Silence and Light

February 2 - March 4, 2018

You can say the light the giver of all presences, is the maker of a material, and the material was made to cast a shadow, and the shadow belongs to the light.

Louis Kahn
 

The program Silence and Light is an homage to Louis Kahn’s work and legacy as well as architecture on film. Presented as part of the exhibition Re/Framing Louis Kahn, the program highlights documentaries and fictions embracing Kahn’s work as well as the art of architecture. The first documentary film examining the work of Louis Kahn, Silence and Light, examines his most significant completed works, My Architect: A Son’s Journey, takes on a personal journey to consider the contradictions of this complicated genius, Peter Greenaway’s The Belly of an Architect drama is about life, death and architecture and the film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. The fiction Sidewalls explored the disconnection and missed opportunities of modern city life. Paying unique homage to the city of Buenos Aires, writer and director Gustavo Taretto reflects on how urban chaos, as well as new technologies, can alternately unite and alienate people. The documentary The Human Scale, questions our assumptions about modernity, exploring what happens when we put people into the center of our equations. “If buildings could talk, what would they say about us?” Cathedrals of Culture offers six startling responses. The six acclaimed filmmakers bring their own visual style and artistic approach to the project showing how each of these landmark reflect our culture and guard our collective memory. Conceived as a personal video diary, the documentary The Infinite Happiness explores the ideal housing, offering a hopeful, inspired picture of communal living by design.

This program’s screenings are free of admissions. Drop in, no reservations.

February 2

21:00 Louis Kahn: Silence and Light

February 3

18:00 Cathedrals of Culture - Part 1

February 4

18:00 Cathedrals of Culture - Part 2

February 9

21:00 The Belly of an Architect

February 10

16:00 Louis Kahn: Silence and Light

18:00 Cathedrals of Culture - Part 1

February 11

18:00 Cathedrals of Culture - Part 2

February 14

19:00 Sidewalls

February 15

19:00 The Human Scale

February 17

14:00 The Infinite Happiness

February 18

14:00 The Human Scale

16:00 The Belly of an Architect

February 24

18:00 The Infinite Happiness

March 2

21:00 My Architect: A Son’s Journey

March 4

14:00 Sidewalls

18:00 My Architect: A Son’s Journey

Louis Kahn: Silence and Light

Louis Kahn: Silence and Light

The Belly of an Architect

The Belly of an Architect

Sidewalls

Sidewalls

The Human Scale

The Human Scale

Cathedrals of Culture - Part 1

Cathedrals of Culture - Part 1

The Infinite Happiness

The Infinite Happiness

My Architect: A Son’s Journey

My Architect: A Son’s Journey

Cathedrals of Culture - Part 2

Cathedrals of Culture - Part 2

Program Trailer

Silence and Light

The program Silence and Light is an homage to Louis Kahn’s work and legacy as well as architecture on film.

Re/Framing Louis Kahn

The exhibition Re/Framing Louis Kahn: Photographs by Cemal Emden – Drawings and Paintings focused on the architectural and artistic works of Louis I. Kahn – architect, thinker, artist, and an “architectural guru” who is considered among the leading figures of 20th century architecture.

Re/Framing Louis Kahn

From two portraits of children…

From two portraits of children…

The Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation’s Orientalist Painting Collection includes two children’s portraits that are often featured in exhibitions on the second floor of the Pera Museum. These portraits both date back to the early 20th century, and were made four years apart. One depicts Prince Abdürrahim Efendi, son of Sultan Abdulhamid II, while the figure portrayed on the other is Nazlı, the daughter of Osman Hamdi Bey.

Game of Mangala

Game of Mangala

Three figures in Eastern dress are shown in repose against an exotic landscape, smoking pipes and playing mangala. Inventories of the royal collections from 1739 identify the members of this group as the royal eunuch Matthias and two odalisques. 

Memory of Objects

Memory of Objects

In his book exploring the cultural history of souvenirs, Rolf Potts discusses how such objects assume meaning through personal stories: Objects turn into memories with the stories they hold.