Looking Through the Shutters: A Glimpse of Meşrutiyet Street in the Late 19th Century

Istanbul Research Institute, 20 March – 21 September

The 19th century was a century of encounters for Istanbul and especially for Pera. City residents attempted to keep pace with economic, social and physical transformations; "space" and "daily life" continuously reconstructed each other. Habits introduced into the lives of Istanbulites as a result of modernisation produced new spaces, and these spaces, through institutionalisation, allowed habits to take root. Particularly from the second half of the 19th century onwards, foreign visitors who found opportunities to visit Istanbul more frequently, influenced by developments in international transport networks, demanded standards suited to their habits; this demand, by transforming accommodation and entertainment structures, produced its own spatial equivalent. Pera underwent multidimensional change: on one hand, following the destruction caused by fires, the district was rebuilt with modern materials; on the other hand, consumption patterns shifted with increased imports. Window shopping had now become a cheerful activity of daily life; passages and storefronts, which had become part of the city's social life, had begun to construct the landscape of class inequality. New leisure time needs that emerged alongside various entertainment, recreation, viewing and spectacle habits characteristic of modern times gave birth to new spaces in which different imaginings of the city, material and cultural conflicts were embodied.

From the second half of the 19th century onwards, Pera acquired its own distinctive character within a process in which many local and international actors converged, and trends and struggles that shaped the city's transformation crystallised.

Though this character was affected by dramatic changes in demographic composition in the subsequent century, it continued to be decisive for the district's transformation. Pera continued to influence and be influenced by entertainment, recreation and viewing habits. The exhibition, which examines a section of Meşrutiyet Avenue (the space between the Istanbul Research Institute and the Pera Museum buildings), attempts to capture a holistic perspective of Pera through the references produced by this spatial interval. While the principal focus of the period examined is the turn of the century when all indicators were most pronounced, the temporal boundaries of the interval are kept flexible to allow for contemporary interpretation. Curated by Atölye Mil founders Dilara Tekin Gezginti and Eda Özgener, the exhibition opens the multilayered identity of Pera to visitors' experience through this 'Interval', by means of spatial productions and virtual reality technologies.