Noteworthy Events of 2005 , listed in the TAS Review
The Istanbul Biennial, 16 September – 6 October 2005
The 9th International Istanbul Biennial brought intriguing artistic insights and interpretations to modern life in Istanbul. Charles Esche and Tomur Kortun, the curators, aimed to form more of a relationship with the reality of the city and its residents. The previous biennials had too often imported work that was made elsewhere and thus made sense elsewhere. This year the touristic sites of the 2003 Biennial were avoided, such as the Sultan Ahmet area and the Binbirdirek (the cistern with a thousand and one columns), selecting forgotten buildings on ‘living’ streets, seven of them between Karaköy and Beyo_lu: A sea-side warehouse next to Istanbul Modern in F&Mac245;nd&Mac245;kl&Mac245;, an old tobacco depot in Tophane, the old Garibaldi building on Bankalar Street, the Deniz Palas apartment building at _i_hane, the abandoned Garanti Bank at a busy corner in Karaköy.
The whole Biennial avoided clichés, eschewing all major monumental spaces, utilising everyday spaces and forgotten buildings in the back streets of Galata. It was a unique experience somewhat reminiscent of a ‘treasure hunt’, walking through the streets with the Biennial guide in hand. Most of the art in these spaces focused on the problems of contemporary urban life with common reference to everyday life, to the physical legacy of modernity, the shift to a consumer economy. According to Vas&Mac245;f Kortun, the Curator of the Biennial, “The subject is more ambiguous than literally being about a city. It is about a range of experiences, relationships, communications and misunderstandings. It is about a texture that exists in every metropolis that can both be seen as similar and at the same time unique.”
A total of 53 guest artists had been invited to spend time in the city and put on an exhibit related to the location. Some of the foreign artists had already arrived in Istanbul as part of the residency programme of the Garanti Contemporary Art Centre. Many of their works dealt directly with the urban conditions of Istanbul; others had been selected to provoke contrast to the city and provide a conscious estrangement from the surrounding reality.
Some of the exhibits were most unusual, such as Cerith Wyn Evan’s actual searchlight that flashed the text of a poem by Mihri in Morse Code. Hüseyin Alptekin’s contribution involved the quadriga of horses from Byzantium, based on extensive research on the original now mounted in St Mark’s Square in Venice. Michale Blum recreated as a museum the apartment that had belonged to Safiye Behar, born in 1890 (whose grandson provided the furniture and memorabilia) who thinks she may have known Atatürk intimately. In another part was a room full of Byzantine-style ikona (icons); and another was full of old-fashioned megaphones.
The Istanbul Biennial engendered a lively art scene with many other art shows and exhibitions in alternative sites. Some of the most interesting were:
Exhibition for Pedestrians was set up on the streets in the area of Tünel-Karaköy. The aim was to create an awareness of the history and the beauty of the area and stimulate ideas about its future. Twenty artists and architects from various countries contributed with large-scale works, all of them new and specially designed for this area. There were also lectures, debates, panel discussions about the political, cultural, sociological, technological and economic influences on city planning. Turkish sponsors were Mimar Sinan University, Istanbul Technical University, and Y&Mac245;ld&Mac245;z Technical University. The indoor part of the exhibition was in the museum of the Ottoman bank. One solution/suggestion that came out of the effort was the pedestrianisation of Karaköy and the creation of a big square with a culture centre and a port.
Many other exhibitions were slated for the same time to capture the interest of some three thousand foreign visitors of the Biennial.
Art in Akmerkez Shopping Mall focused on the fifty to sixty thousand people who visit the Mall every day. There were more than 200 works, including installations by 112 artists, sculptors and photographers. In Istanbul, where exhibition halls, museums and galleries are at a minimum, the curators aimed to surmount that difficulty by taking the art to where people congregate.
Dance
‘Ney – Flames of Passion’: This Turkish dance group, which performed for a week in London last year, has been touring the world, giving performances in Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Zürich, Beijing, and Casablanca among other cities. The group, consisting of forty dancers, is at the peak of its national and international fame. They have recently performed in Carthage and Hammamet and the performances have been broadcast live by French TV5 and Italian Rai Uno, as well as by Tunisian TV, with an interview with Ali Erten, the director of the group.
Turkish Ballet in Islamabad
Ankara State Opera and Ballet dancers performed in Islamabad again, after an interval of forty years. In 1966 they were the first foreign ballet troupe to perform in Pakistan.
Halide Edip
Two noteworthy events concern Halide Edip, Turkish teacher, journalist, novelist, essayist and soldier in the Turkish War of Independence: NASA has given her name to a crater shaped like a flower on Venus. And Frances Kazan, the widow of Elia Kazan, gave a lecture at the Turkish Embassy residence in London entitled ‘Halide Edip and the War of Independence’.
Film
‘Gelibolu Documentary’ by director Tolga Örnek of ‘The Hittites’ fame was shown in London. It is based on hitherto unpublished letters, documents and photographs. Military historian Christopher Pugsley praised the film for its objectivity, saying, “Rather than being the Turkish point of view, it reaches the universal.” The Turkish Ambassador, Ak&Mac245;n Alptuna, praised the film’s authenticity.
Archaeology
Patara: During the excavations in Patara on the Mediterranean coast near Antalya, the ancient parliament building has been uncovered. Patara was the capital of the Lycian League, a port city dating back to the 5th century BC, which had the oldest republican government in history. The building has rows of stone seats arranged in a semi-circle. In other parts of the city, also excavated, were a cemetery, a Roman bath, a semi-circular theatre, a wide main street/market place, a substantial wall and Byzantine church. A recent article by Richard Bernstein entitled ‘A Congress buried in Turkey’s sand inspired One on a Hill’ states that a group including former Brooklyn Congressman Stephen J Solarz is trying to persuade the US Congress to sponsor celebrations to be held in Patara in 2007 to honour the 220th anniversary of the framing of the US Constitution.
Hattushah – Bogazköy
There was a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the start of excavations in Hattushah, the capital of the Hittite Empire. The work this year has completed the restoration of a part of the 6.5 km long city walls. The restored section is 65 metres long and 6.5 – 7.5 metres wide and 7 – 8 metres high and contains two towers, each 11 metres high.
Iznik
Excavations which started in 1963 to discover the mysteries of old technologies of the famous ceramic industry of 14th-15th century are continuing with great success, overseen by Hakan Arli of Istanbul University.
Belma Otus Baskett
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