}

sea/see/saw

Commissioned Installation by Artists Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett

June 5, 2015 - February 14, 2016

In 2015 Pera Museum celebrated its 10th anniversary. To commemorate this celebration, the museum commissioned Canadian artists Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garrett to create a special and inspiring artwork for the museum’s façade.

Couched in the historic quarter of Tepebaşı, Beyoğlu neighborhood the impressive museum building was originally conceived as the Bristol Hotel – originally designed by Greek architect Achilleas Manussos in the late 19th century. In 2005, the building was renovated preserving the exterior façade.

Conceived in response to Pera Museum’s historic façade for the cultural space’s 10th anniversary, “sea/see/saw” invited viewers to re-examine a familiar space through a new lens. sea/see/saw’s use of lenses playfully spoke to changes in perception, celebrating Pera Museum’s contribution to Istanbul’s cultural landscape, with an eye focused on the future. Constructed from 10,000 eyeglass lenses, the installation intended to mirror the dynamic and shimmering surface of the Golden Horn, and introduced movement to the otherwise static structure, as drawn by the wind. Built from used glasses that merge to create a simple, geometric form, sea/see/saw invited viewers to engage in a momentary shift of perspective.

If eyes are “windows to the soul,” how do lenses revise our vision of the world around us? Do our former accessories carry faint ghosts of those who used them? As the materiality of the installation became apparent, the watchers became the watched, and this spectacle of spectacles took on another subtext as an icon for collective vision, compound perspectives, and the power of collaborative sight.

Midnight Horror Stories: Pollens, Photosynthesis & Rock ‘N’ Roll <br> Murat Başekim

Midnight Horror Stories: Pollens, Photosynthesis & Rock ‘N’ Roll
Murat Başekim

Pera Museum Blog is launching a new series of creepy stories in collaboration with Turkey’s Fantasy and Science Fiction Arts Association (FABISAD). The Association’s member writers are presenting newly commissioned short horror stories inspired by the artworks of Mario Prassinos as part of the Museum’s In Pursuit of an Artist: Istanbul-Paris-Istanbul exhibition. The third story is by Murat Başekim! The stories will be published online throughout the exhibition. Stay tuned!

Symbols

Symbols

Pera Museum’s Cold Front from the Balkans exhibition curated by Ali Akay and Alenka Gregorič brings together contemporary artists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.

Return from Vienna

Return from Vienna

Józef Brandt harboured a fascination for the history of 17th century Poland, and his favourite themes included ballistic scenes and genre scenes before and after the battle proper –all and sundry marches, returns, supply trains, billets and encampments, patrols, and similar motifs illustrating the drudgery of warfare outside of its culminating moments.