TÜROB Management Visited “İstanbul Modern”...

TÜROB President Müberra Eresin, accompanied by TÜROB Board Vice President Taner Yallagöz, Treasurer Levent Erdoğan, Secretary General İsmail Taşdemir,  and Board Members Temel Aygün, Nuri Kalyoncu and Ayhan Hacıbektaşoğlu, visited İstanbul Modern — Türkiye’s first modern and contemporary art museum, located at Galataport, the newest attraction center of Istanbul tourism — and received information from officials.

Making a brief assessment regarding İstanbul Modern, Eresin said: “First of all, on behalf of our tourism sector, I would like to extend my gratitude to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Eczacıbaşı Group, the Doğuş Group and Bilgili Holding for bringing such a magnificent work to Istanbul. Today we understand even better how meaningful the step was that the late Nejat Eczacıbaşı and Mrs. Oya Eczacıbaşı took in 2004 when, pursuing their dreams, they set out to bring a modern art museum to Istanbul. Since that day, in addition to being an instrument for sharing our country’s cultural and artistic heritage on a global scale and passing it on to the future, İstanbul Modern has brought together cultural and artistic works and products from all over the world with us. Having hosted more than 8.5 million visitors of all ages — from seven to seventy — to date, and reaching more than 850 thousand of our children and young people through the contemporary education programs it has implemented, it has further reinforced confidence in our future in this field. I regard İstanbul Modern’s new building as an important gift of the 100th year of our Republic, and I wish it to be beneficial to our country, and to the culture and art community in particular.”

İstanbul Modern, Türkiye’s first modern and contemporary art museum;

The new building of İstanbul Modern, established as Türkiye’s first modern and contemporary art museum, was designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW), founded by Renzo Piano, whose signature appears in the architecture of iconic culture and art institutions and museums around the world. The new building, which has the distinction of being Renzo Piano’s first project in Türkiye, was planned with the visitor at its center, with the aim of bringing a high-quality space to Istanbul and allowing for all kinds of culture, art and educational activities.

With a usable area of 10,500 square meters, the five-story museum building that hosts exhibitions and programs contains large exhibition halls, multi-purpose spaces, offices, and areas for educational and various cultural activities as well as other functions. Designed with inspiration from the waters of the Bosphorus shimmering with light reflections, the building — with its facade clad in three-dimensionally shaped aluminum panels — creates plays of light and shadow with the sunlight and reflections from the water changing at every hour of the day.

The promenade area in front of İstanbul Modern’s new building, which was formerly closed to the public, allows visitors to observe the Anatolian side, the Islands and the Historic Peninsula thanks to its unique location. The museum building, designed with inspiration from the shimmering waters and light reflections of the nearby Bosphorus, strengthens the relationship between the seashore and Tophane Park with its transparent ground-floor design, drawing on the qualities of this distinctive space.

The columns with circular cross-sections and the mechanical chimneys located on the ground floor create a kind of architectural landscape. The fact that all of these structural components have circular cross-sections softens the transitions between light and shadow. At the same time, the lack of sharp differences between light and dark areas helps create a bright and safe atmosphere.

The spaces designed on the ground floor for the cafe, shop, library, information points and education workshops surround the main lobby on this floor. The transparent glass enclosure beneath the building’s main mass provides sheltered volumes both for the areas where sculptures will be exhibited outdoors and for the education workshops where children’s workshops will be organized.

The main staircase, located in the large opening at the center of the lobby, connects the museum’s public spaces. The staircase provides access from the entrance-floor lobby to the 156-seat auditorium located on the mezzanine on the lower floor. The photography gallery, the temporary exhibition hall, the staff offices, and the education and event rooms are located on the first floor. The restaurant on the south facade opens onto a sea view with its terrace.

The foyer areas on the upper floors offer visitors both park and sea views together. The window openings, which enable the building to maintain constant visual interaction with its surroundings, make it easier for visitors to understand their position inside as they move through the structure.

The glass volume reached by the staircase rising from the foyer area on the second floor, which houses the collection and temporary exhibition halls, opens onto the observation terrace. This area, set on a shallow layer of water that completely covers the top of the building, offers an experience in which the city’s reflection on the water merges with the sea right next to the building, bringing them together.

İstanbul Modern’s new building was constructed with the joint contribution of the museum’s founding sponsor, the Eczacıbaşı Group, and its main sponsor, Doğuş Group-Bilgili Holding.

Its transparent ground floor

The ground floor, designed to be free of charge in order to create more space for the visitor, contains a library, information points, education workshops, a cafe and a shop. 

With its transparent design, the ground floor enables visitors to establish a strong connection between Tophane Park and the coastline. The transparent glass enclosure beneath the building’s main mass, meanwhile, offers sheltered sections for children’s workshops as well as the event areas where sculptures will be exhibited outdoors. The transparency on the ground floor continues in the foyer areas on the upper floors as well, allowing visitors to remain in constant visual interaction with the building’s surroundings. On the first floor of the building are a photography gallery, a temporary exhibition hall, and education and event rooms. On the same floor, just as in İstanbul Modern’s Antrepo building, the restaurant is positioned with its terrace overlooking the Bosphorus and the Historic Peninsula. The museum’s collection and temporary exhibition halls, meanwhile, are located on the second floor. 

A unique observation terrace

Located in a special position where the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn meet, İstanbul Modern offers a unique viewing experience by merging the sea with the city’s reflection on the water, thanks to the reflecting pool that completely covers the building’s roof and the platform placed upon it.

Works created specially for the new museum building

Olafur Eliasson, whom İstanbul Modern specially invited for its new museum building, produced a site-specific installation. Consisting of three parts, the work titled “Your unexpected journey” spreads across different floors in the stairwell at the center of the building, offering viewers a dynamic museum experience. 

Refik Anadol’s site-specific installation titled “Infinity Room: The Bosphorus” focuses on data and themes related to the instantaneous meteorological transformation in the Bosphorus. The work processes real-time data using digital technologies in a 360° mirrored room, creating moving images.

Examples from the art of sculpture 

The outdoor event area of the new museum building hosts important examples of the art of sculpture. In addition to Adrián Villar Rojas’s work titled “The Most Beautiful of All Mothers (I),” which was included in İstanbul Modern’s collection after being exhibited on Büyükada within the scope of the 14th Istanbul Biennial, the works of Richard Deacon titled “House Model,” Anselm Reyle’s “Above the Underworld” and “As the Dust Settles,” Yılmaz Zenger’s “In My Opinion, Ayça” and Selma Gürbüz’s “The Europeans” are presented to viewers. While Anthony Cragg’s work titled “Runner” is located on İstanbul Modern’s entrance platform, Richard Wentworth’s installation titled “False Ceiling” once again comes together with visitors in the ground-floor lobby, following the Antrepo building.

Five exhibitions meet with viewers

The transparent and accessible design of the new museum building, which offers visitors a multifaceted experience space, also aligns with the content of İstanbul Modern’s exhibitions and programs, which are inspired by today’s artistic diversity.

İstanbul Modern’s new museum building opens to visitors with five new exhibitions:

Floating Islands

The exhibition titled “Floating Islands,” offering a comprehensive selection from İstanbul Modern’s collection, contains works most of which will be exhibited for the first time. More than 280 works by 110 artists and 2 artist duos from Türkiye and around the world meet with viewers in the collection and temporary exhibition halls as well as in different spaces of the new museum building. The title “Floating Islands” both underscores the artists’ relationship with the place they belong to and emphasizes their influence beyond borders and geographies through their thoughts and productions.  

Nuri Bilge Ceylan: Somewhere Else

İstanbul Modern Photography Gallery makes its opening with the photography exhibition titled “Somewhere Else” by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, one of the most original directors of contemporary cinema. The exhibition, consisting of 22 large portraits the artist photographed in different geographies of the world such as India, Georgia, China, Morocco and Russia in addition to Türkiye, is sponsored by Burgan Bank.

We Have Always Been Here

The works included in the museum collection through the İstanbul Modern Women Artists Fund, which was established in 2016 to support the production of women artists and make their work more visible, are brought together for the first time in the exhibition titled “We Have Always Been Here.” The exhibition, sponsored by Bank of America, offers a narrative built around themes such as body politics, memory and historiography explored by women artists from different generations who hold an important place in the history of art in Türkiye.

Renzo Piano: The Spirit of the Place

The “Renzo Piano: The Spirit of the Place” exhibition is located at the entrance of the library on the museum’s freely accessible ground floor. In the exhibition, held under the sponsorship of VitrA, the story of İstanbul Modern’s new museum building designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW), founded by Renzo Piano, is presented together with the architecture of RPBW’s other prominent culture and art structures.

The Construction of Architecture

The selection titled “The Construction of Architecture” by Cemal Emden, who photographed the museum’s construction process, documents a historic transformation. The exhibition, held with the sponsorship of Yapı Merkezi, which also undertook the museum’s construction, features Cemal Emden’s photographs depicting the construction process of İstanbul Modern’s new museum building designed by Renzo Piano.

For more information, please click: https://www.istanbulmodern.org/