Long-awaited Arter reopens doors

HATİCE UTKAN ÖZDEN

Arter - Istanbul’s long-awaited modern art space – is set to open its doors on Sept. 13 in the Dolapdere neighborhood. Speaking at a press conference held on Sept. 5 at the museum, founding Director Melih Fereli said entrance to the museum will be free of charge until Jan. 2, 2020 and will continue to be free for everyone under age 24. 

“Our aim is to encourage children and young people in new ways of thinking and to spread art to everyone, helping them to increase ways to reach art,” he said.

The museum will bring together different art disciplines such as performances, theater, dance and cinema.

Our aim is “to try to sustain the quality we started 10 years ago on İstiklal Street,” Fereli said.

He said another goal was to welcome their new neighbors in Dolapdere into the museum and to assimilate the building’s architecture into the character of the neighborhood.

Arter’s main sponsor is Tüpraş, and the new museum was designed by Grimshaw Architects to reflect the gathering of cross disciplines of art under one roof. The museum offers shuttle services from the metro stations closest to the museum building.

New exhibitions at Arter

Speaking about the new exhibition program, curator Emre Baykal said Arter will continue to host new exhibitions and commissioned ones.

The museum will host two joint exhibitions summoning different mediums in modern art. There will be an exclusive retrospective of Altan Gürman, who was famous with his approach in questioning structure and idea.

The retrospective, curated by Başak Doğa Temur, shows how Gürman uses techniques such as printing, woodwork and printing to create his own language.

The museum’s largest exhibition, titled “Saat Kaç?” (“What time is it?”), takes its name from Cengiz Çekil’s work by the same name.

The exhibition, bringing together 34 artists’ 44 works, will continue until Jan 9, 2020.

Curated by Baykal and Eda Berkmen, the exhibition spans for two floors and highlights young and established modern artists who have changed Turkish modern art, such as Cengiz Çekil, Gülsün Karamustafa, Hüseyin Bahri Akptekin and others.

Another joint exhibition, called “Words Are Very Unnecessary,” takes its name from a famous Depeche Mode song, collecting 52 works on one floor with artists such as Gökçen Dilek Acay, Vito Acconci, Nevin Aladağ, Meriç Algün, Francis Alÿs, Mehtap Baydu, Yto Barrada, Joseph Beuys, Geta Brătescu, George Brecht, Elina Brotherus and Stanley Brouwn.

Arter also hosts two solo exhibitions by İnci Furni and Ayşe Erkmen. This will be the first time in Turkey that Erkmen will have an exhibition in an institute such as Arter. The solo exhibitions bring together landmark works of both artists while opening a new dimension for everyone to discover more about Furni and Erkmen.

The museum is also hosting Rosa Barba’s three-part series video work titled, “The Hidden Conference,” which focuses on filmic investigations about museum archives. On the other hand, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s work, which unites sound and a spatial installation with three large pianos titled “Off-Road, V.2” is another solo work on exhibit.