Category: Culture/Art

İstanbul’s 8,500-year history told in ‘Capital of Cultures’

İstanbul’s 8,500-year legacy in political, socioeconomic and cultural fields is being told in a new book launched this week as part of the İstanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture program.

Put together by an İstanbul-based NGO called the Türk Kültürüne Hizmet Vakfı (Foundation of Service to Turkish Culture), the book “Kültürler Başkenti İstanbul” also has an English version, titled “Istanbul the Capital of Cultures.” Both versions of the book were launched at a gala on Wednesday at the Caferağa Medresesi in Sultanahmet.

The book aims to show the fact that “İstanbul has always been a center for economic, commercial and cultural connections from the past to the present day,” the İstanbul 2010 agency says about the book on its website.

Şerafettin Yılmaz, the president of the foundation, said during Wednesday’s gala that the book was an effort to “recount the little-known story of İstanbul’s 8,500-year history,” the Anatolia news agency reported.

The book is divided into four chapters, titled “From Ancient Ages to the Post-Roman Period,” “Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) Period,” “The İstanbul of the Ottoman Era” and “Republican Years and İstanbul.” The 1,440-page volume brings together the writings of 76 researchers and specialists on İstanbul’s history, accompanied by a rich collection of around 1,000 photographs.

January 1, 2011
Sundance, !f Istanbul team up for Obama-initiated film project

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

The Istanbul leg of the program will take place during the 10th !f Istanbul Film Festival, running from Feb. 17 to 27

The Sundance Institute, which manages the Sundance Film Festival, one of the most prestigious independent film festivals in the world, and the !f Istanbul AFM International Independent Film Festival are set to collaborate on a new project.

Film Forward, a program initiated under an incentive of the United States President Barack Obama to develop worldwide inter-cultural dialogue, has chosen Istanbul as one of its 10 partner cities and !f Istanbul as the collaborating film festival for the project.

Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, the Sundance Institute has chosen 10 films from various countries for the program. These films will be screened in the 10 chosen cities and discussions with the directors and the Sundance Institute crew will run after the screenings.

The program is set to begin in New York in December, 2010 and will conclude in Washington, September 2011, with a screening of all the films in the project.

The Istanbul leg of the program will take place during the 10th !f Istanbul Film Festival, running from Feb. 17 to 27, with the support and collaboration of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara.

December 29, 2010
‘Classical Ottoman Music and Armenians’ book published in Istanbul

PanARMENIAN.Net – Titled ‘Classical Ottoman Music and Armenians’, Aram Kerovpyan’s book encourages the youth to learn about the beauty of the past.

“All these figures show the richness of our land,” said Yasar Kurt, secretary-general of the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency, which supported the publishing of the book. “This is an important resource book going back 200 years ago and showing us who carried Turkish classical music to the present,” he said.

Kerovpyan, who was born in Istanbul but has lived in Paris for 33 years, said that not only Armenian but also Greek and Jewish composers, made great contribution to Turkish classical music, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

via ‘Classical Ottoman Music and Armenians’ book published in Istanbul – PanARMENIAN.Net.

December 25, 2010
Istanbul’s cultural heritage goes online

ISTANBUL – Anatolia News Agency

The cultural valuables of Istanbul are now accessible thanks to a website project. The first of its type in Turkey, the website presents 200 years of history. ‘From now on, everyone will be able to reach all kinds of information about Istanbul in a virtual environment. They can develop projects on Istanbul and reveal the city’s culture, cultural industry and tourism policies,’ said Istanbul Culture and Tourism Director Ahmet Emre Bilgili

A project named “Istanbul’s Cultural Heritage and Culture Economy Inventory,” which aims to gather Istanbul’s cultural values under the same roof and present the data for general use in a virtual environment, has been finished. The website www.istanbulkulturenvanteri.gov.tr began to operate Wednesday morning.

At a press conference held Tuesday at Richmond Hotel, Istanbul Culture and Tourism Director Ahmet Emre Bilgili said the project was implemented in collaboration with the Culture and Tourism Ministry, the Turkish Academy of Sciences, or TUBA, and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality with support from the French Institute of Anatolian Studies and the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency.

“From now on, everyone will be able to reach all kinds of information about Istanbul in a virtual environment. They can develop projects on Istanbul and reveal the city’s culture, cultural industry and tourism policies. This website was one of the biggest deficits of the city,” Bilgili said.

Bilgili said the application was a first in Turkey and very important in the world. “Within the scope of the project, it has been collaborated with 200 institutes and worked with the world’s best experts. This work will be a model for other Turkish cities. If every city takes its own inventory like we did, Turkey’s cultural heritage and industrial inventory will be revealed,” he said.

Bilgili said the inventory would be continuously developed and updated and the real owner of the project would be the Istanbul Governor’s Office and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. “The website’s language is only Turkish at the moment, but it will be translated into different languages. Also, 17 books have been prepared for the project and three of them have been published by the Istanbul Bilgi University.”

Dedicated to mankind and the Turkish nation

TUBA President Yücel Kanpolat highlighted the significance of the project, saying that it revealed what Istanbul has and what it doesn’t. He said the project was nonprofit and was dedicated to mankind and the Turkish nation, adding that they would ready to share the project with other countries.

The project’s coordinator Hakan Tanrıöver said the project was completed in 15 months by a 48-person team. “Istanbulkulturenvanteri.gov.tr has 150,000 webpages and 60,000 photos. The data is gathered under six main titles including ‘rural architecture,’ ‘archaeology,’ ‘public culture,’ ‘culture economy,’ ‘maps’ and ‘Istanbul bibliography.’

Tanrıöver said people could follow 200 years of change of the same place since 1776 and all maps were included in the website. “All of Istanbul’s cultural and traditional values have been documented. This is an extraordinary resource for Istanbul lovers and researchers. Also, the records of all books, doctorate and master theses on Istanbul are available on the website, which includes 27,690 structures.”

Sea walls documented for the first time

Tanrıöver said Istanbul’s sea walls were also documented in the inventory for the first time, and they informed the municipality’s relevant department about bad structures around the sea walls.

“The total budget of the project was 1.5 million Turkish liras. One million liras was provided by the Istanbul 2010 Agency and the rest by TUBA and the Culture and Tourism Ministry,” he said.

December 23, 2010
Artist proud of Turkish heritage

HUNTSVILLE, AL. – Turkish-inspired ceramic sculptures are not an ordinary find in Huntsville.

But Lowe Mill artist and Istanbul native Gökden Alpman-Matthews is not in the business of just selling her exquisite and meticulously detailed creations.

Her vision is to educate and share with people the rich history and culture of Turkey, a country that’s often misinterpreted.

“I want people to learn of Turkey’s culture,” said 39-year-old Matthews. “It’s not east and not west. It’s a bridge with a strong history where Jews, Christians and Muslims live together.

“The culture is mixed, and I want people to understand and understand other people.”

At 19, Alpman-Matthews enrolled at Anadolu University in Istanbul to be a ceramic artist. She completed her undergraduate studies in 1993 and completed her master’s degree thesis “Egyptian Paste and Samples in Our Time” in 1998.

Since the ’90s, the artist has done nothing but excel, including her upcoming New York exhibition Jan. 17, following her reception as the artist of the month this Friday at Lowe Mill.

Expect colorfully glazed figures showing caftans representative of the Ottoman and Byzantium empires along with various mixed-media artwork such as cathedral-style pieces that incorporate tin roof shingles from her husband’s childhood home in Scottsboro.

Also, pay attention to the smallest features of Alpman-Matthews’ artwork. In some pieces she uses a mosaic technique on clay, which she jokingly notes “it takes forever to do,” and the cintamani motif, a signature design element of the Ottoman court that can be found on textiles, rugs and ceramics, among others. The artist also uses Ottoman calligraphy to embellish some of her artwork, and the tulip can be seen on the majority of her work.

“The tulip is a very important Ottoman symbol,” said Alpman-Matthews. “The Netherlands are now famous for the tulip, but it’s originally native to Turkey.”

The artist reception is Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. on the third floor of Lowe Mill. It’s free and open to the public.

Check it out

Artist Reception for Godken Matthews

When: Friday, 6-8 p.m.

Where: Third floor of Lowe Mill, 2211 Seminole Drive

How much: Free

Information: Visit lowemill.net

via Artist proud of Turkish heritage | al.com.

December 20, 2010
“Black Sea Melodies from Trabzon and Thessaloniki to İstanbul” Kemençe Concert, Istanbul

Thirty year-old Adem Ekiz, from Trabzon’s Beşköylü neighborhood is currently one of the most popular kemençe players in Thessaloniki. Greek families invite him to their homes and parties and sing along with him during the Greek folk songs that Ekiz writes and composes himself.

Ekiz helped organize a unique event on Wednesday. He and his friend Lermi, who is also from Trabzon, along with Nikos Mihailidis, 34; Filipos Kesapidis, 38; and Mihalis Siopis, 25, who all grew up in the same neighborhood in Thessaloniki, came together to İstanbul to perform at a concert. It was called “Black Sea Melodies from Trabzon and Thessaloniki to İstanbul”. They played the kemençe.

Ekiz has been friends with Thessaloniki kemençe players for 10 years. Mihailidis’ family lives in Thessaloniki but his relatives lives in Bafra and Sivas. He has been playing the kemençe since he was a young boy. He came to Turkey for the first time in 1994. He met Greeks who live in different Turkish cities, played the kemençe for them, and listened to them play the kemençe. He studied political science in Athens and has been doing his doctorate in cultural anthropology at Princeton University since 2006. The topic of his dissertation is “Music and the Sense of Belonging.” He is researching how music unites people. He completed his field work in Trabzon in September. He speaks Turkish very well. He took classes at TÖMER while he completing his master’s degree in political science at Boğaziçi University in 2000. He can speak Turkish so well that he gives private Turkish lessons to students and businessmen in Greece.

Most people who are interested in the kemençe know Mihailidis very well. His album “Horon ke Trağodiya” was released in 2000. It is interesting to know that he was the first artist to release an album of Greek folk songs in Turkey. However, the album was not very popular. Mihailidis has released two solo albums in Greece and Canada. He released a Greek folk song album with Kesapidis in

via “Black Sea Melodies from Trabzon and Thessaloniki to İstanbul” Kemençe Concert, Istanbul | Greek Reporter Europe.

December 20, 2010