Dolapdere Big Gang at the Jolly Joker, Beyoğlu
The concert by the group Dolapdere Big Gang at the Jolly Joker Club in Balo Sokak, Beyoğlu on March 1 was my first experience of attending a pop concert on behalf of Cornucopia. I should hasten to...
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Gifts and conglomerations
Book sales were reported to be healthy at the three-day London Book Fair at Olympia, which ended yesterday. Publishers even said that there was little talk of Brexit in their deals. Audio books are up...
View ArticleGoran Filipec at the Seed
The series of Istanbul Recitals for 2018-2019, given at The Seed (the concert hall attached to the Sakıp Sabancı Museum in Emirgan), continued with a demonstration of pianistic prowess by the Croatian...
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Travelling women and black quadrilaterals
It’s been 73 years since George Costakis saw Olga Rozanova’s Green Stripe in a Moscow studio and started the collection that, to paraphrase the art historian Margit Rowell, required the history of...
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Venice biennale crosses the water
The 58th Venice Biennale, opening on May 11, has a new focus on the island of Giudecca, which this week was declared the city’s first permanent arts quarter. More than 60 artists from 30 countries are...
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High notes for a Spring Equinox
The Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra gave a concert at the Lütfi Kırdar Concert Hall in Istanbul on March 21, 2019 – the day after the Spring Equinox, which happened to coincide with a full moon. The...
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Getty sets out its stall
This map of Seljuk’s historic sites is a sample image from the Getty Conservation Institute’s Arches, an innovative open-source cultural heritage data management platform, launched at Claridge’s in...
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A Murdering Dress and the Joy of the Unknown
The 38th Istanbul Film Festival always has such a gluttony of choice that picking tickets can be overwhelming. Watching a movie without any prior knowledge is a rare experience, so I often try to pop...
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Josephine Powell remembered
The latest sales figures of Cornucopia’s back numbers show an interest in issue No. 47, from 2012, which had a striking cover photograph of a young Josephine Powell (1921–2007) describing her as Queen...
View ArticleNew blood for Cemal Reşit Rey’s historic Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra
Mussorgsky and Shostakovich were on the menu at a concert by the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra on 5th April. It was pleasing to see the auditorium at the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall nearly full:...
View ArticleBrave showing: Stephen Kovacevich at the Seed
The American pianist Stephen Kovacevich gave the seventh in the series of Istanbul Recitals at The Seed in Emirgan on April 12. Seven may be a lucky number for some, but not, unfortunately, for Mr...
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Kubrick’s Weaponised Indifference
A well-to-do man in 18th century England rides a horse-drawn carriage through the countryside with his fur-draped wife. They stare out opposite windows as he puffs away on his pipe and she waves her...
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Bettina Frankenberg, 1956–2018
Friends and family of the textile artist Bettina Frankenberg, who died after a short illness in October, will be gathering in Bodrum later this week to remember a rare talent and a remarkable...
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A catalogue of delights
One of the advantages offered by Cornucopia Bookshop is that it can come up with catalogues for past exhibitions, and they are always worth searching for (see examples below). This is clearly the case...
View ArticleOut from Turkey: Alchemy Festival
Sunday 5 May, Towermill Cinema, Hawick, Scottish Borders. From within Turkey and from outwith, a selection of shorts demonstrating a range of formal strategies presently at play in the experimental...
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Sparks of light burning bright amid the grim 18-storey towers of Asia
On 26 April I ventured across the Bosphorus to attend a concert by the İstanbul State Symphony Orchestra at the Caddebostan Cultural Centre. It was with some trepidation that I took the Metrobus over...
View ArticleDepth… in Venice
The French pavilion has been widely declared the go-to show in the Venice Biennale this year, and so it was that 90-minute queue snaked up the Giardini in the opening week ‘vernissage’ of the...
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Did Anatolians build Stonehenge?
The facial reconstruction of a woman from 5600BC found in Brighton suggests that immigrants from Anatolia may have built Britain’s best-known Neolithic monument. Discovered on Whitehawk Hill, the site...
View ArticleYeol Eum Son
Yeol Eum Son V1Yeol Eum Son V1 The Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son gave a recital of works by Chopin and Rachmaninov at the The Seed, the concert hall attached to the Sakıp Sabancı Museum in Emirgan, on...
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An enduring tradition
Hand weaving in Turkey, often thought a dying art, has continued to survive in some parts of Anatolia due to discerning designers such as Sandy Jones, whose wonderful carpets are produced in anonymous...
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