SSM adds new work to its collection

ISTANBUL

Sakıp Sabancı Museum (SSM) has added a new contemporary artwork to its permanent collection with the inclusion of “Doğa Sonrası Etütleri V.2” (Post-Nature Studies V.2), a video piece by artist and academic Murat Durusoy.

Durusoy’s video draws inspiration from the Judas tree laurel, frankincense, oleander and rosemary plants growing in the SSM Garden. These natural forms are transformed into synthetic polymers, circuit boards and metallic textures, creating hybrid images in which organic and manmade materials appear inseparably fused.

The work points to the Anthropocene, an era marked by irreversible human impact on ecological balance and increasingly visible climate disruption.

The video establishes an unexpected dialogue with manuscripts embellished with vegetal motifs. Referencing the symmetry and gold-leaf ornamentation of classical calligraphic compositions, Durusoy reframes the tension between nature and technology through what he describes as a digital still life.

Working around themes such as climate crisis, technology, memory, time and image, Durusoy conceives the “Post-Nature Studies” series as a space where nature is not only observed but re-produced through technological processes. By layering his own plant recordings with digital interventions, light refractions and synthetic surface structures, he reveals traces of human interference on natural forms.

The resulting aesthetic challenges the documentary quality of photography and the temporal flow of video, offering viewers an experience in which the line between the organic and the artificial becomes increasingly indistinct.

The piece is on display on the upper floor of the Atlı Köşk (the Mansion with the Horse), within the Book Arts and Calligraphy galleries.

SSM will also host a public talk on Nov. 29 with Durusoy and Ayşe Aldemir, director of the Book Arts and Calligraphy Collection. The event is free for museum visitors and will explore the creation and exhibition process of the work.