Armenian Architects of Istanbul in the Era of Westernization’ Exhibition curated by Hasan Kuruyazıcı has been held with the collaboration of Istanbul Modern Arts Museum, Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency and Haycar Association of Architects and Engineers. The exhibition seeks to evoke the memory of architects and their works that have largely been forgotten today.
The press conference and the opening cocktail took place on December 8th, 2010 at Istanbul Modern. Şekip Avdagiç from Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency, Levent Çalıkoğlu from the Istanbul Modern Arts Museum, Rakel Dink from our Foundation and Hasan Kuruyazıcı –the curator of the project- gave a short speech at the opening ceremony, which was attended by more than 600 people.
The exhibition features photographs of more than 100 buildings by 40 Armenian architects, who lived between late 19th century and early 20th century. 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. In addition to the photographs visitors had the opportunity to gain further information about the architects and buildings thanks to an audio tour prepared by Saro Dadyan. Two short films were shown as part of the exhibition. The first one named “Impressions of a Castle” by Gökhan Bulut and Reşat Fuat Çam is about the Mahrukyan School in Beşiktaş built by the Balian Family. The second one named “Rememberance” by Ümit Kıvanç is about the mosques in Istanbul built by the Armenian architects.
Parallel with the exhibition a panel discussion was organized. Hasan Kuruyazıcı, Edhem Eldem, Afife Batur, Ahmet Ersoy, Elmon Hançer talked about the architecture in the era of westernization and the role of the Armenian architects and how to interpret the history. Additionally, a tour program of the displayed architectural monuments guided by Elmon Hançer took place.
The photos of the exhibition 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).
The exhibition remained open between 9 December 2010 – 9 January 2011 at Istanbul Modern and will it travel different cities in 2011.
