Director:  Michelangelo Antonioni
Cast: Mark Frechette, Daria Halprin, Paul Fix |
Italy,110’, 1970, color

English with Turkish subtitles

The opening half-verité footage of a student activist meeting sets the tone and themes of Antonioni's meandering portrait of 60s America, a painterly magazine spread of the anti-establishment that at times alternates between abstract urban montage and humane illustration of iconic Americana. Encased within his glossy, seductive cinematography are abrasive scenes of police brutality, overt racism, oblivious consumerism, capitalistic violence and the ubiquitous drone of the Vietnam death toll. Non-professional leads Mark Frechette and Daria Halprin became involved both on and off screen as respective symbols of Activism and Pacifism, illustrating the persistent tensions within the counter culture's own psyche. A notorious financial disaster for MGM that received brutally negative reviews and momentarily set Antonioni in the FBI's crosshairs, Zabriskie Point – like its uninhibited protagonists – plays with the existential depths despite its reflective surface, its horror and beauty climaxes in the film's stunning psychedelic ending – a cathartic summary of the USA with all of its conveniences and contradictions.

Story of a Love Affair

Story of a Love Affair

Red Desert

Red Desert

Zabriskie Point

Zabriskie Point

Identification of a Woman

Identification of a Woman

L’Avventura

L’Avventura

Blow-Up

Blow-Up

The Mystery of Oberwald

The Mystery of Oberwald

Shorts

Shorts

Wondrous Cures in Constantinople

Wondrous Cures in Constantinople

The shrines that created the glory of Constantinople through their lavish beauty were also repositories of precious relics and thus sources of healing. 

Niko Pirosmani

Niko Pirosmani

“A nameless Egyptian fresco, an African idol or a vase from Crete: we should behold Pirosmani’s art among them. Only this way it is possible to conceive it genuinely … …You see Pirosmani – you believe in Georgia”.
Grigol Robakidze

Félix Ziem (1821-1911) A nomadic, unclassifiable, and eccentric artist

Félix Ziem (1821-1911) A nomadic, unclassifiable, and eccentric artist

French artist Félix Ziem is one of the most original landscape painters of the 19thcentury. The exhibition Wanderer on the Sea of Light presents Ziem as an artist who left his mark on 19th century painting and who is mostly known for his paintings of Istanbul and Venice, where the city and the sea are intertwined.