On our second day in Istanbul, the family and I skipped off to the Istanbul Modern.
If you’ve ever read the blog you probably know that we’re both pretty into the Modernest of the Modern. Not necessarily because it’s always good- often it seems terrible, or at least much ado about nothing- but because it is, pretty much by definition, always trying to be something new.
And it usually is more interesting to talk about than, say, Italian Renaissance Art:
‘Oh you saw some IRA you say? Scene from the bible you say? Mother and child you say?’
Anyway, before we hit our location, Andy and I scouted the district near our hotel, in my Grand Turkish Search for Cool Fabrics.
Unfortunately, everything was closed, but Andy did manage to find pickles, which I guess pleased both the Deutsch and Polish parts of his genetic makeup.
He also found a cute(r?) ranger(er?) friend…
.. but that friend was a fickle kind.
The area was a fascinating mixture of life and bustle (greenery, people in cafes, cats, people feeding cats).. juxtaposed against some impressively derelict buildings.
And did I mention that there were kittens?
We eventually rolled ourselves all the way down the hill towards the museum- stopping of course on the way to take more photos of the magnificent architecture.
At the Modern (looking out from the entrance)- Again, I love how the sky-scape in Istanbul always has so many competing influences, ages, and styles.
I quite liked the layout of the museum. Partially, because one of the first things that you see is a giant glowing tesselation-orb…
.. but more so because the IM contains a lot of open spaces, and you can look ‘across’ the whole space and see many crazy pieces all in a row…
.. and I think that the whole becomes somehow more than the sum of its parts…
While the rest of us pottered around, Mari-Anne, rather cleverly, discovered that one of the art works was interactive.
Which received Andy’s attention, and also a lot of negative attention from onlookers, who hadn’t quite got around to reading the installation description.
I was busy down the hallway, looking at a giant glowing ball-web. I don’t know quite what it is, but it looks kind of science-y right?
This one is definitely science-y: it’s actually supposed to represent polar covalent bonds!
This video installation, by Kutlug Ataman, was by far one of my favourite pieces. It shows four ‘Women Who Wear Wigs’- with each woman having a different reason behind her wig-wearing: a political activist trying to hide her identity; a chemo patient trying to maintain her femininity; a transvestite who had her long hair cut off against her will; and a university student who wears a wig to hide her headscarf (they are banned at Turkish universities).
Downstairs, we headed into ‘Plurivocality’- an exhibition investigating the interrelations between auditory and visual arts.
Balloons!
This was also cool- different instruments being ‘played’ by nature.
We took a breif break to have some caffeine, and to stare wistfully out at the sea…
.. before heading back in for a final look at our favourite piece.
This. This I would like for my living room!
For lunch we tucked into some fairly fine food at ‘PIM’, a cafe complete with falafel and felines located in a nice secluded shady avenue.