergy to Arnavut kaldırım (Albanian paving), as this kind of cobbling is known. In fact, in a city where flash floods are common and the steep hills are treacherous in winter, it is extremely practical. Rumelihisarı and Kuzguncuk are two relatively well-preserved Bosphorus villages that have had their beautiful old streets wrecked in recent years by bone-headed municipalities asphalting over the Arnavut kaldırım. One day, when a more responsible generation of administrators embark on the task of undoing the horrors inflicted on the city in recent years, Loti’s images will be invaluable.

As a naval officer, Loti had a natural appreciation for water, perhaps one of the reasons why he loved Istanbul so much. This image shows caiques waiting to collect passengers at a jetty.

And here the great Orientalist himself in his signature hat is seated (actually almost lying down, second from left) in his slender ‘caïque à Beïcos’, rowed by two elegantly-attired Turkish oarsmen, Hamdi and Mevlut.

Istanbul has changed dramatically since Pierre Loti captured her charms, but remains captivating if constantly under threat. For views of the Old City and the Golden Horn today, see Cornucopia 50: Istanbul Unwrapped, a portrait the city through the eyes of two modern photographers Fritz von der Schulenburg and Jürgen Frank. The issue also celebrates the opening of the new Naval Museum in Beşiktaş, with its fine collection of imperial barges and refined caiques, the kind that Loti knew well. Cornucopia subscribers with valid membership cards will be able to visit the museum free of charge from the beginning of January to March 31, 2014.

For our final gallery walk for 2013, we find ourselves once more in the buzzing hub of the European Quarter: Beyoğlu. There’s so much to do in the area that it warrants more than just one visit. The contemporary art space it has carved out for itself in less than a decade is also very impressive. Eda Berkmen, the Associate Director at Galerist, one of the galleries in the Pera district, says there are countless spots of interest. She recommends the galleries on Boğazkesen Caddesi (leading to Tophane) and the Mısır Apartment building on Istiklal Caddesi which is jam-packed with galleries. There’s also exemplary ARTER for some of the most powerful contemporary art in the city. Her other favourites are the boutiques in Galata and the antique stores in Çukurcuma, both on the fringes of Beyoğlu.

One of Ryan Paul Simmons' pieces inspired by Istanbul at the ‘A.I.R’ exhibition

We begin at the Tünel side of Istiklal Caddesi where ALAN Istanbul, at No 5 Asmalı Mescit Caddesi, is hosting the pop-art works of flamboyant American artist, Ryan Paul Simmons. Entitled A.I.R, the works in the exhibition were inspired by Istanbul and created in his New York workshop this year. Extended due to the works’ popularity at Contemporary Istanbul, don’t miss this exhibition by the modern-day Andy Warhol.

Yusuf Agâh Efendi, the first permanent Turkish ambassador in London, painted by Carl Frederik von Breda, as part of the ‘Intersecting Worlds’ exhibition

A five-minute walk down perpendicular Meşrutiyet Caddesi will get you to Beyoğlu institution, Pera Museum. The beautiful building houses a number of important collections including Orientalist paintings, Anatolian weights and measures, and Kütahya tiles and ceramics, all from the Suna and Inan Kıraç Foundation, the founders of the museum. These form the three permanent exhibitions, the most comprehensive of which, the Intersecting Worlds: Ambassadors and Painters exhibition on Level 2, is a must-see (for more, see our previous Beyoğlu walk).

One of Yıldız Moran's atmospheric photographs

There are also two exciting temporary exhibitions: Greek artist Sophia Vari presents her ‘feminine’ paintings and sculptures for the first time in Istanbul on Levels 4 and 5, while Level 3 is transformed into a photography studio showcasing the works of Turkey’s first female photographer to train abroad, Yıldız Moran (main image). Pera Museum’s Fatma Çolakoğlu says: ‘Yıldız Moran is one of the most interesting exhibitions we’ve organized. The story of her life is intertwined in her photographs, even though her images don’t necessarily come across as ‘personal’ straight away. She began her career with a great passion, only to give it up after marrying poet Özdemir Asaf. The exhibition is a delight but there’s also a melancholic twist...as you see more and more of Moran’s work, you do wish she kept going.’ If you see just one exhibition in Beyoğlu, make it this one.

Idilk Ilkin's ‘Unititled’, 2012, archival pigment print, 150 cm x 100 cm

Two doors down at No 67, Galerist is hosting Landing Clearance, Turkish artist Idil Ilkin’s solo exhibition in which she presents her new series of digital prints. Says Berkmen: ‘The quality that excites us most about Ilkin’s work is its connection to sound and music. Her pieces are influenced by the musical compositions of Steve Reich, the pioneer of minimal music in the 1960s. She never fails to surprise us with her mastery, and obsessively experiments with new ways of using common materials to find a unique visual and sonic vocabulary. All this results in a bold, and often distressing, perspective on the way we perceive the media.’

James Robertson, ‘The Obelisk and Other Monuments in the Hippodrome’, 1853, Ömer M. Koç Collection

On parallel Istiklal Caddesi, the Research Centre of Anatolian Civilisations (RCAC), at No 181, is commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of 19th-century coin minter and photographer, James Robertson. Says RCAC’s manager, Buket Coşkuner: ‘Robertson is interesting because his works encompass depictions of street-sellers, scenery and monuments of Istanbul. He was also known as the father of photojournalist, being one of the first to photograph the war in Crimea and the Indian Rebellion.’ Some of Coşkuner’s favourite photographs are Robertson’s 1857 panorama of Istanbul, the first 360-degree panoramic photograph of the city, and his two photographs of the Obelisk. Both taken from the same vantage point, one in 1853 and the other in 1857, in the latter, you can see the fences commissioned by the British Ambassador to protect the monument. Besides the photographs and the watercolours, the exhibitions also displays a medallion designed by Robertson in 1849 to commemorate the restoration of Haghia Sophia by Gaspar Fossati. As an art historian in training, Coşkuner has a personal interest in the medallion, as it is the only one bearing Robertson’s signature. Cornucopia 50 features a review of the accompanying catalogue written by the exhibition’s curator, Bahattin Öztuncay (now available from the Cornucopia store).

Inci Eviner, ‘Nursing Modern Fall’, 2012, HD video installation with 5.1 sound, 3-minute loop

Further down Istiklal, at No 163, inside the aforementioned Mısır Apartment building, Galeri Nev is hosting the new video installation of acclaimed Turkish artist, Inci Eviner. Last seen at the 13th Istanbul Biennial, Eviner’s latest video, Nursing Modern Fall, blends together performative aspects and various visual languages to broadly comment on modernisation. Other galleries in the apartment building are hosting exhibitions we have reviewed in a previous gallery walk (click here to read more).

For a nice bite, Berkmen likes Auf, downstairs from Galerist, and ‘old-school’ Şahin (on Orhan Adlı Apaydın Sokak No 11) for delicious Turkish food. Coşkuner recommends Fıccın (on nearby Kallavi Sokak), which is popular with many other gallerists in the area. ‘The restaurant serves a variety of Turkish and Caucasian dishes and being from Caucasian descent, I strongly recommend their börek, mantı and Tulen soup,’ she says. She also likes Mekan (on Eski Çiçekçi Sokak, off Istiklal Caddesi), which is a cosy establishment offering Turkish and Armenian cuisines.

Key: Blue – ALAN Istanbul; Red – Pera Museum; Green – Galerist; Yellow – RCAC; Purple – Mısır Apartments (Galeri Nev)

Click here to see the interactive map.

All images courtesy of their respective institutions. 

After weeks of preparations and permissions sought (and granted) from local municipalities, the day of the solidarity march was finally upon us. Yesterday (December 22) thousands of people came together in Kadıköy to protest the urban politics of the government. Environmentalists, archaeologists, historians, architects, ecologists, women’s movements, LGBT movements, human rights organisations and displaced communities came together to ‘reclaim their city’. As mentioned elsewhere on this blog, the manifesto of the December 22 initiative is simple: to say NO to ‘those craving money and power who have commodified Istanbul and put its neighbourhoods, public squares, forests, history and culture on sale’.

People started pouring into the streets at 12 noon. Armed with banners, most just displaying peace signs and equally peaceful messages (above top), they began their march – some quietly, some more vocally.  Photographer Murat Germen even captured a clever simit-seller going into the crowds to feed the hungry (above middle). According to activist group, Istanbul Revolution, who was amidst the action, police started attacking participants from the get go with their weapons of choice: pepper gas and water canons. Here I was thinking the point of a protest in a democracy was to get your voice heard. Guess the police didn’t get that memo.

Some protesters turned up with shoe boxes filled with fake money and corresponding slogans (the above image shows one such banner, obstructed on the left, in which we can make out the word ‘ayakkabı’, meaning ‘shoe’) in the aftermath of the corruption and bribery allegations in which police seized $4.5-million in cash hidden in shoe boxes in Halkbank CEO Suleyman Aslan’s home. An issue close to the hearts of many protesters fed up with their government, it is being labelled as the worst scandal in Prime Minister Erdoğan’s 11-year rule and is posing serious questions for his political future. 

As the police attacks intensified, a handful of people began throwing stones begging the question: Were the protesters getting violent or do we have a couple of agent provocateurs on our hands? According to Cihan Baysal, spokesperson for Istanbul Urban Movements, one of the major proponents of the December 22 initiative, police not only attacked the alleged stone-throwers but also stewards, and there were also reports of divided ranks among the police.

What started an optimistic, transparentlyinnocent rally ended as usual in (gas-induced) tears. Independent Turkish news outlets report many injured and one person was shot in the eye with a plastic bullet. But the biggest tragedy was 64-year old Elif Çermik (above), who ended in a coma after her heart stopped as a result of the police violence. Answering the ÇapalTV journalist’s question about what she had wanted by taking part in the rally, Çermik replied, ‘We want a beautiful country.’ Our prayers are with her.

All images, except the last one, courtesy of Murat Germen (click here to see his Flicker page). Last image is a still from a video courtesy of capul.tv.

The three winter exhibitions at ARTER are all very different but somehow work harmoniously over the gallery’s three floors. ARTER has a knack for turning each of its floors into a completely unique space and it succeeds in this respect once again. Each of the exhibiting artists this season has a Turkish connection – they were either born in Turkey or are Turkish by nationality. After the outstanding Mat Collishaw exhibition this summer and a melange of international artists during the biennial months, it was time to go back to home-grown talent.

The bottom level is reserved for the Istanbul-born-and-based artist Aslı Çavuşoğlu’s latest archaeologically themed show, The Stones Talk (above). Curated by Özge Ersoy, the exhibition ‘explores the potential of forming narratives with archaeological and historical information, and telling pluralistic stories through objects,’ according to Ersoy.

Much of Çavuşoğlu’s oeuvre is concerned with how history can be read in order to question who, or what processes, enabled its writing and why. This exhibition follows suit. For it, Çavuşoğlu produced 71 copies of archaeological artefacts using the original material of the artefact (eg ceramic, bronze, glass, volcanic rock) and an added part made from a modern material (eg acrylic, foam, rubber, copper). The artist also designed special pedestals from high-density foam, rubber and wood on which to place the objects, randomly numbering them from 1 to 71.

The archaeological artefacts on which Çavuşoğlu based her copies were discovered at various excavation sites in Turkey. These, and many like them, belong to a pool of artefacts deemed unworthy of exhibition. Instead, they are classified as ‘study pieces’ as they do not provide sufficient information about where they come from (which object they were attached to, for instance). Kept either in museum stores or university departments for future research, these artefacts are, in a way, forgotten. By adding a new dimension, Çavuşoğlu gives them form and meaning, and thereby creates completely different objects. In affixing a present-day material Çavuşoğlu is also commenting on the reproduction of historical objects and sites for contemporary purposes.

Aslı Çavuşoğlu, ‘27’, 2013, iron and glass, 8 x 11 x 23 cm

Some of my favourite pieces are those in which the artist plays with texture. In ‘27’ (above), she combines coloured glass with an iron pin to create an attractive mini statue reminiscent of a tropical island.

Aslı Çavuşoğlu, ‘50’ and ‘56’, 2013, epoxy and ceramic

In ‘50’ and ‘56’ (above), broken pieces of ceramic, perhaps from a vase, are attached to the top of an epoxy rectangle – the feel is of devil’s horns atop orange jelly.

Aslı Çavuşoğlu, ‘9’, 2013, felt, plexiglass, bronze

In ‘9’ (above), a purple ponytail made from felt is attached to a piece of bronze inside a plexiglass box, creating something akin to a hair extension found in a costume department.

Aslı Çavuşoğlu, ‘57’ and ‘58’, 2013, copper, mirror, ceramic

I also really liked the above works, ‘57’ and ‘58’, in which ceramic and copper semi-circles are positioned around a mirror – imperfect halves forming a whole and giving completely different perspectives depending on your viewpoint.

Aslı Çavuşoğlu, ‘29’, 2013, wood and mosaic

And, in ‘29’ (above), a wooden circle with a mosaic wedge is transformed into a stylish pizza board.

This is a meaningful and exhaustive work from a talented young artist. Her best-known work, Murder in Three Acts, caused quite a splash at Frieze in 2012, and her current exhibition is further evidence of a fruitful career ahead.

On the first floor, the lights are dimmed for Fatma Bucak’s first solo show in Turkey. Bucak was educated at the Royal College of Art in London and works between London and Istanbul. The young artist’s work embraces performance, video and photography, and brings in observations from reality and constructed fictional, mythological aspects. One of the central themes in Bucak’s oeuvre is gender identity, and she weaves in elements of religion, cultural displacement and male power. Başak Doğa Temür, who seems to have a penchant for these kinds of issues, tackling similar ones when she curated the aforementioned Collishaw show, steps up to the plate to curate a powerful and dark exhibition – and delivers.

Fatma Bucak, ‘And then God blessed them’, 2013, HD video, colour, sound, 9'26''

Fatma Bucak, ‘Suggested place for you to see it’, 2013, HD video, colour, sound, 13'32''

Entitled Yet Another Story About the Fall, there are five works in the show. The title takes its name from the creation myth and goes back to the very beginning – the fall of man from heaven to earth. Bucak produced a two-channel video installation especially for the exhibition. Shot at Tuz Gölü (the salt lake in Central Anatolia), the first part, ‘And then God blessed them’ (above top), places female and male archetypes under harsh conditions. As in many of her other works, Bucak uses her own body in the video as an anonymous female figure and is accompanied by her brother. In the second part, ‘Suggested place for you to see’ (above bottom), a group of women invited by Bucak to take part as ‘viewers’ discuss her performance. The sometimes poignant, often hilarious comments of these 13 women (a significant number referencing ‘The Last Supper’) become a performance in itself. As Bucak endeavours to make viewers question male and female roles in society, her female ‘viewers’ bring in some interesting perspectives of their own – as well as raising questions about how audiences contemplate and interpret art.

Fatma Bucak, ‘Blessed are you who come – Solida Fundamenta’, 2012, archival pigment print, 110 x 136 cm

In the other four pieces, Bucak continues to reverse and re-enact myths, religious parables and autobiographical narratives. The broken loaf of bread, which the artist tries to saw back in the above work, recalls the efforts of different communities to live together in the same land.

Fatma Bucak, ‘I was not able to prevent the fall’, 2013, HD video, colour, sound, 41’’

Meanwhile, the egg in the above video ‘gives an uncanny sense of what is about to happen’, according to Temür.

Fatma Bucak, ‘Omne Vivum Ex Ovo – Nomologically possible, anyhow’, 2013, 13 HD videos, colour, sound, 4'5''

Bucak is clearly fascinated by unusual landscapes. In her 13-screen installation, ‘Omne Vivum Ex Ovo – Nomologically possible, anyhow’ (above), Bucak explores women’s child-rearing responsibilities by filming a woman placing eggs in the holes of concrete blocks (the title is Latin for ‘all life is of the egg’). Is she doing this so they mature and hatch when the time is right? Can life really be created in this barren landscape? And if it can, what kind of life will it be?

Fatma Bucak, ‘Four Ages of Woman – Fall’, 2013, HD video, colour, sound, 3'26''

In the final video, ‘Four Ages of Woman – Fall’ (above), the naked female figure, isurrounded by scarlet-coloured land, throws rocks at an invisible enemy. For me, this was the most visually and metaphorically arresting video – in this apocalyptic, fertile land, the female is surviving and thriving; she overcomes her struggles and writes her own story.

On the top (third) floor are three pieces by the conceptual artist Sarkis. I have been to a number of exhibitions by this renowned Turkish-born Armenian artist and I want to understand and appreciate his work, but in all honesty I sometimes struggle. In this latest offering, Sarkis creates three works inspired by the famous Ryoanji Zen garden in Kyoto, Japan – considered to be one of the finest examples of a kare-sansui, a Japanese rock garden, in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The garden was a source of inspiration for the great American composer John Cage, a pioneer of indeterminacy music (referring to the ability of a piece to be performed in substantially different ways). Cage scored his flute solo ‘Ryoanji’ in the early 1980s, some 20 years after his visit to the garden, in which he remarked that the 15 stones arrayed in the sand at the garden could have been laid virtually anywhere to produce the same effect of tranquillity and contemplation.

Sarkis, ‘Partition de flûte Ryoanji/Cage selon Sarkis’, 2012, watercolour on paper, 96 sheets, 76 x 56 cm each

Now, over 30 years later, Sarkis, who describes Cage’s score as ‘the dance of lines on a blank paper and of calligraphy’, painted 96 watercolours with his fingertips, as a kind of a homage to the composer (above).

This centrepiece is accompanied by a soothing score – a pre-recording of an interpretation of Sarkis’s watercolours by the great ney player Kudsi Ergüner and the shakuhacki player Jean-François Lagrost (the above video shows the recording of the piece at the gallery).

Sarkis, ‘Ryoanji interpretation opus n.2, Kyoto’, 2012, watercolour on paper, white neon lights, 193 x 114 cm

Sarkis, ‘After Ryoanji’, 2012, oil on paper, 76 x 56 cm

Two smaller pieces (above), representing the plans of the garden, flank the main attraction at each end of the space.

This conceptual exhibition, inventively curated by Melih Fereli, is undoubtedly unique but I found it more interesting post-visit. While I was actually experiencing it, the minimally painted watercolours didn’t resonate with me entirely and the accompanying brochure is unfortunately not detailed enough, but doing a bit of research and contemplating the pieces later, the theme of music drawing from visual art for inspiration and vice versa comes powerfully to the forefront. The more encompassing theme of inspiration in general – and the melding of geographies, cultures and eras in the process – reverberated with me long after my visit.

All three exhibitions run until January 12.

All images, except numbers 4, 5, 6 and 7, are courtesy of ARTER. Main image, image 2 and image 14 are taken by Mustafa Nurdoğdu. Image 3 taken by Hadiye Cangökçe. Images 4, 5, 6 and 7 taken by Victoria Khroundina.

With just a few days left of 2013, it’s time to look back on the year that was. 

The year 2013 will be etched in history as the year of the Gezi protests. It all started with a tree, so to speak, in late May when a group of people occupied Gezi Park in Taksim to protest against its demolition for construction purposes. What started as an amicable protest escalated into Turkey’s major cities becoming conflict zones with peaceful protesters experiencing sheer brutality from riot police who polluted the air with tear gas, and unnecessarily fired water canons and rubber bullets. The girl in the red dress (above) became an iconic image of the protests, and there were many others like it born on social media pages, which followed the events much more zealously (and accurately) than the mainstream media. It would prove to be the hottest summer in Turkey’s recent history: cultural events were cancelled; artists, whether musicians, photographers or contemporary artists, found a new platform for their creativity; even those not camping out in Gezi banged pots and pans in solidarity; and, on the unpleasant end of the spectrum, many people were injured and a few lives were sadly lost. Unfortunately, the injunction against the government’s plan to build a replica of the Topçu Barracks in Gezi Park was overturned unanimously by the Istanbul Regional Administrative Court in late July, but the protests weren’t a complete lose-lose. They ignited fervent passion in citizens and united communities. Numerous environmental, archaeological and minority movements and forums were formed because of the protests. Turkey entered a new era of collective public action. 

News of other treasures under threat trickled in all year long. As of March, 17 groups had applied to the General Directorate of State Airports Authority to receive tender specifications for the building of a third airport that would destroy a large proportion of the Belgrade Forest. This added insult to the injury of last year’s announcement of plans to build a third bridge over the Bosphorus, which would likewise cut through and destroy the northern forest areas. Since August there has been a bid to save the village of Gümüşdere from the clutches of ISKI, the city’s water supply and sanitation administrators, who planned to pass a water pipeline through the land, severely endangering the agricultural livelihood of its population (in December we received news that the decision had, thankfully, been overturned). Trabzon’s Haghia Sophia was turned into a mosque in late June (another one bites the dust) but, more disturbingly, it seemed that a large chunk of its terrace had been turned over to developers… a tragedy not just for art historians, but for Trabzon in general.

The Yedikule bostans as photographed by Fritz von der Schulenburg

Yet the issue that was closest to Cornucopia’s heart was the plight to save the Yedikule bostans (market gardens). In early July a Facebook message from Aleksandar Sopov, a PhD student at Harvard and an expert in Ottoman agricultural practices, stated that the Fatih Municipality has ordered the destruction of one of the last bostans inside Istanbul’s city walls. These 1600-year old bostans grow unparalleled crops (unique strands of lettuce, mint and rocket, just to name a few), and have provided a livelihood for farming families for generations. Experts were invited, reports were written, a special school (the School of Historical Yedikule Gardens) was formed, awareness was raised and the fight is still being fought. Watch this space for further developments.

All this (and more) led to the extinguishing of Turkey’s Olympic dream, much to the delight of numerous environmental and urban groups who saw Istanbul winning the Olympics as a huge disaster for the above-mentioned sights, scores of neighbourhoods and the city in general.

A still from Halil Altındere's ‘Wonderland’, one of the most admired works at the 13th Istanbul Biennial

But it was not all doom and gloom – 2013 proved a very lucrative year for contemporary art. The 13th Istanbul Biennial, which launched in September, and its prologue exhibition at Berlin’s TANAS, was a success for the most part and, in the wake of Gezi, dealt with issues close to the hearts of many: freedom of expression in the public domain, the voices of the oppressed, the artist as ‘barbarian’ and the privatisation of culture. Biennial fever spread throughout the country, with offerings in Izmir and Bodrum, as well as Istanbul.

Anish Kapoor's ‘Yellow’ (1999), on show at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum

Big names came to Istanbul’s museums in 2013. There was a retrospective of the work of Nickolas Muray (a leading portraitist of the pre-war Hollywood celebrities and a pioneer of colour photography in advertising) at the Pera Museum from January to April. A selection of unique paintings and sculptures from the Spanish pop-art artist Manolo Valdés was exhibited at Pera from May to July. The Greek artist Sophia Vari’s textured paintings and feminine sculptures, spanning her entire career, have been on show there from October (ending on January 14, 2014). Sixty works by the Surrealist master Joan Miró painted the Ottoman arsenal Tophane-i Amire red from November to December. And the paragon of form and colour, Anish Kapoor, brought his monumental stone sculptures to the grounds of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum in September (strongly recommended, the exhibition runs until February 2, 2014).

Pierre Loti's photo of a man and two women walking towards the camera in front of the Fatih Mosque

Some of my own favourite exhibitions included 1001 Faces of Orientalism at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum from April to August, a multi-dimensional, if slightly underdone, look at 19th-century Europe’s fascination with the East; Trespassing Modernities at SALT Galata, from May to August, which traced the legacy of post-Stalinist architecture in the former Soviet Union; and Afterimage, the dark but poignant and imaginative offering from Mat Collishaw at ARTER, also from May to August. The amateur Russian photographer Nicholas V Artamonoff’s photos of Byzantine remains in Istanbul from the 1930s and 1940s, exhibited at the RCAC from July to November, also piqued my interest. Then there were Pierre Loti’s dreamy snaps of Istanbul, taken between 1903 and 1905, exhibited at the Notre Dame High School from September to December.

An impression of how Koç Contemporary is set to look (Photo: Grimshaw)

We started our weekly gallery walks in September, pointing readers to the best exhibitions around the city’s gallery hotspots. Two art fairs competed for attention in 2013: established Contemporary Istanbul, now in its eight year, over four days in November, and newcomer ArtInternational in September. They will both be back in 2014. And there was news in July that the architects Grimshaw had won the bid to design the Vehbi Koç Foundation’s much-anticipated contemporary museum, set to open in Beyoğlu in 2016.

There was plenty for film and music lovers as well. The 32nd Istanbul Film Festival had more than 200 Turkish and international films on show over two weeks in March and April, and in September the smaller, but just as popular, Filmekini in September showcased film festival darlings from Cannes to Sundance. Pera Museum and Istanbul Modern continued their excellent year-round film programmes. Outside Istanbul, the SineMardin, in the first week of June, brought together filmmakers from the Middle East for a film festival that endeavours to ‘bring together cinema and humanity’, and Turkey’s biggest and longest-running film festival, the International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, celebrated its half-centennial anniversary in October. The 20th Jazz Festival organised by IKSV in July had some winners (Quartette Humaine, Lena Chamamyan, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Ramsey Lewis, to name a few) but it was Akbank’s Jazz Festival, from September to October, which impressed above all with their programme which included the Malawian singer Malia, the father of Ethio-jazz Mulatu Astatqé and the Turkish saxophonist Tamer Temel. Meanwhile the 41st Istanbul Music Festival, in June, featured the cream of the classical music world crop. For those suffering withdrawal symptoms, the monthly SEED Recitals, which started in September, invite some of the top chamber and jazz musicians to perform in Sakıp Sabancı Museum’s state-of-the-art concert hall in Emirgan.

The finish line at the Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swim (Photo: Tim Cornwell)

Sporting news included Cornucopia contributor Alice Cornwell's swim across the Bosphorus in 1 hour, 5 minutes and 24 seconds in July’s Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swim. And the Danish-Dutch-born windsurfing champion Bjørn Dunkerbeck hung loose in Alaçatı for the five-day PWA Pegasus Airlines World Cup, part of the PWA World Tour, in mid-August.

Republic Day celebrations at Istiklal Caddesi – Tünel (Photo: Alice Greenway)

Republic Day on October 29 was celebrated with police in riot gear dispersing demonstrators with water-cannon trucks and tear gas. The main event of the day was the unveiling of the Marmaray Tunnel, a ten-year construction project, which promises to reduce commuter time from the Asian side to Sultanahmet to four minutes.

The designs for which Dice Kayak received the Jameel Prize

Some good news towards the end of the year: in December the Council of Europe awarded the Museum Prize for 2014 to the Baksı Museum in Bayburt, in northeastern Turkey (the museum was previewed in Cornucopia 49). And the couture fashion label Dice Kayak won the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Jameel Prize for their architecturally pleasing designs which take inspiration from the robes of Ottoman rulers, Byzantine mosaics and the domes of Istanbul’s mosques and palaces (the fashion label was previewed in Cornucopia 44).

Crowds get ready for the December 22 solidarity march (Photo: Murat Germen)

The year was rounded off with a solidarity march on December 22 in Istanbul. The brainchild of a number of organisations, movements and forums (many sprouted from the Gezi protests), the march’s aim was to raise awareness and stand up for what Istanbul is quickly losing – its environmental treasures, archaeological and historical sites, and the plethora of communities who are being displaced daily without permission. After weeks of preparations and permissions sought (and granted) from local municipalities, thousands of people milled together in Kadıköy two Sundays ago. In the wake of the corruption and bribery charges earlier in December, some march participants turned up with shoe boxes filled with fake money and corresponding slogans. The day started innocently, progressed with the usual police brutality and ended ominously, with numerous people injured and a 64-year old lady ending up in a coma. In 2013 the people of Turkey formed a united front. Let’s hope that in 2014 some of their wishes and demands are granted.

The Fourth World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES), touted as ‘the most important global event in Middle Eastern studies in 2014’ will take place at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara between August 18th and 22nd, 2014. Organised in collaboration between the METU and the Turkish Social Sciences Association, WOCMES seeks to address questions and explore topics on the Middle East to ultimately be able to exchange new ideas, and strengthen and build regional and global networks for joint research. Scholars, researchers, teachers, students, professionals and other groups interested in studies on North Africa, the Middle East, Muslim states of Central Asia and other regions of the world which are affected by affairs in these areas are invited to submit proposals for panels, roundtable discussions, papers, posters, or the cultural and artistic programme.

The principal themes explored at every WOCMES include the Ancient Middle East, Historical Approaches, Islam in the Past and Present, Christian and Biblical Studies, Urban Studies, Water and the Environment, Economics, Politics, Women and Gender Studies, Normative Phenomena and Legal Research, Migration Studies, Media and Cultural Studies, Linguistics and Literature, and Nationality, Identities and Ethnicity. The list of disciplines this encompasses is long – click here to access it.

Organised every four years (the previous three WOCMES took place in Mainz in 2002, Amman in 2006 and Barcelona in 2010), the Congress’ organisers are looking forward to this year’s location: Ankara. ‘Ankara will undoubtedly be an exciting setting to meet and discuss Middle Eastern Studies. Turkey has always been a significant centre in the Mediterranean and the Arab-Islamic world for obvious reasons,’ says the statement on the WOCMES website. In addition, the Congress will provide a great opportunity for participants to visit and discover the city, which usually plays second fiddle to the more dynamic and sought-after Istanbul.

A few other factors make this year’s Congress exciting: it will be taking place at a time during which significant political and economic changes have been witnessed in the region. Also, culture and artistic disciplines will be placed under the spotlight thanks to a variety of exhibitions, a film festival with roundtable discussions, and a book fair attended by booksellers, publishers and authors being added to this year’s rich programme. 

The deadline for proposals, which must be submitted in either English or French, has been extended until January 31. The website has detailed information on submission guidelines. Click here to submit an abstract for your proposal. The accepted proposals will be announced on February 15. Early bird registration closes on March 15 and latest registration is by June 1. Click here to register.

Image shows ‘The Tree of Science’ at the entrance to the METU. Courtesy of WikiMedia Commons.

Since September, 30 of Anish Kapoor’s abstract sculptures have taken up residence over the vast grounds of Sakıp Sabancı Museum. Not content with just the indoor museum space, Kapoor has placed two of his stainless steel pieces – one of which is the famous ‘Sky Mirror’ and the other a conical beauty entitled ‘Non-Object: Pole’ (above) – in the gardens, and they have superbly reflected (or in the case of the ‘Pole’ flipped around) the Istanbul skyline and dramatic views over the Bosphorus in the transition from autumn to winter. For a city going through enormous changes that have nothing to do with the seasons, and everything to do with transitioning from the old to new, Kapoor’s modern yet timeless pieces add a somewhat poetic edge. Due to its immense popularity, the exhibition has been extended for an extra month and now runs until February 2 – and if there’s one contemporary art exhibition I recommend to visit in Istanbul right now, it’s this one.

Curated by Sir Norman Rosenthal, the exhibition focuses on, but not restrcited to, Kapoor’s stone sculptures, all made in the last three decades – and all of which are being exhibited for the very first time. Rosenthal is an art historian and independent curator, who previously served as Exhibitions Secretary at the Royal Academy of Arts in London for almost 30 years. It was there that he crossed paths with the celebrated British, Indian-born artist whose own career spans over 30 years. Rosenthal curated Kapoor’s 2009 show at the Academy and the rest, as they say, is history. ‘What is especially remarkable about Kapoor’s abstract stone works is that they have their own specific ways of defining infinities and concepts of time. They invite the viewer to reflect three-fold on the mysteries of time buried within their form and substance. Kapoor is one of the only artists who follows the most ancient traditions, of carving or shaping, in order to achieve contemporary forms. Perhaps the most particular aspect of so much of Kapoor’s work, and especially of the stone works, is a sense of agelessness, of hardly being able to guess at their moment of creation,’ says Rosenthal.

Here are five of my favourite works from Kapoor on show at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum that underline his mastery over form, colour, material, size and space.

Form

The above image shows his 2000 piece ‘Imminence’. Measuring 180 x 167 x 88 cm, the first thing that came to my mind is pregnancy. Carved from smooth onyx, its muted colours, found in nature, and material accentuate its embryonic, sensual appeal. Its title likewise hints about something forthcoming, something being born. Yet, whether this is an accurate interpretation of the piece is questionable. USA born, Istanbul-based art historian and artist, Nancy Atakan, describes Kapoor’s works as possesing a certain ‘spirituality’ and ‘mystery’. ‘You know what they are, they resemble something, but they don’t,’ Atakan says. Or perhaps we can turn to Kapoor himself for a clue about what this work represents. Talking about his sculptures in general, he said ‘There’s something imminent in the work, but the circle is only completed by the viewer.’ However, one thing that cannot be argued against is that this piece is a stunning example of form.

Colour

Above is ‘Yellow’, made in 1999 from fibreglass and pigment. Measuring at a whopping 550 x 550 x 275 cm, it was first installed at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2009. Mass meets colour in this six-square-metre disc covered in 12 coats of yellow paint, but it also serves as a kind of optical illusion. Only when you approach it do you understand that the wall is not flat but concave, and that what looks solid is actually a void. Kapoor is renowned for rendering his works in monochrome colour, usually bold, primary pigments such as reds, blues and yellows. The artist has in the past acknowledged to using colours that call to mind his Indian heritage, as in the case of his fascination with red. In Hinduism, yellow is considered to be a sacred colour and is used profusely in religious ceremonies. It is also known as the colour of merchants in India. Aside from this symbolic connotations, yellow is known as a happy, positive colour and the emotional reaction from this piece is definitely one of illumination. However, the photo doesn’t do it justice – it must be seen in real life.

Material

Whereas most of the stone sculptures on show are made from more precious and expensive materials such as granite, marble and onyx, and a few others from sandstone, fibreglass and stainless steel, the above sculpture is made from limestone and covered in blue pigment. Entitled ‘Dragon’ and made in 1992, the other thing that sets it apart is its orientation – unlike most of the other sculptures on show, it is not vertical but horizontal. In conversation with Homi K. Bhabha, the Director of the Humanities Center at Harvard University, Anish Kapoor said: ‘Dragon came out of quite a long-term interest in Japanese and Chinese gardens and the kinds of stones they use there. I eventually found the stone in Japan, although the stone actually came from somewhere in northern China. What is interesting about this stone is that it is deposited and then formed by corrosion, with the result that there are very deep holes in it… the work seems to have darkness, seems to be somewhere in-between body, cave and beast. In a certain way, between heaviness and lightness, between organic and inorganic, blue is a curiously inorganic color, even though it occurs naturally. Of the earth and not of the earth.’

Consisting of several smaller pieces, the viewer cannot walk through the exhibit (as has been the case in previous exhibitions), which was a joint decision made by Kapoor and the museum. The pigment, which covers the pieces, is not completely seeped in and so each time a person passes it, the floor gets stained with blue footprints. The velvet-like texture of the sculpture could also propel the viewer to touch it, so in order to maintain it and save it from any possible fingerprint stains, it is roped off. Not being able to walk amongst the ‘dragons’ undoubtedly takes something away from the viewers (well, it did for me), but the air of mythology still remains.

Size

For sheer mass, the aforementioned ‘Sky Mirror’ (above) positioned in the garden is hard to miss. This is a smaller version of the iconic ‘Sky Mirror’ completed in 2001. The original, measuring six metres in width and weighing ten tonnes, was commissioned by the Nottingham Playhouse in England and is installed outside the theatre. It took six years to make and cost £900,000, the most expensive piece of civic art funded by the National Lottery. William Feaver, former art critic for the Observer, described it as ‘an extraordinary transformation of the circus. It draws people in and it reflects people back. It’s fresh, dramatic and hasn’t got Robin Hood connotations.’ In 2006 a larger version of the ‘Sky Mirror’ was installed at Rockefeller Center in New York City. It had a diameter measuring 10.6 metres, stood three stories tall and weighed 23 tonnes. The sculpture reflected and inverted the Center's skyscrapers, thus, in the words of the artist, bringing ‘the sky down to the ground’. From September 2010 to March 2011 a version was also installed at the Kensington Gardens in London.

This particular sculpture was made in 2010, measures 290cm in diameter and weighs 2.5 tonnes; a mere baby in comparison to the original and the Rockefeller Center versions. The concave dish of polished stainless steel is angled up towards the sky, and will change through the day and night. It is an example of what Kapoor describes as a ‘non-object’, a sculpture that, despite its monumentality, suggests a window or void and often seems to vanish into its surroundings. Kimberley Rush put it nicely on the Canadian Art blog: ‘The mirror, in this case, operates as a kind of cultural and pictorial index, recording not only the surrounding foreground as a kind of proto-landscape painting, but also imprinting the embedded histories of the Turkish people, as well as the Ottoman and Byzantine empires, their politics, social systems and cultural traditions.’

Space

In his mixed-media piece ‘Archaeology and Biology’, made in 2007, a long, vertical wall-chasm provides an example of an intervention into the gallery space. This is a very visceral work that called to mind many things – some mythological (a dragon’s back), some violent (open wounds), some much more carnal. I particularly connected with this piece and its representation of a void, not circular and deep as is the case with many of his other sculptures, but just scratching below the surface. Says Turkish artist Sevgi Aka: ‘Kapoor creates a world from the void – you cannot perceive how deep, how innate that void is until you stand in front of it.’ Go stand in front of Kapoor’s sculptures – you won’t regret it.

Image 2 courtesy of Sakıp Sabancı Museum. Image 4 courtesy of Anish Kapoor's website. All other images taken by Victoria Khroundina.

Since September last year, 30 of Anish Kapoor’s abstract sculptures have taken up residence around the vast spaces of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum. Not content with the museum's indoor space, Kapoor has placed two of his stainless-steel pieces – one of them the famous ‘Sky Mirror’, the other a conical beauty entitled ‘Non-Object: Pole’ (above) – in the gardens, where they have superbly reflected (or in the case of the ‘Pole’ flipped around) the Istanbul skyline and dramatic views over the Bosphorus in the transition from autumn to winter. For a city going through enormous changes that have nothing to do with the seasons, and everything to do with transitioning from the old to new, Kapoor’s modern yet timeless pieces add a somewhat poetic edge. Due to its immense popularity, the exhibition has been extended for an extra month and now runs until February 2 – and if there’s one contemporary art exhibition I recommend to visit in Istanbul right now, it’s this one.

Curated by Sir Norman Rosenthal, the exhibition focuses on, but is not restrcited to, Kapoor’s stone sculptures, all made in the past three decades – and all of which are being exhibited for the very first time. Rosenthal is an art historian and independent curator who previously served as exhibitions secretary at the Royal Academy of Arts in London for almost 30 years. It was there that he crossed paths with the celebrated Indian-born British artist whose own career spans over 30 years. Rosenthal curated Kapoor’s 2009 show at the Academy and the rest, as they say, is history. ‘What is especially remarkable about Kapoor’s abstract stone works is that they have their own specific ways of defining infinities and concepts of time,’ says Rosenthal. They invite the viewer to reflect three-fold on the mysteries of time buried within their form and substance. Kapoor is one of the only artists who follows the most ancient traditions of carving or shaping in order to achieve contemporary forms. Perhaps the most particular aspect of so much of Kapoor’s work, and especially of the stone works, is a sense of agelessness, of hardly being able to guess at their moment of creation.'

Here are five of my favourite works from Kapoor on show at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum that underline his mastery over form, colour, material, size and space.

Form

The above image shows his 2000 piece ‘Imminence’, measuring 180 x 167 x 88 cm. The first thing that comes to my mind is pregnancy. Carved from smooth onyx, its muted colours, found in nature, and its material accentuate an embryonic, sensual appeal. Its title likewise hints at something forthcoming, something being born. Whether this is an accurate interpretation of the piece is, however, questionable. The USA-born, Istanbul-based art historian and artist Nancy Atakan describes Kapoor’s works as possessing a certain ‘spirituality’ and ‘mystery’. ‘You know what they are, they resemble something, but they don’t,’ Atakan says. Perhaps we can turn to Kapoor himself for a clue about what this work represents. Talking of his sculptures in general, he says: ‘There’s something imminent in the work, but the circle is only completed by the viewer.’ One thing that cannot be argued against, though, is that this piece is a stunning example of form.

Colour

Above is ‘Yellow’, made in 1999 from fibreglass and pigment. Measuring at a whopping 550 x 550 x 275 cm, it was first installed at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2009. Mass meets colour in this six-square-metre disc covered in 12 coats of yellow paint, but it also serves as a kind of optical illusion. Only when you approach it do you understand that the wall is not flat but concave, and that what looks solid is actually a void. Kapoor is renowned for rendering his works in monochrome colours – usually bold, primary pigments such as reds, blues and yellows. The artist has in the past acknowledged using colours that call to mind his Indian heritage, as in the case of his fascination with red. In Hinduism, yellow is considered to be a sacred colour and is used profusely in religious ceremonies. It is also known as the colour of merchants in India. Aside from its symbolic connotations, yellow is known as a happy, positive colour and the emotional reaction from this piece is definitely one of illumination. However, the photo doesn’t do it justice – it must be seen in real life.

Material

Whereas most of the stone sculptures on show are made from more precious and expensive materials such as granite, marble and onyx, and a few others from sandstone, fibreglass and stainless steel, the above sculpture is made from limestone covered in a blue pigment. Entitled ‘Dragon’ and made in 1992, the other thing that sets it apart is its orientation – unlike most of the other sculptures on show, it is not vertical but horizontal. In conversation with Homi K Bhabha, director of the Humanities Center at Harvard University, Anish Kapoor said: ‘Dragon came out of quite a long-term interest in Japanese and Chinese gardens and the kinds of stones they use there. I eventually found the stone in Japan, although the stone actually came from somewhere in northern China. What is interesting about this stone is that it is deposited and then formed by corrosion, with the result that there are very deep holes in it… the work seems to have darkness, seems to be somewhere in between body, cave and beast. In a certain way, between heaviness and lightness, between organic and inorganic, blue is a curiously inorganic color, even though it occurs naturally. Of the earth and not of the earth.’

As the exhibit consists of several smaller pieces, the viewer cannot walk through it, as had been possible in previous exhibitions – a decision made jointly by Kapoor and the museum for two reasons: the pigment that covers the pieces is not completely absorbed, so each time a person passes it the floor is stained with blue footprints; and the velvety texture could also prompt the viewer to touch them. So the exhibit is roped off. Though not being able to walk amongst the ‘dragons’ undoubtedly limits the viewer's experience (in my view, at least), the air of mythology remains.

Size

For sheer mass, the aforementioned ‘Sky Mirror’ (above), positioned in the garden, is hard to miss. This is a smaller version of the iconic ‘Sky Mirror’ completed in 2001. The original, measuring six metres in width and weighing ten tonnes, was commissioned by the Nottingham Playhouse in England and is installed outside the theatre. It took six years to make and cost £900,000, making it the most expensive piece of civic art funded by the National Lottery. William Feaver, former art critic of the Observer, described it as ‘an extraordinary transformation of the circus. It draws people in and it reflects people back. It’s fresh, dramatic and hasn’t got Robin Hood connotations.’ In 2006 a larger version of the ‘Sky Mirror’ was installed at the Rockefeller Center in New York City. With a diameter of 10.6 metres, it stood three stories tall and weighed 23 tonnes. The sculpture reflected and inverted the Center's skyscrapers, thus, in the words of the artist, bringing ‘the sky down to the ground’. From September 2010 to March 2011 a version was also installed in Kensington Gardens in London.

This particular sculpture was made in 2010, measures 290cm in diameter and weighs 2.5 tonnes; a mere baby in comparison to the original and the Rockefeller Center versions. The concave dish of polished stainless steel is angled up towards the sky, and will change through the day and night. It is an example of what Kapoor describes as a ‘non-object’ – a sculpture that, despite its monumentality, suggests a window or void and often seems to vanish into its surroundings. Kimberley Rush put it nicely on the Canadian Art blog: ‘The mirror, in this case, operates as a kind of cultural and pictorial index, recording not only the surrounding foreground as a kind of proto-landscape painting, but also imprinting the embedded histories of the Turkish people, as well as the Ottoman and Byzantine empires, their politics, social systems and cultural traditions.’

Space

In his mixed-media piece ‘Archaeology and Biology’, made in 2007, a long, vertical wall-chasm provides an example of an intervention into the gallery space. This is a very visceral work that called to mind many things – some mythological (a dragon’s back), some violent (open wounds), some much more carnal. I particularly connected with this piece and its representation of a void, not circular and deep as is the case with many of his other sculptures, but just scratching beneath the surface. As the Turkish artist Sevgi Aka says: ‘Kapoor creates a world from the void – you cannot perceive how deep, how innate that void is until you stand in front of it.’ Go stand in front of Kapoor’s sculptures – you won’t regret it.

Image 2 courtesy of Sakıp Sabancı Museum. Image 4 courtesy of Anish Kapoor's website. All other images taken by Victoria Khroundina.

For our first gallery walk of 2014, we find ourselves back in the city’s cultural hub, Karaköy/Tophane (above). Last year was a huge year for contemporary art in Istanbul. There was a biennial, two art fairs, the reinvention of protest art and a plethora of exciting exhibitions from both international paragons and local up-and-comers. Some of the gallerists featured in this walk concur that 2013 was a monumental year for art. Asked to pick some of their galleries’ best exhibits of 2013, Asena Günal from DEPO singled out Never Again!: Apology and Coming to Terms with the Past and Let’s Go to Postering!, both of which made it onto Radikal’s ‘best three exhibitions’ list. The standout exhibition for Selin Söl from Daire was The Loss, which opened in September after the Gezi Park protests. ‘When the government had lost its legitimacy in the eyes of many people, we hosted an exhibition which brought together five young artists who dealt with values being lost through sudden personal and social shifts,’ she says. Mixer’s director Bengü Gün said that the gallery began training programmes for adults, children and artists, which was on the agenda since Mixer opened. ‘We also initiated ArtWriting Turkey, a long-term project supporting young and emerging art writers,’ she adds. 

Adrian Paci's ‘Piktori’, 2002, part of the ‘Neighbours’ exhibition at Istanbul Modern

The daddy of contemporary art, Istanbul Modern on Meclis-i Mebusan Caddesi (catch the tram to Tophane), celebrates its 10th birthday this year and will host a number of special exhibitions and events to commemorate the occasion. First up is Neighbours, a multi-disciplinary look at contemporary art practices in Turkey and the surrounding region. Opening tomorrow (January 9), the exhibition will feature works by 35 artists, aiming to explore practices that relate to social life in the public space, such as spectacles and ceremonies, and the way these have seeped into modern visual arts. Featuring political cartoons and folk art by artists who hail from the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle East and Turkey itself, this promises to be an insightful and fascinating exhibition. Also starting tomorrow is a 10-day film programme focusing on contenders for the Best Foreign Film category at the Oscars. There’s also a permanent exhibition and a number of temporary exhibitions to explore (these were covered in a previous gallery walk).

Past the park and in the backstreets behind the Kılıç Ali Pasha complex – where Tophane becomes Karaköy – you will find the narrow Ali Paşa Değirmeni Sokak, a street which typifies what Tophane is fast becoming. At No 16 is Galeri Mana which is hosting the solo exhibition of the Turkish artist Deniz Gül (covered in a previous walk) until January 25.

Michel Comte, ‘Jeff Koons’, published in ‘L'Uomo Vogue’, 1992, 67 x 67 cm

Contemplate the already-seen exhibitions from one of the street-facing chairs at coffee favourite, Karabatak, with the handsome red-brick Virgin Mary Orthodox Church behind or in front of you depending where you sit. Continue down the street and when it turns into Hoca Tahsin Sokak, you will reach Elipsis Gallery. Dedicated to photography, the gallery’s exhibition du jour focuses on the timeless portraits of renowned Swiss photographer Michel Comte, who captures the more human side of the rich and famous in Fame.

Back on parallel Kemeraltı Caddesi, the Krampf Gallery at No 141 is opening a group exhibition tomorrow which will showcase 45 works made by inmates, the result of a five-month Traditional Turkish Art course. Entitled Type T Penitentiary Illumination Exhibition, it aims to present life from behind the bars to the outside world in order to help break the taboos held about prisoners.

Neriman Polat, ‘On the Road’, 2013

Head back towards the Tophane tram stop. Inland at the bottom of Kumbaracı Yokuşu, the steep straight lane leading up to Istiklal, DEPO is offering the joint exhibition of two female Turkish artists, Neriman Polat and Mürüvvet Türkyılmaz. Says Günal: ‘Polat and Türkyılmaz are artists from the same generation who started to produce artworks in the mid 1990s, and whose artistic routes have often crossed. Polat’s work examines women’s struggles for existence, social paradoxes and pressures, family, and life and death, while Türkyılmaz’s work explores these issues from a more personal standpoint. Her works draw upon the power of memory and she manages to turn everyday objects into materialised poems.’

Elçin Ekinci, ‘Untitled’, 2013, gold plated polyester, concrete, MDF

Backtrack across the park to the next street leading up to Istiklal, Boğazkesen Caddesi, which has a few other galleries of interest. At No 65D, the cosy Daire is hosting the first solo exhibition of Turkish artist, Elçin Ekinci. Entitled The Nature of Order, the exhibition deals with the human mind’s constant need to instill order. Selin Söl’s favourite piece is the above ‘Untitled’ sculpture. ‘This cradle symbolises a basic tendency which has characterised human beings since the beginning of time: In order to maintain balance, we need to make sense of things and we do that by constructing order,’ she says. Looking ahead for the rest of year, Söl is anticipating an exhibition focusing on environmental denigration by Buğra Erol, who is also a Greenpeace activist, and a sentimental photography project by England-based artist, Cemre Yeşil.

Kerem Ağralı, ‘Revolution of A Beauty’, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm

Mixer at No 45 is offering a group exhibition entitled Dilemma, which deals with the dilemmas of our generation through the eyes of eight young Turkish artists. ‘Ozan Türkkan’s interactive video art project is particularly interesting. It visualises the limitless number of decisions we can make and the different results these may lead to. He used four iPads and four projections and prepared the installation in a room within the gallery,’ says Gün. This year is an exciting one for Mixer. It will host solo exhibitions by Kerem Ağralı (whose work can be seen at the current exhibition) and Meltem Sırtıkara, there will be a programme for children and a comprehensive training/networking programme initiated for artists. ‘We will continue to visit universities to meet with young artists and visit their studios,’ adds Gün.

Karen Mirza and Brad Butler's ‘Deep State’

And if you are brave enough to continue the steep climb up, Galeri NON, on a side street called Nur-i-Ziya Sokak, is showing the new video work by London-based artist duo Karen Mirza and Brad Butler. The 40-minute long film, Deep State, was written in collaboration with the science-fiction author China Miéville, and explores governments’ practices of making decisions with their own interests in mind – decisions that often run counter to the outward impression of democracy. Food for thought.

Key: Blue with dot – Istanbul Modern; Red with dot – Galerie Mana; Green with dot – Elipsis; Light blue with dot – Krampf; Yellow with dot – DEPO; Purple with dot – Daire; Magenta with dot – Mixer; Blue – Galerie NON

Click here for the interactive map.

Main image shows Tophane with the Bosphorus in the background and the red antrepo which houses Istanbul Modern (courtesy of WikiMedia Commons). All images, except the main image, courtesy of the respective galleries.

Though he was the chief engraver at the Ottoman Imperial Mint for over 40 years in the mid-19th century, James Robertson (1813–1888) is remembered in the history books by a different title: Robertson of Constantinople. It was not his engraving but his photographs of Istanbul that earned him this name – images that showed both ‘the architectural marvels of the place and the mundane life swirling around them,’ as Bridget and Heinz Henisch so eloquently put it the Encyclopaedia of Nineteenth-Century Photographers.

On the 200th anniversary of his birth, the Research Centre for Anatolian Civilizations is hosting an exhibition bringing under the spotlight Robertson’s talents in photography and painting. Curated by Bahattin Öztuncay, an expert on 19-century photography in the Ottoman Empire (he has written books on Ernest de Caranza and Vassilaki Kargopoulo, as well as Robertson), all the photographs and watercolours in the exhibition are on loan from the Ömer M Koç Collection.

James Robertson, Abdullah Brothers, CA. 1875

Robertson (above) received his vocational training at the London Royal Mint and then served four successive sultans, including Abdülmecid and Abdülaziz, at the Ottoman Imperial Mint. There he prepared designs, moulds and models for gold and silver coins – as you discover when you enter the exhibition and find yourself facing a wall of mega-sized reproductions.

One of these is a medallion designed by Robertson in 1849 to commemorate the restoration of Haghia Sophia by Gaspar Fossati (above) – significant in that it is one of the only coins actually bearing Robertson’s signature.

In the early 1850s Robertson started to develop an interest in photography. His images of Istanbul went on to win acclaim in London and Paris, and a selection was even purchased by Prince Albert (allegedly the first photographs to be ever purchased for the Royal Collection). He was the first photographer working in Istanbul to take 360-degree panoramic photographs of the city, and the main image shows his panorama of Istanbul (comprised of 12 sections) taken from the Beyazıt Tower in 1854. He took another panorama from the same vantage point three years later. The exhibition displays both, with the 1857 panorama (above) encased in a light box to magnify the detailing in this phenomenal photograph.

The exhibition takes the viewer through Robertson’s Istanbul snaps, as well as some taken in other cities. On a trip to Athens in 1854 he photographed the city’s archaeological and architectural gems, and some of these pictures appeared in an Istanbul publication entitled Grecian Antiquities. The above image shows the Acropolis, the Temple of Zeus and its surroundings as seen through Robertson’s lens.

In Cairo, Robertson and his business partner and brother-in-law-to-be, Felicio Beato (with whom he opened a studio in Pera in 1854) did not limit themselves to photographing Egypt's ancient artefacts, as many of their contemporaries did, but broadened their area of interest to include Islamic architecture. The above photo, taken in 1857, shows the tombs of the Mamluk Sultans.

In the same year Robertson and Beato also visited Jerusalem. The above shows the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives.

Robertson's Crimean War series, taken between 1854 and 1855, earned him the title of the first war photographer. Interestingly, Robertson’s earliest photographs relating to the Crimean War were taken in Istanbul. After Britain’s declaration of war on March 27, 1854, British and colonial forces gathered at the Selimiye Barracks in Üsküdar in April and May, and Robertson was there to document the scenes of the camped-out British soldiers. A steamship could reach Crimea in two days, making it relatively easy for Robertson to travel between Istanbul and Crimea. Some of his most striking photographs of the Crimean War are those taken during his second trip, after Sebastopol had fallen to the Allies on September 8, 1855. The above, for example, shows the Allied fleet at Balaklava harbour in 1855.

But it is his photographs of Istanbul that really impress. Some of his earlier work shows scenes of the Old City, as in the above image, which reveals the Obelisk and other monuments at the Hippodrome as they looked in 1853. ‘As far as possible [Robertson] tried to isolate the venerated subject matter from the distractions of contemporary life, with just a few small human figures to give a sense of scale,’ write Bridget and Heinz Henisch. This photo is a clear testament to this.

I particularly like the above photograph of the Ayasofya and surrounding wooden houses in the Hippodrome, taken in 1853.

A certain confidence shows in his later work. Robertson’s 1857 photograph of the Galata Tower is almost mystical and a tremendous example of foreground and background.

Back when there was waterway in front of the Kılıç Ali Pasha Mosque in Tophane, Robertson and Beato captured the fishermen boats docking there in 1857.

A stunning photograph of the Rumeli Hisarı, taken by Robertson and Beato in 1857, highlights the fortress, but the main attraction is obviously the Bosphorus.

The final section of the exhibition – at the far end of the gallery space – showcases Robertson’s muted watercolours of costumes and professions, produced between 1853 and 1856. He painted the common professions of the day such as Persian carpet and sahlep sellers, dervishes and scribes, as well as women dressed in traditional costumes. The above shows Robertson’s depiction of a porter, painted in 1855.

And finally, one of the man himself. The above is a self-portrait of Robertson sitting next to Beato, dressed in traditional Turkish costume. It combines both of his artistic talents – it is salt print painted over in watercolours, completed in 1855.

Robertson most likely gave up photography in the 1860s – the Robertson & Beato Company was dissolved in 1867 and he returned to work as an engraver at the Imperial Ottoman Mint until his retirement in 1881 (although he went on to display his paintings until 1881). His reason for giving up professional photography is unknown, but the works he did produce produce demonstrate his obvious talent and quiet achievement.

The exhibition runs until February 2, 2014.

All photographs courtesy of the Ömer M. Koç Collection (images 5–8 taken by Victoria Khroundina at the exhibition). The catalogue, ‘Robertson, Photographer and Engraver in the Ottoman Capital’, is available from the Cornucopia store. Tim Cornwell reviews the catalogue in Cornucopia 50.

A month or two before her death in the autumn of  1958, the novelist Rose Macaulay paid a final visit to Trabzon (the ancient Trebizond), the setting of her most famous novel. In it Macaulay had written about the exquisitely beautiful early-12th-century church of  Ayasofya there, a remnant of the short-lived Empire of Trebizond. To her delight, a young English art historian, David Winfield, was at work on a British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara project to restore its magnificent early-13th-century frescoes to sight.

Cast in the mould of the great 19th-century scholar-travellers, Winfield was an investigative archaeological explorer, a meticulous explorer who would often move only a few kilometres a day when exploring the Black Sea hills for Roman or Byzantine remains as he talked to the villagers in cafes about ‘the old stones’ in their area.  According to a reviewer in the Times Literary Supplement, he and his co-workers had 'tramped or ridden up every river and rivulet valley in the Black Sea mountains without neglecting the sights and sounds of modern Turkey'. Like his 19th-century predecessors, Winfield was also patriotic. When an old man on a remote Black Sea hillside told him that the French had a world hero in Napoleon, the Turks in Atatürk, and asked what heroes the English had, Winfield proudly informed him that the British had Wellington who had beaten Napoleon.

David Winfield was born in London in 1929, the son of a civil servant, and educated at Bryanston School and Merton College Oxford, where he read history. His earliest ventures into Byzantine exploration came in 1950 when he drove across Europe on a motorbike to Mount Athos. After graduating he was taken up by the most famous Byzantine art historian of the period, David Talbot Rice. Talbot Rice suggested that he take a British Council scholarship to work on Byzantine wall painting in the Balkans.

In 1957 Talbot Rice selected Winfield as field director of a project to restore Ayasofya in Trabzon, a project which at the time received the full assistance of both the Turkish Government of the day and the local people of the city.  The latter, once he had shaved off his beard, adopted him as a firm friend. Winfield reciprocated by driving two large pedigree dogs from Britain to Trabzon for one of the town’s patriarchs. Among his student assistants were several who became eminent in their own right in the next generation; one, June Wainwright, in charge of architectural drawings and images, became his wife and close collaborator in all his  work for the rest of his life.

In the later stages of at Trabzon, the Winfields worked again for the Ankara Institute at Cappadocia’s finest mid-Byzantine church at Eski Gümüş, near Niğde, in 1963. Their work there earned a news report in The Times. The next decade of his career was largely spent in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus, restoring the frescoes of  12th-century churches at Asinou and Lagoudhera. By then he had established a reputation among the finest restorers of Medieval wall-paintings in Europe.

In 1973, Winfield moved to Oxford as a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College and the next year became a Senior Research Fellow at Merton. The Winfields bought a large Victorian house in Crick Road and dispensed lavish hospitality on colleagues and students alike. When his Oxford Fellowship expired, Winfield returned to conservancy, working first at Canterbury Cathedral and then becoming the first-ever Surveyor of Conservation for the National Trust, responsible for conservation across the country. He worked for a decade at the Trust until his retirement in 1990.

Never entirely at home in suburban southern Britain, the Winfields then opted for a further transformation, buying a dilapidated farm house at Dervaig on the isle of Mull  and taking up farming – a profession of which they had no previous experience but at which, initially helped by a local partner, they were successful during more than two decades of retirement.

Winfield was however always a scholar first and a productive one. Retirement, farming, and even a fire which destroyed much of his library, did not stop the production of a stream of learned and important monographs on the art and architecture of the Black Sea and Cyprus, five of them written during his years on Mull. A sixth, on the links between the wall-painting of Byzantium and Renaissance Italy, is due to appear later this year.

In 1973 Winfield was awarded an MBE for his services to Byzantine Studies and Conservation and relations with Turkey and Cyprus.

He is survived by his wife, June, and two daughters and one son.

David Crampton Winfield. M.B.E., M.A., F.S.A., F.S.A.S.
Born London, December 2, 1929.
Died Mull, September 28,  2013

David Wheeler, editor of the beautifully written gardening quarterly Hortus, is writing a book about the private and public gardens of Istanbul and the Bosphorus. Some of his recent exploits in the city are recounted in Issue 50 of Cornucopia (A City of Secret Gardens).

On Saturday, the Daily Telegraph published his impressions of the unspoilt archipelago of the Princes Islands, which he visited in the company of the landscape designer Gursan Ergil, whose latest commissions include the Turkish Embassy in Ulan Batur, capital of Mongolia, as well as the garden of the  stunning 1950s villa built on Büyükada, the largest of the Princes Islands, by Sedat Hakkı Eldem for Fethi Okyar. The island is famed for its fragrant mimosa (above), sold on the streets of Istanbul from early spring.

His book is concerned principally with post-Ottoman and present-day gardens and David now asks Cornucopia readers to help him locate large or small private gardens worthy of inclusion. His general sweep includes Istanbul’s botanic gardens, arboreta, cemeteries (also home to many fine trees), public parks, bostans (private and municipal vegetable gardens) and the green areas surrounding mosques and churches. Many of these are conveniently recorded on maps and in a variety of guidebooks, but private gardens (including interesting roof gardens) remain well-kept secrets. If you know of any private gardens in Istanbul or on either side of the Bosphorus that David can visit on his visits in March, July and October this year please email contact details and brief descriptions to him at bosphorusbrit@hotmail.com

Ramin Matin has a lot to be proud of in his sophomore feature. On the surface, The Impeccables (Kusursuzlar in Turkish) is a quiet but powerful study of sibling relationships. But there is something much more sinister at play in this beautifully shot and, for lack of a better word, impeccably acted drama. Revealing itself subtly as the film progresses, it is a subject that is not often highlighted in Turkish cinema and it was refreshing to see it being tackled in such a candid way by Matin and scriptwriter, Emine Yıldırım. I won’t spoil what it is for you but I strongly recommend you get to a cinema in Turkey to see the film (or wait for the DVD release later in the year). 

The film is set in Ceşme, a summer resort town on the Aegean. It is May and two sisters from Istanbul, Lale (Ipek Türktan) and Yasemin (Esra Bezen Bilgin), are staying in the summer cottage which belonged to their late grandmother. After five years of minimal communication, these two women come on a holiday together and it is not really clear why. Yasemin is relaxed but energetic – going for morning runs, swimming in the pristine water, cooking dinner. Lale is reserved, timid, hiding behind a large hat and dark sunglasses. At the beginning of the film, there is very little dialogue. Matin credits his editor Theron Patterson for creating the desired rhythm between visuals and audio. ‘The lack of dialogue at the start strengthens the feeling that something is amiss and also establishes the languorous routine of the sisters,’ Matin says. With the arrival of the sisters’ neighbour, Kerim (Ibrahim Selim), the dynamics between the sisters change. The past begins to unravel, the arguments start and the devastating secret they are both harbouring erupts in the final scenes.

Yasemin (Esra Bezen Bilgin), left and Lale (Ipek Türktan), right

Yıldırım told his long-time friend and business partner Matin about the script back in 2008. Matin jumped at the opportunity to make a film with strong, three-dimensional female characters which he says is a rarity in Turkish cinema and even on the international arena. The chemistry between the two actresses was what impressed me most about the film. Matin tells me that when he was casting, he kept the importance of this chemistry in mind and was very lucky to find two experienced actresses who already knew and liked each other. Indeed, the individual performances of Türktan and Bilgin are outstanding but watching them together you are convinced they are sisters. Bilgin, who won the Best Actress gong at the 4th Malatya Film Festival for her efforts, has a strong pedigree in theatre – she is the daughter of Ankara stage actor Metin Bilgin and the wife of theatre director Mehmet Ergen (founder of the Arcola Theatre in London and the Talimhane Theatre in Istanbul). Türktan also has substantial theatre experience and is a favourite on Turkish television.

I ask Matin about the title of the film, which he tells me is ironic. ‘It refers to the expectations and pressure put on women to be ‘perfect’ especially in patriarchal societies such as Turkey. Women are expected to act in accordance with the morals of our very conservative society. Of course, no woman can live like that. On another level, the title refers to a certain upper middle-class in Turkey which considers itself ‘European’ and modern and demands the rest of the country to adhere to their idea of perfection.’ 

The film is also visually stunning and the choice of location obviously helps. ‘The visual language of the film is my first concern as director. I start designing the basic ideas for lighting, framing and composition as early as the writing process,’ Matin says. Choosing Çeşme was both a practical and an artistic decision. Both Matin and Yıldırım know the town well so it made it easy during the writing process to discuss familiar locations. Visually, Matin has always felt that ‘Çeşme was a bit eerie. Even though it looks like a beautiful seaside town, when you look closely you notice that the nature is almost arid, the relentless wind makes for a strange atmosphere and it feels very isolated when it is the off-season. I wanted to use that ghostly emptiness to create an unsettling, tense atmosphere that is at odds with what one would normally expect from such a place,’ Matin adds.

The film was also a favourite on the national festival circuit. It won Best Film and Best Director at the 2013 Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival and Best Director at the FİLMYÖNE Director’s Guild Awards. It is playing in Istanbul, Ankara, Eskişehir and Bursa until the end of January. An additional one-week release in early February is anticipated in Istanbul and Ankara. Fortunately for our readers, all theatrical releases are subtitled in English. The DVD will come out later in the year.

Click here to see the trailer.

If you haven’t visited the newly restored Naval Museum (above) yet, this should be your first stop in Beşiktaş. You can’t miss it – it is housed in a large building to the right of the Beşiktaş square if you are facing the Bosphorus. To the Museum’s right is the (also new) Shangri-La hotel. Gencer Emiroğlu’s article ‘Decked in Splendour’ in Cornucopia 50 previews some of the treasures that await – and there’s plenty more. Cornucopia subscribers get free entry to the Museum until the end of March upon presentation of their Subscriber Club Card.

Lydia Dambassina, ‘Which came first, the chicken or the egg?’, 2013, scale, egg, hen, embalmed, 50 x 36 x 22 cm

After your maritime fill, it is time for something a little more contemporary. Cross the street and make your way to Akaretler, a two-pronged street of pretty townhouses built at the end of the 19th century to accommodate palace servants. A five-minute walk up the hill (Süleyman Seba Caddesi) will get you to Kuad Gallery, which is starting the year with a new group exhibition. Entitled Unhappy Readymade, it takes its inspiration from Marcel Duchamp’s ‘readymades’ – referring to the artist’s practice of turning ordinary objects into art by simply changing something about them. ‘Kuad pays homage to 20th-century art by staging exhibitions which revive works of such artists as Fluxus and John Cage. I think the work by Lydia Dambassina (above) is significant as it is reflective of the socio-political and economic complexities seen in Greece and Turkey,’ says the gallery’s director, Beral Medra.

Asked to reflect on 2013, Medra cites Joseph Kosuth’s installation ‘The Wake’, renowned conceptualist artist Nikita Alexeev’s paintings exclusively made for Istanbul and the group exhibition Online – a tribute to Gezi – as the most visited shows. Looking ahead, Medra is anticipating the gallery’s collaboration with curators from Poland in May and June as part of the celebrations marking 600 years of relations between Poland and Turkey. ‘In autumn we will also put on an exhibition of our artists at the Wroclaw Contemporary Art Museum,’ adds Medra.

The lower of the two Akaretler streets, Şair Nedim Caddesi, is actually where most of the galleries are located. The cosy Art ON at No 4 is hosting Izmir-born artist Olcay Kuş’ Game Centre featuring the artist's street art-inspired canvases which question the balance between work and play.

Gülsün Karamustafa, ‘Shrine Online’, 2011, fibreglass cast pedestals with porcelain figures (the sister installation to ‘An Ordinary Love’)

Stay on the same side and past some appealing cafés and boutiques, you will find Rampa’s second exhibition hall at No 20. Opening tomorrow (January 18) is an installation of veteran Turkish artist Gülsün Karamustafa 1984 work An Ordinary Love. Says Rampa’s Üstüngel Inanç: ‘I think it is very interesting to exhibit this fabric collage by Karamustafa, as it was believed to be lost for nearly 25 years and was discovered during the research process of her recent show at SALT Beyoğlu’ (covered in a previous gallery walk).

IRWIN (Dušan Mandic), ‘Malevich Between Two Wars’, 1984–2006, painting and collage on wood, 76 x 49 x 5.5 cm, courtesy of Irwin and Galerija Gregor Podnar

Opposite at No 21, Rampa’s main space is offering the iconographic works by Slovenian art collective IRWIN in an exhibition entitled The Interrupted Production of the Object. Inanç credits the Cengiz Çekil and Nilbar Güreş exhibitions as the two highlights of 2013. The 2014 programme has shows by Turkish heavyweights Hatice Güleryüz, Ergin Çavuşoğlu, Ahmet Oran and Işıl Eğrikavuk (winner of the 2012 Full Art Prize) in store.

Mahmut Celayir, ‘Eve Donus II’, oil on canvas, 200 x 150 cm

Two doors down, C.A.M. Galeri has a fascinating group show entitled Timeless. Says the gallery’s director, Melek Gencer: ‘The idea for this show emerged from Murat Germen’s ‘Mardin Muta-morphosis’ and Mahmut Celayir’s ‘Eve Donus/Retuning Home II’ (above). Germen’s photo depicts the old city with the historical structures unchanged while Celayir’s painting forms the untouched natural texture of the environment with his special technique that embraces light and colour. Cem Turgay, Murat Durusoy and Guiseppe Mastromatteo create a timeless feeling in their works, while Ronald Versloot’s paintings and Yeşim Şahin’s readymade sculptures make us question a world that is ‘timeless’.’

The standout 2013 show for Gencer was START ‘Art Within Reach’, which opened in June, in the heat of Gezi. Even though the concept for the show was born before Gezi, the theme corresponded with what was happening. Instead of hosting an opening night at the gallery, artists and guests gathered in Gezi Park. Murat Germen’s Facsimile Vol. 2 and Yusuf Aygeç’s B.C. Pop Art were the other high points. Looking ahead, there will be shows by Cenin, Murat Durusoy, Ebru Alpagut, Nihâl Martlı and a group show, START II, a sequel to the abovementioned START. After the summer hiatus, Neslihan Başer, whose work garnered a lot of interest at Contemporary Istanbul last year, will exhibit in September, followed by exhibitions from New York-based Peter Hristoff and Berlin-based Dieter Mammel. ‘We have a very strong programme for 2014 and we are so excited for the coming months. We hope it will be a successful year despite all the negativity in our country these days,’ Gencer concludes.

Caner Şengünalp, ‘He who stays quiet means he approves’, serpantine stone and brass, 110 x 90 x 25 cm

Next up are two more galleries located on the outskirts of Beşiktaş leading to Teşvikiye. Follow Şair Nedim Caddesi for a few hundred yards, past the daily hustle and bustle of this more humble part of the neighbourhood, and turn left up the steep Hüsrev Gerede Caddesi, a one-way street coming down the hill. About halfway up is Galeri Ilayda, which is in its last few days of hosting Caner Şengünalp’s Istanbul, a timely exhibition exploring the socio-cultural and urban process that Istanbul goes through as a result of rural exodus. The above sculpture made with scaled model figures is one of owner Ilayda Babacan’s favourites. She is happy with all the exhibitions the gallery put on in 2013 and for the year ahead, she says audiences can look forward to exhibitions by Atilla Galip Pınar, Nurdan Likos and the fourth show in the Themeless/Contactless series.

Murathan Özbek, ‘Growing Up’

Next door, newbie RenArt, at No 39, is offering the new photography series by Murathan Özbek, Once. Says the gallery’s director Şeyma Öner: ‘The photos are exhibited chronologically as they are autobiographical. Each photograph tells its own story yet the space created in the works invites the audience to put themselves in the images’. Öner cites the Rehearsal III: We are still here!, opened in the aftermath of Gezi, as the standout exhibition of 2013. ‘The 2014 programme includes exciting exhibitions such as Deniz Sağdıç’s Women: Ownership, which explores how women have been oppressed since childhood,’ Öner adds.

Key: Light Blue – Naval Museum, Blue – Kuad Gallery, Red – Art ON, Green – Rampa, Yellow – C.A.M. Galeri, Purple – Galeri Ilayda, Magenta – RenArt

Click here for the interactive map.

All images courtesy of respective galleries, except the main image which was taken by Fritz von der Schulenburg.

With so much awesomely grubby news of greed and dishonesty to cheer the year on its way, here is a little nugget of beauty to dwell on. A single dish in the right place can make a feast.

This 16th-century Iznik plate, made between 1550 and 1560, is dazzling, but on its own... well Cornucopia readers will have seen many beautiful Iznik plates in their day. Displayed by the Courtauld in its delightful top-floor gallery in Somerset House, however, it is surrounded by Renaissance portraits, and you see it transformed into a spark that brings the Renaissance world to life.

Among the paintings on the walls is the exquisite ‘Woman Holding a Lily of the Valley’ attributed to the Salzburg artist Marx Reichlich, dated to between 1510 and 1520. It is amazing how everyone, East and West, suddenly seems to be talking a common language.

A collection of essays, presented by Laila El-Sayed, a PhD candidate in the School of English jointly at the University of Kent and the Freie Universität in Berlin, explains how ‘The floral motifs of the dish typify the Kara Memi floral style, named after the chief painter (fl.1545–66) of Süleyman the Magnificent's court. This floral style was an artistic move towards realism in depicting garden flowers. It is also often called the ‘Quatre Fleurs’ style because it used four principal flowers: the tulip, carnation, rose and hyacinth.’ They appear everywhere from Korans to ‘tobacco pouches, kaftans, imperial tents and decorative mattress coverings’ and were clearly rich in ‘spiritual, cultural and literary connotations’. Ditto Renaissance portraits.

From February 20, the focus turns to a bag made in Northern Iraq around 1300, the like of which is apparently unknown. ‘The bag was made for a lady in the courtly circles of the Mongol Ilkhanid dynasty, established in west Asia by Genghis Khan’s grandson, Hulagu’, says the Courtauld. This exhibition considers this luxury craft tradition before and after the Mongol invasion. Court and Craft explores the origin and cultural context of this extraordinary object, alongside displays of illustrated manuscripts, ceramics and other luxury crafts.

The cushioned seats of the Cafe Liseliler, next to the Sadberk Hanım Museum, are cheap and cheerful, but the çay and menemen are particularly excellent, and the broad sweep of the Bosphorous in front of it is sensational. Refresh yourself, because the Sadberk Hanım's Traces of Ancient Ages exhibition demands more than a cursory look. 

Those enslaved to paronomasia will look in vain for ancient horse harnesses, but no one else could possibly be disapointed by the richness of the objects displayed – jewellery and coins, pottery and cult objects are all here. This is Turkey, so ancient ages is not an overstatement; the collection starts with the Neolithic age and continues to the Byzantine, via the Assyrian Kings, the Urartian Gods and a Hellenistic vase or two.

What strikes one most about this exhibition is its detail. Not that the exhibition is colourless – far from it. From the intense orange glaze of the fierce nose and eyebrow arches of a chalcolithic female formed vessel above to the ravishing emerald glow of a tiny bottle from the Roman Imperial period, there are objects here that will catch the eye – but the excellence of the display cases allows magnified perception of the little things.

The Early Chalcolithic peoples may have carefully graded their glaze terracotta to black, but by the Middle Bronze Age trade was advanced enough to create a partridge-shaped rhyton of intense and evocative beauty, with a quiet grey glaze and ridged tail and the sturdy head calling out for a hand to hook around it and lift it to the lips of a Western Anatolian king. This ergonomic refinement contrasts strongly with the happy gormlessness of the ram-shaped rhyton from the late Bronze age in the next case. Travel round one side of the room, and the attention is caught by another partridge, this time from Corinth, a painted aryballos of the 7th century B.C., and finally a bronze pigeon lamp from the Byzantine period appears, with bronze, deeply ridged feathers and a staring hinged head in its back which can be flicked up so that oil is poured in.

These delightful objects are surrounded by capering horses pulling chariots on a solidly-cast bronze quiver from Van, Oriental lotus on a fine black-figure olpe from Attica and a stolid looking bust of Philetairos, founder of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon (above). The broad historical sweep of the exhibition, and the finely written introduction to each ancient age, makes it well worth a trip up the Bosphorous.

Back in December, I attended a photography exhibition at the Millî Reasürans Art Gallery in Maçka of Aykut Köksal’s black-and-white photographs capturing Mimar Sinan’s (1489–1588) architectural masterpieces in Istanbul.

Köksal, who is an avid photographer wtih a degree in architecture from the Mimar Sinan University, took the photographs in the course of one year in 2006. His aim was to highlight the relationship between light and architecture and he focused on Sinan’s work in Istanbul, from the most renowned – the imposing imperial Süleymaniye Mosque (above) – to the lesser-known mosques scattered around the city. The name of the exhibition, Silence and Light, was borrowed from the title of a 1969 lecture by the great American architect Louis Kahn, whose own work was greatly inspired by the use of shadows.

By photographing Ottoman spaces, Köksal wanted to ‘underscore the transcendental reality of architecture’. Indeed, he plays with light effectively and captures a sort of tranquillity in his interpretations of Sinan’s buildings. Sometimes his work depicts wide exterior shots of the buildings such as the above again showing the Süleymaniye Mosque (built 1544–55) and its grand courtyard with ancient porphyry columns – some bathed in light, some concealed in shadow.

Sometimes, however, Köksal focused on a small part of the building. His take on the Rüstem Pasha Mosque (above), the second of Sinan’s imperial mosques built 1561–63, shows a discreet stone staircase, which is the only way to gain access into the Mosque. 

His photograph of the Şehzade Mehmed Mosque (above), the first of Sinan’s three imperial mosques and built 1544–55, shows its exterior windows with streaky shadows created by the many trees which line the generous courtyard.

‘Mosques built during the classical era of Ottoman architecture intended to have as much light as possible illuminating the interiors,’ says Köksal. This is definitely true in the above photograph of the Sokullu Mehmet Pasha Mosque located in Azapkapı below the far end of the Hippodrome, and built between 1577 and 1578.

Köksal took the photographs in black and white as that is the ‘best way to express light in photography’ and because ‘black-and-white photography has a strong capacity for abstraction’. His photograph of the Nişancı Mehmed Pasha Mosque, located in Karagümrük in Fatih, shows perhaps the best expression of light in his entire series. 

In the above image showing the Sinan Pasha Mosque, located on the main square in Beşiktaş, Köksal captures the interior of one of its small rooms, the light casting a glow on the carpeted floor. The Mosque was commissioned by Admiral Sinan Pasha and built in 1555. It is said to resemble the Üç Şerefeli Mosque in Edirne, which was the largest mosque in the city until Sinan built his ‘masterwork’, the Selimiye, in the late 1560s.

A five-minute ferry ride will get you to Üsküdar where Köksal captured the above image of the Mihrimah Sultan Mosque, built between 1546 and 1548. It is a well-balanced shot in which the ground of the portico and the gate are the main attractions.

The latest Cornucopia, No 50, includes a 14-page article about three of Sinan’s most important mosques – the Süleymaniye, the Rüstem Pasha Mosque and the Şehzade – with photographs taken in 2013 by Fritz von der Schulenburg.

Images 1, 5, 6, 7 and 8 courtesy of Millî Reasürans Art Gallery. Images 2, 3 and 4 taken by Victoria Khroundina at the exhibition. 

Nişantaşı is having a leisurely start to the year – a number of the neighbourhood’s galleries have not yet exhibited their first show of 2014. Merkur Gallery has spent the first weeks of January at the Singaporean Art Fair, Galeri Linart has also not re-opened since closing their last show at the end of December and Chalabi Art Gallery has closed an exhibition in early January to exhibit lots for an Alif Art auction that was held this Tuesday. Their next auction is in March and we will be bringing you details closer to the date. However, there’s still plenty of quality art to marvel at and buy at Nişantaşı and Teşvikiye's (above) distinguished galleries.

Yüksel Arslan’s ‘Arture 390 Man XXXI Onanistan’, 1988, 40 x 80 cm

We start on Abdi Ipekçi Caddesi, where Dirimart, at No 7, is hosting acclaimed artist Yüksel Arslan’s famed ‘Artures’, which show his unique style of painting using pigments he mixed himself made from plant extracts, oil, charcoal, stone and even egg yolk and honey. The human and animal figures Arslan depicted were either responses to philosophical questions of Western thought or rooted in his own biography. Director Doğa Oktem chose the above work completed in 1988 as one of his favourites – a graphically erotic piece appropriately entitled ‘Man XXXI Onanistan’ (his other favourite work, ‘The Capital XIV (Unions)’, part of Arlsan famed 1972 ‘Capital’ series, moves away from the primal human experience and enters the arena of commerce). Some of the works are available for sale while others are on lend from collectors. Please enquire directly with Dirimart.

Oktem cites the Shirin Neshat show (displaying works between the Nişantaşı space and Santralistanbul) as one of the ‘most attention grabbing’ exhibitions of 2013. The video installation, Liberty Park, by Bjorn Melhus exhibited at Dirimart’s temporary space Karaköy Külah was another highlight, as was the 13 works by Yüksel Arslan on display at Art Basel. Looking ahead, Oktem says audiences have a show by Hermann Nitsch, displaying his latest ‘Action Paintings’ series, to look forward to.

Yuşa Yalçıntaş, ‘2+2+2’, 2014, pencil on paper, 200 x 77 cm

Further down the street, opposite Vakko and Bang & Olufsen, Kare Gallery at No 22 (on the second floor), is hosting a group exhibition entitled Break. The exhibition takes its inspiration from French sociologist Jean Baudrillard’s theory developed in the mid-1970s that modernity, and its associated concepts, has come to an end. Exhibiting artists explore how the dynamics of desire can be interpreted in the context of the object and production. The gallery’s director, Fatma Saka, particularly appreciate the works by Emin Mete Erdoğan and Yuşa Yalçintaş (above). All pieces are for sale and vary in price from 1,500TL to 12,500TL.

The standout events and shows for Saka in 2013 were Art Basel, Contemporary Istanbul and Emin Çizenel’s solo show. Looking ahead, Saka is anticipating the next group show Impossible Structures, followed by solo exhibitions: first by Polish artist, Monica Bulanda, and then by Turkish-born, Chicago-based artist, Berke Yazicioğlu.

Fatih Alkan, ‘A Short Film About Blind Chance’, 2011, photography, 15 x 15 cm

Further down the street, x-ist, in the basement of Kaşıkçıoğlu Apartment at No 42, will also be offering a group show opening on January 30. Entitled A Universe Supplementary to this One, it will mark the first time the gallery is collaborating with an independent curator. ‘The show is supplemented by a book written by the curator, Fatoş Üstek, compiled as a result of a dialogue between himself and the artists,’ says the gallery director, Yasemin Elçi. The above work is by one of the three Turkish artists exhibiting, Fatih Alkan, who produced the work specifically for the project. This exhibition is non-for-profit and exhibited for curatorial purposes only.

Asked to reflect on 2013, Elçi cites Ali Elmacı's project You Will Find Me Not Where You Are Looking and Ansen's multi-disciplinary show Malevolence as highlights. The 2014 programme has a photography exhibition by Ahmet Polat, illustrations from Erkut Terliksiz and caricature works by Bahadır Baruter to look forward to.

Cross the street and go down Atiye Sokak, a narrow street full of appetising restaurants. Come out on Teşvikiye Caddesi, where on your left and across the street, at No 6, Galeri Işık is hosting the works of Polish graphic artist Agnieszka Cieślińska. The first event presented by the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Istanbul to celebrate the 600th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Poland and Turkey, the show, entitled Figuratio, aims to show the artist’s precise technique and the ‘figurativeness’ she employs throughout her oeuvre. Most of the works are engraved on various mediums, including wood. The above image shows one the pieces in the exhibition.

Ayşe Ulay, ‘In-N-Out’, 2012, C-Print, 106 x 66.5 cm, 900TL

Go back down the street, past Teşvikiye Mosque and the House Café, and at the intersection where the monument to Hüsrev Gerede stands, swerve to the left down Maçka Caddesi, where the Millî Reasürans Gallery is hosting the first solo exhibition of Ayşe Ulay. In ID:LA City and its reflections, Ulay, a graphic designer with an interest in typography, documents signage in Los Angeles in an attempt to blur the distinction between ‘a city’ and ‘every city’: characteristics of her photographs begin to point to a completely different space, one that has its own language, backstory and intrinsic connections. All works are on sale: they are C-Prints, ranging in sizes and priced between 800TL and 1,200TL.

All images, except the main image, courtesy of their respective galleries. Main image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons. 

Tomorrow (January 28), French–Turkish conductor Serâ Tokay will conduct the Lutèce Philharmonia, a chamber orchestra composed of a string quintet and a range of brass and woodwind instruments that she formed in 2011, through a repertoire featuring Berg, Schönberg and Webern at the Carnegie Hall in New York. 

Tokay was born in Istanbul into a family with Russian origins. She completed her studies at the Lausanne Conservatory and the National Conservatory of Limoges. Greatly influenced by Janos Fürst, Vsevolod Polonsky, Alain Voirpy and H. Klopfenstein, she spent seven years studying under the baton of the young Russian conductor, V. Polonsky (who has conducted the Saint-Petersburg Academic State Symphony Orchestra). He introduced her to the spiritual heritage of Soviet composer Yevgeny Mravinsky and the celebrated Russian school. Ever since then, Tokay has been greatly interested in the empathic relationship between the conductor and her instrumentists. 

The concert commences at 8.00pm at the Weill Recital Hall at the Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Ave, New York. Tickets are $20–25 and you can purchase them through the telephone booking line on +1 212 247 7800 or from the box office at 57th and Seventh Streets, New York.