The “Tulipomania” (Tulip Mania) exhibition has opened at the Temporary Exhibition Hall of the Istanbul Tulip Museum, affiliated with the Istanbul Tulip Foundation.
Held annually during tulip season in Istanbul, this year’s exhibition features 101 tulip sculptures painted by visual arts teachers and students from all 39 districts of the city in collaboration with the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education.
The exhibition, with Dr. Ali Cantürk serving as general art director and İsmail Acar as curator, showcases works in a variety of disciplines, including artificial intelligence art, paintings, sculptures, ceramics and tile art.
Blending contemporary and traditional approaches, the exhibition aims to build a bridge between the past and the future.
Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, Cantürk said the exhibition was created with the intention of bringing the tulip’s thousand-year cultural heritage together with contemporary art.
“We approached the tulip not merely as a visual object but as a philosophy connecting East and West,” he said. “Every year, our ‘Tulipomania’ exhibition has become a tradition. During the season when tulips bloom, we organize this exhibition to make the tulip more recognizable and visible. In this sense, we present the tulip — which has become a symbol of Istanbul and Emirgan Grove — to art lovers through the language of visual arts.”
Cantürk also highlighted the tulip’s cultural and spiritual significance throughout history.
“The tulip, carried from Central Asia to Anatolia, has symbolized elegance in these lands for centuries,” he said.
“In the Ottoman era, the tulip gave its name to an entire period and influenced everything from architecture to textiles, tiles and miniature art. Today, the tulip has become a global and living symbol, carrying the elegance of the past into the future. The tulips blooming every year on Istanbul’s streets keep our collective memory and aesthetic sensibility alive.”
Cantürk noted that this year’s exhibition especially aimed to include children and young people.
“Through this collaboration, thousands of students across Istanbul painted tulip sculptures under the guidance of visual arts teachers, and their works became part of the exhibition,” he said.
“The main purpose is to help young people discover their cultural heritage and to create an alternative space where they can experience art at an early age.”
Curator İsmail Acar said the exhibition seeks to question whether humanity truly changes or whether only the forms of its desires evolve.
Referring to the “Tulip Mania” of the 17th-century Netherlands, considered one of history’s first major economic speculations, Acar described the phenomenon as more than just a trade story.
“It became a cultural breaking point symbolizing desire, status, aesthetic passion and consumer psychology,” he said. “At one point, the tulip transformed from a flower into an object representing wealth, power, privilege and display, with people paying fortunes for rare tulip bulbs.”
Acar added that the exhibition examines how similar “manias” continue to reappear in today’s world through fashion, the art market, social media visibility, consumer culture and brand obsession.
“The tulip here is not merely a botanical form but a metaphor for humanity’s way of producing desire,” he said.
He also emphasized that the participation of teachers and students from Istanbul’s 39 districts turned the project into more than an aesthetic production.
“We aim to establish a multilayered cultural bridge between the past and the future,” Acar said. “The exhibition’s main approach is to bring together contemporary and traditional forms of production on the same ground and reopen discussions about the transforming language of art.”
The exhibition includes works by numerous Turkish and international artists and will remain open until Aug. 30.
The exhibition displays works from a variety of disciplines, including artificial intelligence art, paintings, sculptures, ceramics and tile art.
