The exhibition contributes to make the names of the Armenian architects whose names have been forgotten and who played a role in the shaping of Istanbul.

The exhibition is framed under the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Program. It is possible to see the life stories of more than 40 Armenian architects who lived between late19th century and early 20th century. The history and the photos of 100 buildings that were designed by those architects are also be displayed in the exhibition.

The exhibited photographs of buildings, listed by Hasan Kuruyazıcı after long trips of in the streets of Kurtuluş-Tatavla, Pangaltı, Taksim, Cihangir, Tarlabaşı, Tünel, Galata, Eminönü and Mahmutpaşa, show us the contribution of Armenian architects during the westernization process of Istanbul.

Having conducted a similar project with Greeks in Istanbul, Hasan Kuruyazıcı describes the motive behind his study as following: “Today there is a huge stock of buildings dating from the 19th century. Although many of them had been ravaged, these are the ones which managed to survive. The question of ‘Who built all these buildings?’ has brought me to conduct such a research.”
The exhibition, designed by Erkal Yavi, aims to show Istanbul residents the history of the city they reside while seeking to be an important source for the architects, architectural students, archeologists, people dealing within the social fields, historians of architecture and art, etc.

Parallel with the exhibition, a professional guided tour program of the displayed architectural monuments will take place while a panel will be held with the theme of ‘Armenian Architects of Istanbul’. The visitors arel taking the chance to see the two short films and getting information from the audio-tour about the exhibited works of Armenian architects.

As a complementary work, the book, “Armenian Architects of Istanbul In the Era of Westernization”, having the same name as the exhibition, has been published by International Hrant Dink Foundation. Two versions of the book, one in Turkish- English, the other in Armenian-English, are available now. The book contains six articles written by Edhem Eldem, Afife Batur, Ahmet Ersoy, Alyson Wharton, Elmon Hançer ve Lora Baytar and more than 100 photos of the exhibited works of the Armenian Architects.

The photos taking place in the exhibition and the book were taken by Gökhan Tan, Kamil Yılmaz, Görkem Kızılkayak, Galata Fotoğrafhanesi (Sibel Günak, Özgür Bali, Bahar Gökten, Tanla Özuzun, Burak Kara, Beril Gür, Anıl Cizmeci, Umur Çolgar, Tuba Kılıç, Damla Yedisan, Semra Yeşil) and Grid Collective (Burak Gölge, Duygu Tozduman, Sera Dink, Tevfik Rıza Gözlükçü).

Remembrance / Yâdigâr from ümit kıvanç on Vimeo.