A photographic journey to Turkey

It was a provocative idea for Istanbul-based curator Özge Ersoy to pose to a group of young photographers. “We’re not saying people should stop producing images,” she explained, “but that how and why they produce images should be questioned.”

Encountering new ideas and challenging their own preconceptions was exactly what had brought the six image-makers to Turkey as part of the latest Jameel Journey. This series of collaborative initiatives aims to broaden the horizons of young artists from the Gulf region through work and travel in other countries…

In May, I joined these six young artists as they met with Ersoy and her colleague Bikem Ekberzade at Istanbul gallery Collectorspace, an early stop on their 11-day journey exploring issues of migration and identity through photography. I also interviewed Imogen Ware, managing director of the U.K.-based charity Crossway Foundation, which organised the trip in partnership with Art Jameel.

My piece on this innovative artistic exchange appears in the July/August issue of Selections, a Beirut-based magazine focused on art, culture, design, and style. Read the rest of my article, "Migration and Identity in Focus," on Selections' website.

New exhibit seeks to start filling some of Anatolian history's 'Empty Fields'

More than a century ago, botanist John Manissadjian roamed the countryside of what is now northern Turkey, collecting — and sometimes identifying for the first time — thousands of species of flowers and other plants, as well as butterflies and moths. These finds formed the core of the natural science museum he established at Anatolia College, a school for Greek and Armenian students in the Ottoman Empire.

“Manissadjian’s labour of love was such a sophisticated collection, started in the last decade of the 19th century,” says Vasıf Kortun, director of research and programmes at Istanbul-based cultural institution SALT.

Sadly, within just a few decades, the museum and its collection were doomed to disappear, dispersed, along with Anatolia College’s students and professors, following the mass expulsion of Armenians from Ottoman lands in 1915.

Now, curator Marianna Hovhannisyan is working with SALT to bring some of Manissadjian’s scholarship back into focus in a new exhibition...

The challenging, deeply researched exhibitions at Istanbul cultural institution SALT are nearly always worth seeing. I previewed SALT's latest show, "Empty Fields," on view at SALT Galata in Karaköy until 5 June, for the March/April issue of Selections magazine, speaking to the exhibition curator as well as the institution's research director.

Read the rest of my exhibit preview, "Filling the Empty Fields," on Selections' website.

Cities of possibility

Istanbul’s position at the crossroads of two continents is looking like an increasingly precarious perch these days, with violent conflicts erupting in Syria and Iraq to the south and Russia and Ukraine to the north. Domestically, electoral victories in 2014 by the country’s longtime ruling party demoralized those energized by last year’s mass anti-government protests. But neither strife nor political stagnation seems to prevent forward-looking initiatives from cropping up all around Istanbul...

Amid challenging and often depressing times, it was revitalizing to seek out some positive, inspiring initiatives for the 2014 GOOD City Index. As it did with last year's inaugural list, the quarterly, U.S.-based magazine GOOD again seeks to celebrate the "cities around the world that best capture the elusive quality of possibility" -- not the ones where everything is necessarily working right, but ones with a heartbeat of "creativity, hustle, and civic engagement."

Istanbul, which the editors ranked at #6 on this year's index, certainly qualifies. Though the energy of last year's Gezi Park demonstrations has long faded, around the city, activists of all stripes are buckling down to attend to the task of trying to build a better future.

Read the rest of my entry in the 2014 GOOD City Index: "Istanbul, Turkey: Now the real work begins"

Bringing the art world to Istanbul

Eighty modern and contemporary art galleries hailing from Helsinki to Hong Kong are set to join ArtInternational for its return to the banks of Istanbul’s Golden Horn in the fall. This year, the fair will bring with it a fresh focus on collecting practices and on experimental film and video art.

The inaugural edition last September of ArtInternational, brought to Istanbul by Art HK co-founder Sandy Angus, netted an estimated 21 million euros in sales for its participating galleries.

“It’s a truly international art fair with high-quality works, coherence and a good ratio between Turkish and international galleries. That differentiates it from other fairs in Turkey and the region,” says Istanbul collector Tansa Ekşioğlu...

Read the rest of my preview of ArtInternational, which will be held held 26-28 September at Istanbul's Haliç Congress Center, in the Fall 2014 issue of Selections magazine's Art Paper supplement: "Bringing the World to Istanbul" (pdf)

A Turkish artist 'Through the Looking Glass'

Initially ignored and dismissed for her experimental approach, Füsun Onur has become recognised as one of Turkey’s most influential contemporary artists by steadfastly continuing to follow her own path. She has described her art as "musical work without sound," explaining, "I am taking everyday objects and using them as notes."

Born in 1938, Onur got her undergraduate degree at what is now the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts in Istanbul, where she studied with Ali Hadi Bara. The Iranian-born sculptor was influential in moving Turkish sculpture away from official monuments and into more abstract realms.

Onur made her own mark by pioneering installation art that pushes the boundaries of both sculpture and painting, incorporating everyday objects and aspects of daily life but taking them out of their normal context in a way that prompts the viewer to reassess the meanings typically attributed to them...

Read the rest of my preview of "Füsun Onur: Through the Looking Glass" in the Summer 2014 issue of Selections magazine's Art Paper supplement: "Making Meaning from the Mundane" (pdf)

This Emre Baykal-curated retrospective is being exhibited at Istanbul's ARTER until August 17. Don't miss the complementary video piece downstairs by artist Ali Kazma, who further illuminates Onur's artistic influences with his evocative footage shot in her Istanbul home.

Creative guide to a GREAT city

The inaugural GREAT Festival of Creativity rolls into Istanbul next week (20-22 May at SEED), showcasing innovative ideas in a wide range of fields – from fashion and design to technology and education to food and drink.

The festival, which travels next to Hong Kong and Shanghai, is part of the British Prime Ministry's GREAT campaign, an ongoing drive to promote Britain abroad as a place to visit and do business.

To further inspire the "cross-section of creative and commercial Britain" visiting Istanbul for the event, I contributed pithy write-ups of galleries, restaurants, shops and other spots across the city to the GREAT Festival Guide to Creative Istanbul, an online "directory of all that's creative and unusual in one of the world's GREAT cities."

Contemporary Istanbul 2013

Istanbul's oldest and largest art fair returned to the city for its 8th edition in November, and once again I was on hand to cover it for the Beirut-based lifestyle magazine Selections, which recently launched its own art-focused supplement, Art Paper.

My highlights feature on Contemporary Istanbul appeared over a two-page spread in the Winter 2013-14 issue of Art Paper, which also included a related "Collector Profile" of Turkish textile magnate Öner Kocabeyoğlu, who opened his private collection up to visitors during the art fair.

Read my Contemporary Istanbul wrap-up for Selections: "Home Colours Stay Strong at Turkey's Top Art Fair" (pdf)

Read my other piece for Selections: "Collector Profile: Öner Kocabeyoğlu" (pdf)

Istanbul's 'GOOD' side

Fascinating, frenetic, and often frustrating, Istanbul can sometimes seem like it’s defined by its unmet potential. With its young population and incredibly rich history, Istanbul should be a hotbed of innovation, but is unfortunately hampered by a lack of diversity, a vast wealth gap, and a political system that limits civic participation – as was plain to see during this past summer’s mass protests... 

The quarterly magazine GOOD reached out this past fall to get my take on Istanbul for its "GOOD City Index," a new feature highlighting "the cities that are emerging, the ones that are figuring out their growing pains or flourishing under the radar."

The final piece, published in GOOD's Winter 2013 issue under the headline "Celebrating Possibility," shines the spotlight on 20 up-and-coming cities, from Accra to Wellington. My writeup on Istanbul appears at number 7 on the index (n.b. I asked for the Bosphorus to be correctly identified as a strait, rather than a "river" but the error was not fixed as promised).

Download a pdf version of the entire "GOOD City Index" or a smaller pdf of the introduction and Istanbul section.

Art and the city

Every other autumn is eagerly awaited by art-lovers in Istanbul, as it brings (in the odd-numbered years) the return of the Istanbul Biennial. Now in its 13th edition, the biennial itself varies in the quality of its offerings, but reliably brings with it a host of other art exhibitions and events throughout the city – as well as the opportunity to peek into some typically shuttered buildings, from historic Greek schools to crumbling hamams.

This year's biennial curator chose to focus on the public domain, a decision that both dovetailed with and was made problematic by the Gezi Park protests that broke out this summer, increasing both the anticipation and controversy around the international art event.

As editor at Time Out Istanbul, I spearheaded this year's coverage of the Istanbul Biennial, putting together a cover package that previewed the event, looked at parallel exhibitions being organized around town, and delved into some of the local artist residency programs that are helping develop the city's contemporary art scene. My own written contributions to Time Out's "Art Issue" included:

• "Art and the City," the biennial preview (pdf)

• "Things Unseen," on artist Trevor Paglen's new exhibit with Protocinema (pdf)

• "Unearthing Balat," on the "Balat?" exhibit at Plato Sanat (pdf)

A little time at the helm of Time Out

I've just wrapped up a seven-month stint editing Time Out Istanbul, the local English-language edition of the popular international line of arts and entertainment magazines. I spent nine years in the United States as an editor at Sierra, the magazine of the Sierra Club, and this brief return to my roots reminded me of how much I enjoy working with writers and conceptualizing packages – or entire issue's worth – of stories that will work together to provide a rich experience for the reader.

As the head of a very small team, I also did my fair share of writing at Time Out Istanbul. In addition to our Gezi Park protest coverage in the July issue, and our Istanbul Biennial preview in the forthcoming September issue, these are some of the stories I most enjoyed researching and writing:

• “Hidden History” – A stroll through Istanbul’s Byzantine past with Context Travel

• “Resisting Nostalgia” – An interview with Turkish artist Ali Kazma on his fascination with transformation

• “Literature as Travel Guide” – Bored stiff by traditional guidebooks? Find your way in the company of the new 'city-pick Istanbul' anthology

• “Getting Away From Them All” – Four sightseeing itineraries for escaping Istanbul's summer throngs

• “Sharp-Dressed Man” – Meet the 83-year-old Turkish-German tailor who's become a hit in the fashion blogosphere

Editors' picks from Art Basel

As the international art crowd prepared to descend on Hong Kong for the city's edition of Art Basel, Time Out Hong Kong solicited editors' picks of participating galleries from Time Out's international team. My brief writeup of Istanbul gallery CDA-Projects appears in the May issue of Time Out Hong Kong under the title "Art Basel: Time Out international editors' picks":

6. CDA-Projects Gallery (1C23)
Focusing on emerging artists from Turkey, CDA-Projects doesn't shy away from challenging, multimedia work that questions gender and cultural norms. Featured artist Zeren Göktan's interactive installation Counter blends technology and tradition to confront viewers with uncomfortable realities about violence against women.
Jennifer Hattam, editor-in-chief, Time Out Istanbul

A monumental figure

It’s hard to believe now that Istanbul has become a world-famous tourist destination, but when the Turkish architect Ali Saim Ülgen first visited the city’s historic center as a youth in 1930, its many monuments were neglected, and little-known...

Inspired by the awe he felt on this first visit, Ülgen later became the first architectural restoration expert of the Turkish Republic and wrote one of the era's first books on architectural preservation. But though his influence was widespread during his lifetime, Ülgen today is almost as forgotten as Istanbul’s grand monuments might have been without his intervention.

The Istanbul-based cultural institution SALT aims to bring Ülgen's work back to prominence with the exhibit "Modern Turkey’s Discovery of the Ottoman Heritage: The Ali Saim Ülgen Archive." I interviewed associate director of research and programs Lorans Tanatar Baruh for two articles on this fascinating exhibit, one for Beirut-based lifestyle magazine Selections, the other for Time Out Istanbul.

Read my article "Architect for the Ages" in the Spring 2013 issue of Selections: jpg

Read my article "Rediscovering the Past" in the March 2013 issue of Time Out Istanbul.

Working with art

No white walls surround the art at Istanbul's newest sculpture gallery. Instead, skyscrapers and tower blocks rise dramatically above its works of stone and steel, set atop the Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art in the city's Maslak business district. Meanwhile, at Borusan Contemporary, weekend visitors stroll through the empty offices of one of Turkey’s biggest holding companies – tidied up every Friday night so no paperclip is out of place – to view selections from the firm's 600-piece art collection.

This is the latest trend to hit Istanbul: the office block as art gallery. Large private companies, especially banks, have been patrons of the arts in Turkey for decades, but as the country's economy booms, the line between the art and business worlds is becoming ever harder to distinguish...

Read the rest of my article "From the water cooler to the water colour" in the October 2012 issue of Gulf Life, the in-flight magazine of Gulf Air: jpg | pdf

Scavengers' stories

In the shadow of the Acropolis, they set off before dawn. Men and boys driving rusty trucks, pushing heavy hand-carts, towing wagons behind battered motorcycles. As the city slowly comes to life, they are already well into their day's work, scouring alleys and Dumpsters for old box-spring mattresses, appliances, car parts, anything they can salvage and sell at a scrap yard for a few dollars a day. 

Many Athens residents have been struggling to get by since economic and political crisis erupted in Greece, threatening to engulf much of Europe. But the estimated 80,000 Athenians who collect and process scrap in the city's informal economy were eking out their meager livings back when the rest of the city was still living large...

Back in April, I had the opportunity to watch the new documentary "Raw Material" and interview its director, Christos Karakepelis, as part of the 31st Istanbul Film Festival, which hosted a special series of screenings and talks related to current events in Turkey's tumult-wracked neighboring country, "What's Happening in Greece?"

This month, my interview with Karakepelis, a passionate and fascinating filmmaker, became the basis for my debut article for The Atlantic's CityLab (formerly The Atlantic Cities), one of my favorite publications addressing urban issues.

Read my piece for CityLab : "How the Garbage Pickers of Athens Predicted the Greek Economic Crisis"

What's lost and left behind

Arriving late for a studio visit scheduled during the Contemporary Istanbul art fair last fall turned out to be a stroke of luck. The organized group of art lovers had already breezed in and out, leaving sculptor Sibel Horada free to give me a relaxed one-on-one interview over tea.

After a private screening of the old-fashioned slideshow that made up part of her recent installation work "Urban Knights," we lounged on the antique button-tufted sofa that also featured in the piece and chatted about Beyoğlu's mysteriously disappearing tables, the sacredness of street cats and old chairs, sculpting with marble, and learning to appreciate Impressionism in a rainy beech forest.

My profile of Horada and her work appeared in the Spring 2012 issue of Selections, following three pieces I wrote on Contemporary Istanbul for the previous issue of the Beirut-based luxury lifestyle magazine.

Read my article, "Sibel Horada: What's lost and left behind": jpg | pdf

Covering Contemporary Istanbul

Do Middle Eastern aesthetic values hinder the development of contemporary art? Is the art collector an artist in her own right? Is China set to dominate the world art market? Those are just a few of the provocative questions posed by speakers at Contemporary Istanbul, a high-profile art fair held most recently in November.

The 6th edition of the annual event drew 62,000 art lovers and 2,100 collectors to view works exhibited by 90 contemporary art galleries from 20 countries. Also featured were a series of dialogues between artists, collectors, curators, and other art-world figures, discussions I covered for Selections, a Beirut-based luxury lifestyle magazine. Three of my articles appeared in the "Art Scene" section of the magazine's Winter 2011/2012 issue:

• "The Culture of Criticism"* - jpg

• "Redrawing the Map of the Art World" - jpg

• "The Art of Collecting" - jpg

* Unfortunately, the last paragraph of this article was not included in the published version, leaving the reader to wonder how two panelists could differ on the critic's role when only one was quoted. The end of this piece should read as follows:

Polat and Kahraman also differed on the role the critic should play in society.

“A critic is not a person who says ‘I like this’ or ‘I don’t like that.’ A critic should be working on a philosophical basis, trying to read the work and interpret it. Criticism shouldn’t be directed at the general public,” Kahraman said.

“Criticism is about giving opinions. You should be providing judgment on works of art – this is what criticism is,” Polat argued. “The critic should see himself as part of the audience.”

Istanbul's lindy hop 'dance tribe'

In the minds of most tourists, the words "dance" and "Istanbul" probably conjure up not-terribly-authentic images of belly dancers, or perhaps, for the more culturally astute, the whirling dervishes of the Mevlevi order. Few would likely suspect that they could find a roomful of young Turks enthusiastically doing the lindy hop, a style of swing dance that originated in the Harlem ballrooms of the 1920s and 1930s.

I discovered the Swing Istanbul studio after being approached by the editor of Dance Gazette, the magazine of the Royal Academy of Dance in the U.K., with an assignment to identify and profile an interesting "dance tribe" in the city. My piece about the Istanbul lindy-hoppers appears as part of the cover story for the magazine's February 2012 issue, along with dispatches from a male hula class in New York, a zumba class in Sydney, an experimental-art mecca in Shanghai, and a group of London zombies who just love Michael Jackson.

Read my lindy-hop piece, “The Dance Was Waiting,” as it appeared in Dance Gazette: jpg

Bosphorus bliss

When the time came to cut the wedding cake, all eyes were drawn to the ceiling of the ballroom as the tiered white pastry descended from its hiding place. A dancer followed, dangling upside down to pour drinks into the guests’ outstretched flutes.

Brides and grooms marrying at one of the magnificent 18th- and 19th-century palaces and mansions lining Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait can choose to celebrate in ballrooms where Ottoman royalty once got married. But the modern festivities can even outdo those of the sultans, who dispatched turtles with candles on their backs to light outdoor parties, paraded giraffes down the street, and set off fireworks for days on end to herald a palace member’s wedded bliss...

As a journalist, I've had the opportunity to be exposed to many different worlds, those of homesteaders in Alaska, miners' families in West Virginia, and conservation biologists in eastern Turkey among them. But perhaps the most foreign experience to date was having Istanbul hoteliers regale me with stories of the lavish waterfront weddings they had hosted – champagne-serving acrobats and all.

Writing a story for the August 2011 issue of J Magazine, the inflight magazine of Jazeera Airways, about Bosphorus weddings in Istanbul gave me a peek into the exotic world of helipads and honeymoon suites bigger than my apartment – and the creativity and effortless hospitality required for the staff at the city's top luxury hotels to make the wildest matrimonial dreams come true.

Hidden gardens reveal secrets of Istanbul's islands

Green spaces are now hard to come by amid the grey concrete in the metropolis that once inspired 17th-century traveller Robert Withers to write: “Nor indeed doth a Turk at any time show himself to be so truly pleased, and satisfied in his senses as he doth in the summer time, when he is in a pleasant garden.”

But though such opportunities are few and far between – for Turks and foreigners alike – in today’s Istanbul, there is still one place where the senses can be so satisfied, a place where, it was said in Ottoman times, the scent of the blossoms could make a person dizzy...

Read the rest of my article about garden tours on the Princes' Islands, “Hidden Gardens Reveal Secrets of Istanbul's Islands,” as it appeared in the May 2011 issue of Time Out Istanbul: jpg

Close encounters with the wrestling-camel kind

It is apparent when we catch glimpse of a strange parade upon debarking the bus that we are in the right place: A stray dog trots down the street after three boys who are leading a small horse behind a pickup truck. The truck is filled with musicians – one beating a large, flat drum nestled between his legs. Two lumbering camels stride in front of them all; the animals are frothing at the mouth, the bells lashed to their saddles clanking like particularly non-melodic wind chimes.

People are believed to have been pitting camels against each other in wrestling matches since the days of nomadic caravans. Today, the tradition lives on in winter bouts along Turkey’s Aegean coast. The largest tournament of the year is held in Selçuk – near the historic Ephesus ruins – where organizers recently added a Camel Beauty Contest to the day’s events to draw more interest. The dusty field where we end up on this sunny Sunday is in a nondescript suburb of İzmir, the third-largest city in Turkey and self-proclaimed “most modern and cosmopolitan.”

Camels waited patiently around the makeshift ring, back hooves splayed, soft shackles around their front legs that tether them to stakes pounded into the ground. They are draped with colourful ribbons and blankets, spangled scarves, and banners proclaiming their names and hometowns, but seem oblivious to the children and dogs running amongst them; the people coming up to touch their heads and pose for photos with them; and the itinerant horn player blaring his zurna in their ears.

Rules of the game

From a raised platform alongside the ring, the voice of the cazgır (announcer) rings out with a wish, “May our animals be strong,” before introducing the contestants. “Küçük Ahmet from Zeytindağ has entered the field…”

Camels wrestle by pushing against each others’ sides, straining for the leverage that could allow them to trip the other up or press their rival’s long neck to the ground. Hefty animals, they circle surprisingly quickly, their hoof-work as fleet as any boxer’s. Two teams of neon-vested urgancı (ropemen) squat in a line on either side of the beasts, ready to sprint into action to pull the camels apart – a tug-of-war eagerly joined by spectators who leap the flimsy fences around the ring to pitch in.

A match lasts 10 minutes, and is won when one animal falls, screams, or runs away. The latter outcome is by far the most popular among the assembled crowd, which roars its approval before scattering as nearly a ton of ungulate bulk hurdles toward the rickety metal fencing – sending people pushing and squeezing out of the way, only to return to their positions a moment later.

As the animals grapple nearby, a little girl, with a puffy coat matching her cotton candy, steps away slightly. “Are you scared?” we ask her. Stifling a smile, she throws her head back with an emphatic “Tsk!”

The show on the sidelines

Unlike another traditional Turkish sport, oil wrestling, where the mere sight of four female spectators is enough to attract TV cameras, camel wrestling is a family affair. Rotund middle-aged ladies in headscarves and flowery pants spread out their picnic blankets on the patchy grass as young women in chic boots pick their way through the mud. Older men in caps and suit coats smoke and eat sunflower seeds, while younger ones hang eagerly on the fence, lifting children up to kiss their fathers on the field with their candy-apple-sticky lips. Some spectators sit on flattened cardboard boxes or newspaper-covered rocks; others with ringside tables tucked into meals served on ceramic plates.

Musicians wend their way through the crowd, their songs rising above the din, as they try to entice some of the men drinking rakı around small white plastic tables to get up and dance. One stretches out his arms and does a few steps in front of his camel before nuzzling the beast’s head.

Smoke rises from mangal (barbeque) and nargile (water pipes) set up on the sidelines, where one man is cooking chicken in a pan of oil over a gas canister; a worn piece of plastic is tied on it forming a shield. Others grilled up slices of camel sausage, pressing small loaves of bread into the frying grease before filling them with meat and wrapping them in newspaper.

As the day progresses, trainers begin to pull the unsuccessful camels from the ring. Some load their animals into large trucks while others lead them home on foot, down through the winding streets lined with graceless concrete-block buildings; without even a carpet prize tied to their saddle to show for the day’s exertions.

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Camel-wrestling fun facts

• Turkey has around 500 wrestling camels, all male and of the special tülü breed. Most come from Iran, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

• Wrestling season lasts from December to March, the animals’ mating period.

• Camels perform better in cold weather.

• The carpets, saddlebags and other felt and cloth items worn by the camels are traditional crafts of the nomadic Yörük people.

• The tournament in Selçuk was held in the Ephesus theatre until the late 1990s, when it was moved due to concerns about damaging the ancient site.

• A wrestling camel can cost as much as 160,000 Turkish Liras (approximately 80,000 Euros) and eat up to 5,000 Turkish Liras’ (approximately 2,500 Euros) worth of food a year.

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A jaunt to İzmir

The last two camel-wrestling tournaments of the season are in İzmir’s Haydarlı district (March 6) and the nearby city of Manisa’s Gökkaya district (March 20). With regular flights and overnight bus service from Istanbul to İzmir, it’s easy to take a quick trip to catch this unique event.

STAY: The hotels in İzmir aren’t cheap, but the attractive Park Hotel İzmir (150 Turkish Liras/75 Euros per night) and the homey Güzel İzmir Oteli (100 Turkish Liras/50 Euros) both offer good value. Park Hotel İzmir, (0232) 425 33 33. 1366 Sokak, No. 6, Çankaya. Güzel İzmir Oteli, (0232) 483 50 69. 1368 Sokak, No. 8, Basmane.

EAT: Kırçiçeği is a firm favourite for kebab and pide in the restaurant-rich Alsancak district. Kırçiçeği, (0232) 464 30 90. 1443 Sokak, No. 83, Alsancak.

EXPLORE: Hop on a minibus for a daytrip to the less-visited ruins of Sardis, the ancient capital of the Lydian Kingdom, or the beach towns of the Çeşme peninsula, blissfully sleepy this time of year.

This article was originally published in the March 2011 issue of Time Out Istanbul (view jpg version).