Çubuklu Silos l Digital Art Museum, photo: İBB Library

Blending past and present: Çubuklu Silos' Digital Art Museum

Preserving heritage through contemporary repurposing and creating relevance against neglect

13 FEBRUARY 2025, 

IDIL BURKUTOGLU

Contemporary interventions to historical sites offer a vibrant approach to preserving and enhancing cultural heritage. These initiatives blend modern design and technology with historic architecture to create spaces that are both practical and respectful of their historical roots. Incorporating elements like new materials, creative lighting, and interactive features revitalizes landmarks that might otherwise be overlooked, making them more engaging and relevant today. When executed with care, these updates connect the past with the present, providing new perspectives on historical sites and deepening our appreciation of cultural heritage.

 

Onur Mansız's solo exhibition "era" in Art On Istanbul, 2023, photo credit: Kayhan Kaygusuz

Onur Mansız’s exploration of identity and existence

A conversation with the Turkish artist about his hyperrealistic works and their role in questioning existence and subjectivity

13 JANUARY 2025, 

IDIL BURKUTOGLU

Onur Mansız is a Turkish artist who situates the human body at the core of his artistic inquiry, using it as a lens through which to explore themes of identity, existence, and subjectivity. His hyperrealistic oil paintings present the body in an ambiguous state—neither fully clothed nor entirely naked—through the superimposition of imagery that transforms the physical form into a site for the exploration of deeper philosophical and existential questions. The deliberate isolation of these figures against monochromatic backgrounds serves to detach them from specific contexts, thereby emphasizing their role in confronting universal issues of self-realization and identity. Through this conversation, we seek to gain insight into his creative process and the intellectual and existential dimensions that underpin his art.

 

Interior, Basilica Cistern, Istanbul, Turkey

Basilica Cistern Museum: reviving Istanbul's ancient marvel

Advanced lighting design and renovation transforms the Basilica Cistern’s ambiance and highlights its architectural heritage

13 DECEMBER 2024, 

IDIL BURKUTOGLU

The Basilica Cistern Museum is a significant cultural landmark in Istanbul, built by Emperor Justinian I in the 6th century. It is the largest enclosed cistern in the city, covering 10,000 square meters and capable of holding 80,000 tons of water. Historically, the cistern supplied water to the Great Palace and nearby structures. It features 336 columns, most of which are marble, and was originally waterproofed with thick Khorasan mortar. After the Ottoman conquest in 1453, it served various purposes, including supplying water to the Topkapı Palace and later becoming a part of the local community. Rediscovered in the mid-16th century by French naturalist Petrus Gyllius, the cistern has been the subject of significant restorations, including the uncovering of Medusa head columns during a major renovation in the 1980s. These columns are notable examples of Roman sculpture and are linked to Greek mythology.

Luci Gutiérrez / The New Yorker

Luci Gutiérrez 

(Barcelona, 1977)

THE NEW YORKER

The Kings and Queens of Notting Dale by Roy Williams

 

John Constable, Fire in London, Seen from Hampstead, ca. 1826. Courtesy Yale Center for British Art

DRAMA

The Kings and Queens of Notting Dale

An excerpt and introduction

By Roy Williams

AFTER A FIRE BROKE OUT at Grenfell Tower, West London, in the early morning hours of June 14, 2017, killing seventy-two people, the playwright Roy Williams knew he would write about the tragedy. In the following journal entry, he contemplates the lives lost and notices again the power of community in the neighborhood where the fire burned: North Kensington, a part of London that has grappled with racial injustice, senseless violence, and displacement through the decades. This entry is reflective, too, of themes in Williams’s forthcoming play, The Kings and Queens of Notting Dale, a multigenerational drama that follows a number of working-class families from the 1950s through the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire. His journal entry and an excerpt of the play are printed here for the first time.

—THE EDITORS

Process by Katherine Dunn

Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts, The Reverse of a Framed Painting, 1670. Public Domain

FICTION

Process

by Katherine Dunn

THE MUSTY SILENCE of his childhood bred in Joseph Jaikins a susceptibility to the propaganda of solitude. He had been orphaned horribly and early and reared by a decent elderly aunt. His restlessness was quiet, and his school years resigned him to frustration. At the age of eighteen, he was courteous but shy, and dutiful without ambition.

Man Overboard by Jean McGarry

 

FICTION

Man Overboard

Jean McGarry

THERE CAME A DAY WHEN, DAMN IT, he just couldn’t take any more. He’d offered the pearl-skinned girl a home, a little gal of her own, and upkeep. She’d quit her job, got as fat as she could, and outsmarted him in every way. Entering his own clean and decorated house, he felt skinned and gnawed, burnt by judgment, hobbled in his wants, urges, and habits by the scorn, digs, cracks, jabs, and smack-downs.

I Can See Your House from Here by Jerry McGarry

Cat Catching a Bird by Pablo Picasso, 1939.

FICTION

I Can See Your House from Here

by Jean McGarry

DELIA LIVED ON THE SECOND FLOOR of Eldorado Street. She’d had it all to herself since the day Charlie tripped on the cat and bled to death, his nose broken, face-down on the pantry floor, where she found him on Ash Wednesday. There was still a stain on the linoleum, a grid of black and white squares. The stain was now brown, but had started as almost a pink foam. She’d lifted his head, but refused to look at the sopping wet and foaming eyes, nose, and mouth. “Poor old Chas,” she said, dropping the head and calling the police. An ambulance followed the patrol car, and Charlie Abernathy was carted away in his bathrobe and slippers. He was in the process of fixing himself a short one before breakfast and Delia’s return from the 8 o’clock mass.

Save the Pedestals by Ivan Vladislavić

Adapted from Léon Laroche, Three plinths with drapes, ca. 1885–95. Courtesy Rijksmuseum.

FICTION

Save the Pedestals

Ivan Vladislavić

SHE DREAMS: THE EMPTY PEDESTAL is made of glass and resting in it like bones in a reliquary are the names of the statue’s children.

Comrade A had the habit of rapping on the toes of his boots with his cane as he walked. They were safety boots of a kind you can’t buy any more, with heat-resistant soles and steel toecaps from which the rubber tip of the cane rebounded. This drumbeat irritated Ma Z, but she had known Comrade A long enough to hold her tongue. He was touchy about the boots, which he’d been wearing since his days as a shop steward in the Metalworkers’ Union. He didn’t care that they were down at the heel and looked odd with a suit, and he would give anyone who dared to comment a lecture on the hazards of the shop floor. These boots had saved his feet more than once when a metal bar slipped off the rollers in the factory. You could still see the dents. He was touchy about the walking stick too, although he had come by that more recently.

 

Spazio HASITA gallery, incubator, nest in Milano dedicated to art, design, innovation, ideas, Milan, Italy, photo by İdil Burkutoğlu

A conversation with Haluk Terzioğlu

Exploring the fusion of tradition and innovation in Milan's cultural landscape and beyond

13 OCTOBER 2024, 

IDIL BURKUTOGLU

I had the opportunity to meet with Haluk Terzioğlu, one of the founders of Spazio Hasita alongside Simone Innocenti, which is situated in Milan's NOLO district. The gallery, which combines modernism and tradition, is an example of the city's cultural development, which has been established since June 2023. Since then, Spazio Hasita has hosted artists such as Chiara Colombo, Sefa Çatuk, Francesco Damiani, Angelo Marcuccio, Alan Maglio, and Alessandro Pongan. Set in a meticulously renovated location, its direction mixes contemporary innovative thinking with Milan's artistic, creative, industrial, and cultural legacy. After discussing his unique approach to gallery administration and vision, Haluk Terzioğlu was open to sharing his story and what lies ahead for Spazio Hasita.

Müze Gazhane / Hasanpaşa Gashouse transformation

Gazhane Meydan, Müze Gazhane, Istanbul, Turkey

Müze Gazhane: Hasanpaşa Gashouse transformation

Transforming Istanbul’s Ottoman industrial heritage into a contemporary cultural hub for all ages

13 NOVEMBER 2024, 

IDIL BURKUTOGLU

In the 1850s, gas consumption started to become a part of Istanbul’s daily life. Kadıköy Hasanpaşa Gashouse was the second plant built on the Anatolian side in 1891 and the last in Istanbul. The gas obtained from this plant was used for street and indoor lighting for the Anatolian part of Istanbul. It started operation in 1892 and operated regularly until World War 1. In the 1920s, with the arrival of electricity, coal gas began to lose importance. Between 1938 and 1944, Kadıköy Hasanpaşa Gashouse operated autonomously and later handed to IETT (Istanbul Electric Tramway and Tunnel Establishments) in 1945. 

The monumental cemetery of Milan / A graveyard museum

The Monumental Cemetery of Milan, situated in the Garibaldi district of Italy, is a renowned cultural heritage site in Europe

The monumental cemetery of Milan: a graveyard museum

An open-air museum standing in between life and death, art and architecture

13 SEPTEMBER 2024, 

IDIL BURKUTOGLU

The Monumental Cemetery of Milan (Cimitero Monumentale di Milano), located in the Garibaldi district of Milan, Italy, is one of the most important cultural heritage sites in Europe. Filled with rich architectural monuments and sculptures, the cemetery is the resting and remembering place of many famous people in Italian history, such as; Bruno Munari, Salvatore Quasimodo, Alessandro Manzoni, Carlo Cattaneo, Luca Beltrami, etc. The cemetery was designed by Carlo Maciachini (1818–1899), who won the design competition held by the municipality of Milan in 1863. Even though it was not completed until 1887, the burials began in 1866, and the cemetery continued extending to 250,000 m2.

Refik Anadol: internationally acclaimed media artist and pioneer in machine intelligence aesthetics (born 1985, Istanbul, Turkey)

Refik Anadol’s AI: contemporary art & architecture

“Living Paintings: Nature” at Kunsthal Rotterdam: art engagement with presentation of information

13 JUNE 2024, 

IDIL BURKUTOGLU

Refik Anadol was among the first artists to reach a large audience through artistic expression using artificial intelligence. He is a Turkish-American media artist and researcher focused on humans living in the digital age. His LA-based studio has been active for almost a decade and explores machine intelligence and the communication of data. His approach is to analyze surroundings as raw data and process them through custom-designed algorithms to create mesmerizing visuals and AI data sculptures of already-present elements that exist.

Unveiling Goya's rebellion

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, known as Goya (1746–1828), is one of the most important Spanish artists

Unveiling Goya's rebellion

Examining the impact of sociopolitical events on Goya's development through exhibition design

13 JULY 2024, 

IDIL BURKUTOGLu

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, known as Goya (1746–1828), is one of the most important Spanish artists who influenced many others that came after him in the 18th and 19th centuries. He lived in a period of great change, such as the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and Napoleon’s invasions of Spain. Being greatly influenced by the Enlightenment, he developed an expressive language on his own by rejecting the acceptable aesthetics of his time and limitations such as being under patronage. His “free” and extensive artistic production captured aspects of everyday life, the effects of war, and Spain’s political, social, and economic issues. Throughout his artistic development, Goya’s early inclination was in-between rococo and classicism while being influenced by Italian masters. After maturing, his works transformed in such a way that Goya is considered the predecessor of the Romantic movement.

 

Giovanni Bellini, Pesaro Altarpiece

Bellini's lamentation: a multi-layered art experience

Exploring the impact and relevance of Bellini's masterpiece through innovative exhibition design

13 AUGUST 2024, 

IDIL BURKUTOGLU

Giovanni Bellini (1438–1516) was a renowned 15th-century Venetian painter and was recognized for his harmonious use of color. His paintings featured diverse Renaissance and late Gothic styles. The masterpiece Lamentation over the Dead Christ(1475) is one of the finest works of Italian art, and it demonstrated Bellini's maturity. The work portrays the anointing of Christ’s body before his entombment. The four figures—Christ, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and the Magdalene—are depicted.

One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi by Jonas Hassen Khemir

Tatsuo Miyajima, installation view of Art in You, 2022. Courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery, London

One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi

By Jonas Hassen Khemiri

THERE HE STANDS NOW, and it’s either him or his brother. It’s him. It has to be him. You can tell by the clothes, the posture, the glances he casts at the station clock. His brother would never try to disguise his height by shifting his weight onto one leg and pushing the other slightly out in front. His brother would never feel this anxious just because someone was a little late. That’s something only he would do, he who is not his brother, he who stands there on the platform and has just calculated that fifteen minutes is nine hundred seconds and nine hundred seconds is nothing.

New Year’s Story by Sigrid Nunez

Photo by Frank and Helena 

New Year’s Story

by Sigrid Nunez

ON THE MORNING of the first day of the year, Nell is looking over her bookshelves while listening to a podcast. She’d made a single New Year’s resolution: to declutter her small apartment, starting with getting rid of some of her books. On the podcast, a journalist is explaining why January first is such a common birthday in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nell’s eye lands on the spine of a thin paperback by a French writer, Édouard Levé. She pulls it from the shelf and reads the back cover: “Édouard Levé was born on January 1, 1965.”