Turkish Forum

Tag: exhibition

  • The Civilizations of Turkey: Emperors in Istanbul

    The Civilizations of Turkey: Emperors in Istanbul

    Turkey, standing at the crossroads of Eastern and Western civilisations, is the focus for a special exhibition held at the National Museum of Korea, Seoul. Titled ‘The Civilizations of Turkey: Emperors in Istanbul‘ – the exhibition explores the various legacies of the Hittites, Greek and Roman empires, the Byzantine and Ottoman empires.

    Visitors to this exhibition will be delighted to see 184 artefacts, shown for the first time in Korea. The lenders for this exhibition includes important Turkish institutions like the Topkapi Palace Museum, the Museum of ANatolian Civilizations, the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, and the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts.

    The exhibition is divided into four sections below:

    Hittites and Ancient Civilizations,

    Alexandros and the Hellenistic World,

    Constantinus I and Eastern Roman Empire,

    Sultan, the Ottoman Emperor

    Thus providing the visitors opportunities to experience the rich and splendid diversity of culture and civilizations found in Turkey.

    via The Civilizations of Turkey: Emperors in Istanbul.

  • EAST TO WEST: TURKISH EXHIBITIONS

    EAST TO WEST: TURKISH EXHIBITIONS

    Istanbul, for so long tagged with the cliché of being the physical and political bridge between Europe and Asia, is now using its location as a major geographical centre for the exhibition industry. Domenic Donatantonio reports.

    7949Instanbul resizeTurkey is in the midst of an economic boom, standing in stark contrast to most of its European and Middle Eastern neighbours. In a recent address, president Abdullah Gül said the economy had 8.2 per cent GDP growth in 2010 due to strong exports.

    The annual UFI Global CEO Forum at the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul on 1-3 February this year, while last year saw the arrival of a new event, Expo Summit Turkey, organised by Manch Communications.

    Istanbul is Turkey’s largest city, ahead of the nation’s capital Ankara, and has nearly a fifth of the country’s population with 13 million inhabitants.

    According to UFI board member and GM at organiser HKF Trade Fairs, Bekir Çakici, around half of all Turkish exhibitions are held there.

    “Even if a sector doesn’t exist in Istanbul, like cattle breeding, still people prefer that the cattle breeding fair is organised in Istanbul,” he said.

    “Or, for example a lot of the food processing companies are outside of Istanbul, but fairs about food and food processing technologies are organised in Istanbul.”

    Tarsus, a UK-based organiser, has already made a splash in the Turkish exhibition arena in recent years. Last May, the firm agreed a deal to buy a 75 per cent stake in Istanbul-based IFO, one of the largest independent exhibition businesses in the country. The US$15.6m cash deal is part of Tarsus’ expansion strategy to generate 50 per cent of total revenues from emerging markets by 2013.

    Group MD Doug Emslie said economic conditions have improved hugely in the country in recent years. “Back when we first looked at the Turkish market in 1998, inflation was 80 per cent,” he said. “In 2002 they passed key economic reforms that helped make the economy a lot more stable. As a result, inflation is now only six per cent. The infrastructure has improved hugely, in terms of airports, roads and hotels.”

    ITE Turkey spokeswoman Burcu Yilgor says Istanbul offers a route into one of the fastest growing economies in the world. “Istanbul is the heart of Turkey’s trade.”

    “Its widespread economic reforms, increase in foreign direct investment, ongoing changeover to privatisation and growing infrastructure has created a rich environment for business opportunity.” She names agriculture, textiles, automotive, construction and tourism as the main sectors for exhibitions in Istanbul.

    To tap into the construction market, CNR Expo has teamed up with the Association of Turkish Building Materials Producers and had discussions with the European and International Federation of Natural Stone Industries for the upcoming Megabuild exhibition in September.

    “The Turkish building materials industry is in the global top five with a $70bn production volume and 11.5 per cent growth rate,” said CNR Expo’s executive vice president Ali Bulut.

    “The industry’s exports reached $19bn in 2010 but lacked an international exhibition to serve their needs.”

    European influx

    Hannover-Messe International Istanbul is the Turkish offshoot of the German organiser and venue and is now one of the largest international organisers in Istanbul. General manager Alexander Kühnel says there is now an influx of European exhibitors.

    “The exhibition organisers are targeting more international visitors, especially from the Middle East and Africa.”

    A youthful city

    Kühnel believes one of the striking features of Turkey is its young population. “This booming economy boasts a broad industrial and services base and produces consistently high growth rates,” he said.

    And it’s still affordable. Emslie says floor space in Istanbul is around 40 per cent of, for example, UK prices at €100 (US$134) per square metre. But due to the demand in the city, prices are creeping up to €150 in Istanbul.

    “Istanbul is just three and a half hours away from western Europe by air,” said Emslie. “It has a more commercial attitude and greater stability. I would urge EW readers to head there. It’s an exciting, cultural and very young city.”

    It appears our readers are already taking note.

    —————————————————————————————————————————-

    ➤ CURRENCY

    Turkish lira: TL100 = $53.2

    US$100 = TL188

    ➤ POLITICS

    Abdullah Gül is president, while Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is prime minister. Interestingly Erdoğan served as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998.

    ➤ FOUR-STAR HOTEL RATES

    TL100-TL240

    ➤ AIRPORT TAXI TO THE CITY

    Around TL30

    ➤ AVERAGE PRICE OF A BURGER

    Big Mac Meal TL10.50

    ➤ DID YOU KNOW?

    1. Istanbul is a cosmopolitan city built on two continents, Europe and Asia.

    The most recent population census shows that it has a population of about 12 million people, of which almost 65 per cent are inhabitants on the Asian side.

    2. Agatha Christie’s 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express was written in the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey.

    Any comments? Email [email protected]

    via.

  • Warhol’s beauties and celebrities come to life in Istanbul

    Warhol’s beauties and celebrities come to life in Istanbul

    HATİCE UTKAN

    ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

    The show centers on the famous artist’s films and polaroids, which are coming to Turkey’s largest city for the first time
    The show centers on the famous artist’s films and polaroids, which are coming to Turkey’s largest city for the first time

    Displaying works that captured the beauty of the glamorous in the everyday, Istanbul’s Galerist is hosting a much-anticipated exhibition of iconic 20th-century artist Andy Warhol throughout June.

    The show centers on the famous artist’s films and polaroids, which are coming to Turkey’s largest city for the first time

    “The films and film portraits were very important for Warhol’s career,” Geralyn Huxley, curator of film and video at New York’s Andy Warhol Museum, as well as the curator of the Istanbul show, told the Hürriyet Daily News last week. “He spent five years totally concentrated on filming people. It was during the 1960s, when he first started the change over from commercial art to fine art.”

    “I only wanted to find great people and let them be themselves and talk about what they usually talk about,” Warhol once said. Duly, the artist filmed famous people, aiming to show them as beautifully as they were in their daily lives while doing everyday activities.

    In fact, the “real,” inner meaning behind the legendary Warhol works, such as of Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe, unravels itself. The videos, which reveal the hidden aspect of Warhol, also show the viewers how the artist’s interest in celebrities rose over time. Warhol transformed celebrities and created unique works with his film portraits.

    “As a child, around the age of 8, Andy started to collect photographs of movie stars,” said Eric C. Shiner, acting director of the Andy Warhol Museum, told the Daily News.

    “He sent letters to Hollywood studios and contacted Shirley Temple. Temple sent her photograph to Andy Warhol,” he said.

    Warhol had a book of movie stars and celebrities, whom he adored; as a result, he fed his hunger for celebrities by painting and filming them.

    Musician Lou Reed, writer Susan Sontag, socialite Edie Sedgwick, poet Allen Ginsberg, artist Dennis Hopper and others are featured in the films.

    Warhol’s iconic works, such as Soup Cans, Elvis, and Marilyn started to gain fame as Warhol began working on his film projects. The films show a different aspect of Warhol’s art, according to Huxley.

    Whereas the people and his paintings were iconic and glamorous, the people in his films were natural. Beauty had a deeper meaning for Warhol; while he valued beauty, his understanding was different than the beauty of the stars he filmed. He liked them to talk and to do everyday activities.

    “Talkers are doing something. Beauties are being something. Which isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just that I don’t know what it is they’re being,” Warhol said in the book “The Philosophy of Warhol.”

    “I really don’t care that much about ‘Beauties.’ What I really like are Talkers. To me, good talkers are beautiful because good talk is what I love,” he said.

    In such a way, Warhol was able to rediscover the stars’ real beauty – the beauty that viewers had become acquainted with before.

    Noting that his videos not only showed beautiful celebrities, Huxley said: “People were still beautiful in Warhol’s videos but you could see them doing everyday activities like eating at a restaurant, cutting their hair, or talking. The films showed another aspect of Andy Warhol’s interests.”

    It is possible to see Edie Sedgwick, Mario Montez and Gerard Malang in Warhol’s movies as they act normally, talk, smoke and hang out.

    Galerist’s branches in Galatasaray and Pera are featuring such Warhol films as “Lupe,” starring Sedgwick and made in 1965; “Empire,” a 16-millimeter film from 1964; “Blow Jo,” another 16-millimeter film from 1964; “Camp” from 1965; “Horse,” also from 1965, and “Mario Banana No.1” from 1964.

    The exhibition will continue until July 9. k HDN

    via Warhol’s beauties and celebrities come to life in Istanbul – Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review.

  • Mexican paintings coming to Istanbul’s Pera Museum

    Mexican paintings coming to Istanbul’s Pera Museum

    ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

    The exhibition will include 40 works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

    The Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum will exhibit selected works of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, two of Mexico’s greatest artistic exports over the 20th century, for a show starting Dec. 23.

    The event is the first time the paintings of Kahlo and Rivera will be displayed in Turkey.

    The 40 pieces from the collection of Jacques and Natasha Gelman, which are officially recognized as part of Mexico’s cultural heritage, are rarely exhibited outside the country. The exhibition, curated by Professor Helga Prignitz-Poda, will run until March 20, 2011.

    Married to Rivera, Kahlo’s work is remembered for its “pain and passion,” and its intense, vibrant colors. Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form. Mexican culture and Amerindian cultural tradition figure prominently in her work, which has sometimes been characterized as naive art or folk art. Her work has also been described as “surrealist.”

    Rivera’s large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican mural renaissance. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals among others in Mexico City, Chapingo, Cuernavaca, San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City. In 1931, a retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

  • İsmail Acar Exhibition to open at Istanbul’s Çırağan Palace

    İsmail Acar Exhibition to open at Istanbul’s Çırağan Palace

    ISTANBUL-Hürriyet Daily News

    The works of one of the most famous living representatives of Turk painting, İsmail Acar, will be on display at the Çırağan Palace Kempinski Art Gallery starting Dec. 1.

    In almost all of his works, Acar employs the symbols that call to mind the era of the Ottomans. This time, he is presenting art lovers with brand-new work in his exhibition, entitled “Three Istanbuls.”

    The artist has created a broad spectrum of beautiful pieces that stretch from the Islamic arts to the portraits of the sultans and from the gods of Anatolia to the palaces of the Ottomans. He hasn’t stopped at making his fame heard abroad and has played an important role in the promotion of Turkish culture.

    Acar’s works have been exhibited in many museums from France to Japan and are to be found in various collections. He has had two previous shows at the Çırağan Palace – “Eclectic” and “Icons of the East.”

    “Three Istanbuls” stands for East Rome, the Ottoman era, the Republic and contains messages for the future for 2023, the centenary of modern Turkey’s founding.

    “Cities are like living organisms, the concepts that give them existence are their past,” Acar said.

    The exhibition, which contains 50 works, can be seen 24 hours a day on the entrance floor of the palace until Jan. 4.

    This year, the guest speakers that will attend the Çırağan discussions, which are organized at every exhibition, will feature Abdullah Uçman and Sema Uğurcan on Dec. 7.

    The event begins at 7 p.m. and will focus on Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, an artist closely linked with Istanbul.

    For information: 0 212 327 00 12

  • İstanbul as seen by Turkish, French photojournalists

    İstanbul as seen by Turkish, French photojournalists

    Today the French Cultural Center in İstanbul’s Taksim Square starts hosting a photo exhibition by İstanbul-based photojournalists from the Anatolia news agency and Agence France-Presse (AFP).

    “Fotomuhabirlerin Gözüyle İstanbul” (İstanbul As Seen by Photojournalists), put together on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Anatolia news agency, is a collection that looks at the İstanbul of the 2000s from many different viewpoints — from arts to sports events and from social life to politics. The collection will remain on display until Jan. 15, 2011.