When most individuals hear the identify Istanbul, all the pieces involves a standstill. This has at all times been the case all through historical past. It’s a metropolis that has been the inspiration for 1000’s of works and has been a gathering level for nearly all nations on the planet in a technique or one other.
Reşad Ekrem Koçu, a Turkish historian and author born in Istanbul, devoted his life to immortalizing this metropolis by creating an “Istanbul Encyclopedia” that exists someplace between fantasy and actuality.
Celebrating and bringing into the open Koçu’s peerless legacy, Salt Galata’s newest complete exhibition that spreads throughout three flooring of the long-lasting Salt’s spectacular constructing, “No Additional Information: Reşad Ekrem Koçu and Istanbul Encyclopedia Archive” because the identify certainly signifies the gathering’s uniqueness, unfurling how Koçu mixed fantastical parts with actuality to relate the town’s wealthy and colourful previous, to compile the “grand register” of Istanbul.
Even because of this, the unfinished encyclopedia that had remained within the design stage of the publishing effort, following the 11 volumes of the encyclopedia printed as much as the letter “G” throughout Koçu’s lifetime, this register is a superb portrayal of metropolis reminiscence with drafts for the articles, clippings, collages and drawings.
A personality research that Reşad Ekrem Koçu commissioned for the illustrator Sabiha Rüştü Bozcalı, Istanbul, Türkiye, Could 23, 2023. (Photograph courtesy of Salt Galata)
Eccentrics
Embarking on a journey to immortalize all of the facets of such an ontologically complete metropolis requires a lifetime, and so did Reşad Ekrem Koçu.
As I had the possibility to attend the press preview of the exhibition’s opening in Salt Galata, I stood in awe because the beautiful fusion of storytelling and archiving unfolded earlier than me, a masterpiece of creative synergy.
For this, the ebook covers not solely Istanbul’s historic and cultural heritage but additionally delves into life on its streets, structure, historical professions, traditions, legends and extra.
Eerie and genuine characters tempo up and down within the streets reminiscent of tomboys who castigate a taxi driver as he made her blood boil or a wannabe vampire who sinks their enamel to random residents at evening as guests witness the press clippings within the exhibition. “The authorized standing of the case couldn’t be decided” Koçu named these occasions that resemble to be popped out of a detective’s confidential drawer.
A view from the exhibition “No Additional Information: Reşad Ekrem Koçu and Istanbul Encyclopedia Archive,” Istanbul, Türkiye, Could 23, 2023. (Photograph courtesy of Salt Galata)
The vivid city tableau that was meticulously crafted by Koçu is delivered to life within the exhibition by cartoonist Cem Dinlenmiş via colourful characters. Koçu’s tactless and unknown residents of the town those that haven’t any file elsewhere discover life with Dinlenmiş’s character drawings.
To get to know these characters and to be a part of them, the exhibition affords a workshop space supported by Stabilo, the place the guests can draw completely different physique components of the characters on a drawn-on mild platform that’s replicable when positioned on paper.
Being an Istanbulite
“Solely those that have been married in Istanbul can be thought-about Istanbulities,” Koçu famous.
The idea of belonging to a spot, shaped by customary descriptions, maybe means carrying the power of the place completely, which is why it believes that those that marry in Istanbul are the true Istanbulites: An apt notion of dynamism, respiration out the soul of the town.
As Koçu has ingeniously collected the tales of people who’ve serendipitously converged, Salt Galata intertwines with a rigorously curated assemblage via a composition that’s intricately formed by the tapestry of Galata’s neighborhood. Spanning the nineteenth to the mid-Twentieth century, the exhibition illuminates the lives of the “lowlives,” each inside and past Istanbul’s standard social order, who inhabited the very cloth of the encircling cityscape.
As sure articles conclude with the enigmatic phrase “no additional data have been discovered,” the exhibition, aptly titled “No Additional Information,” delves into the realms past sanctioned historiography, delving into the town of these whose tales defy standard documentation.
A typeface research from the graphic design file associated to Istanbul Encyclopedia, Istanbul, Türkiye, Could 23, 2023. (Photograph courtesy of Salt Galata)
In addition to this fascinating exhibition, the printed volumes of the Istanbul Encyclopedia and a treasury of roughly 40,000 artifacts are present process digitization, poised to grant on-line accessibility within the close to future. Illuminating Istanbul’s bygone eras, this evocative amalgamation of exhibition and archive shall be accompanied by an e-publication, enriched by the insights of multidisciplinary students.
Based by Garanti BBVA, Salt will host the exhibition that was organized as a part of Reşad Ekrem Koçu and Istanbul Encyclopedia Archive, a joint undertaking of Salt and Kadir Has College initiated in 2018 till Oct. 29.
By partnering with museums, galleries, and cultural facilities, BBVA has helped deliver famend worldwide artists and exhibitions to Türkiye, exposing the native viewers to various creative expressions and fostering cross-cultural change.