Day 14 - Exploring the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art

 

For the last full day of our travels in Türkiye, the class and I ended up going to visit the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art. In order to first reach our destination, we made use of the public transportation available in Istanbul and rode a funicular. For those unaware, a funicular is a railway transport that relies on a cable, sort of like a cable car. The difference between a funicular and a cable car is that for a funicular, it travels diagonally up and down, on a slope. Due to how we started at the top of a hill, we used the funicular to go down, meaning we were able to lean backwards in the car and not fall.

(Image from the inside of a funicular car, as you can see the car is slanted going downwards compared to the outside).

To get to the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, the class traveled through an area called Galata port, which is right beside the Bosporus strait. Galata Port actually resembled more of an upscale shopping center than a port, but my class was surprised to learn that cruise ships actually dock there sometimes. The shopping center ends up being closed for a time while the cruise ships dock and let passengers disembark. After going through the shopping area, the class arrived at the Museum.

(Image of the Bosporus Strait from Galata Port. As one can see, we were right next to the sea).

From our tour guide, we learned how the Museum had been under reconstruction and had just reopened six to seven months ago. The Museum itself is owned by a family renowned in Türkiye for making pharmaceuticals. A focus our professors wanted us to keep in mind before exploring the Museum was that one of the intentions of modern art is that it gets away from art that’s focused on photo realism. That one of the aims of modern art is to make one think and make one feel. A key fact about the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art is that it takes a global focus, meaning that it houses temporary exhibitions from around the world while still featuring local art. Our professors explained that while our class isn’t an art history class, this visit was still important because it allowed us to think on a deeper level.

(Picture capturing the entirety of the building the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art is located in, with security cameras in view).

(In front of the Museum's sign with my ticket).

One of the main temporary exhibitions being shown at the museum was “Between Worlds” by Chiharu Shiota. The exhibition was created to signify the 100^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Türkiye and Japan. The exhibition features a mass of red threads wrapped around the entire exhibition space, resembling something like a man-made spider web. Also located within the exhibition are unaccompanied suitcases, placed on the floor. The intention behind the inclusion of these suitcases was for the viewer to feel “the presence in the absence.” The suitcases are used as “conveyors of symbols, carrying emotions and memories.” They’re intended to create a bridge between the past and the future. This exhibition focuses on making the viewer question themselves on personal themes of the artwork like identity, home, and belonging.

(Image of Shiota's "Between Worlds" exhibition with the suitcases on the ground).

Shiota created another work for the exhibition titled “Endless Line,” which is a canvas work featuring red threads strung about in patterns that form geometric surfaces. Instead of having the red threads overlap each other in a straight line, Shiota intertwines, twists, and entangled them. This allowed for “Endless Line” to contain complex structures that bare resemblance to the “Between Worlds” Exhibition located in the next room over.

(Picture of Shiota's "Endless Line").

Besides Shiota’s work, another work that captured the interest of my classmates was Olafur Eliasson’s “Room for one colour.” What made this artwork special was that it was an installation of monochromatic lamps in one room. What these lamps essentially did was emit light that caused anyone in the room to just see colors of yellow, gray, and black. The intention behind this artwork is that it wants to highlight the ways that people perceive color and details on space. The artwork also holds the meaning of commentating that almost all art exhibitions have white as the primary color, and Eliasson is suggesting that yellow could be used by art exhibitions as an alternative color instead.

(Picture of what it looks inside Olafur Eliasson's "Room for one colour," you can see the monochromatic lamps in the room).

(The two images show how the monochromatic lamps affect our perceiving of light. In the first image, we can see the plaques detailing the artwork in normal color. Yet in the second image, plaques are shown as yellow and gray because the camera is in Eliasson's room and is affected by the monochromatic lamps).

Another major exhibition present in the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art was Izzet Keribar’s “Journey of Colors.” “Journey of Colors” is an exhibition of Keribar’s photography taken from the 1950’s until today. The exhibition was divided into six sections that focused on different time periods of Keribar’s photography. The first section is about photography in the 1950’s, which showed Keribar capturing street life in Istanbul and urban and rural areas during his military service in South Korea. The second section captures moments of everyday life occurring in the neighborhoods of Istanbul in the 1980’s. Both the third and fourth sections showcase urban and nature landscapes that put focus on light and color. The fifth section includes portraits photographed by Keribar across the world while the sixth section shows Keribar’s use of photography to create semi-abstract images.

(Keribar's photograph being used to create a semi-abstract image).

(Keribar's photograph once again using shapes to create a semi-abstract feel).

(Photograph by Keribar showing children playing hide and seek in Istanbul)

Overall, the experience of visiting the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art was very welcome as it provided a break from all of the hustle and adventure that the class had been going through in the days prior. The museum provided a moment of rest and gave the class an opportunity to immerse itself in art and culture through different mediums. I can proudly say that it was a fruitful experience to enjoy.

(Picture taken from the top of the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, thank you for reading this post).