Isabel Muñoz Meets Art Lovers at the Pera Museum

Isabel Muñoz Meets Art Enthusiasts at Pera Müzesi Suna ve İnan Kıraç Vakfı Pera Müzesi is hosting two photography exhibitions until 17 September. The Isabel Muñoz: A New Story exhibition, focusing on Göbeklitepe and its surroundings—one of Turkey's most significant archaeological sites—offers the opportunity to discover this enigmatic geography of human history through Muñoz's compelling perspective. Zamane İstanbulları, which brings together contemporary visual narratives of Istanbul, presents works by 11 photographers living in Istanbul, offering striking perspectives of the megacity to art enthusiasts.

A journey of discovery into the enigmatic geography of human history

Renowned photographer Isabel Muñoz meets art enthusiasts at Pera Müzesi with her works on Göbeklitepe and its surroundings. The exhibition titled Isabel Muñoz: A New Story offers the opportunity to discover Stone Hills—including Göbeklitepe, Karahantepe and Sayburç, which is considered to be the world's oldest cult site and has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2018—through Muñoz's compelling perspective. Isabel Muñoz, known for her monochromatic portraits of people and cultures from different geographies, has frequently explored various subjects during her visits to Turkey: from whirling dervishes to olive oil workers, from oil wrestling to the Roma of Sulukule. In her new exhibition at Pera Müzesi, the artist pursues questions related to mystery, origin and infinity in Göbeklitepe and its surroundings, which deeply moved her.

Ancient methods and new techniques together

Isabel Muñoz: A New Story - Photographs from Göbeklitepe and its Surroundings, while offering the opportunity to discover this enigmatic geography of human history through Muñoz's compelling perspective, also contains surprises in terms of the renowned photographer's innovative methods and printing techniques. Photographs using the "Tepetype" technique, which the artist developed drawing inspiration from methods used in ancient times, are being shown for the first time, and the intriguing work also includes an extraordinary self-portrait reflecting the brain waves in the human head figure at Karahantepe using EEG. These innovative works rank among the engaging pieces on display. The catalogue accompanying the exhibition features François Cheval's curatorial text, along with Yekhan Pınarlıgil's essay examining the relationship of photographic practice to light and the role of memory in Muñoz's works, as well as an interview with the artist conducted by Merve Akar Akgün.

The thousand faces of the megacity Istanbul

The Zamane İstanbulları exhibition, curated by Refik Akyüz and Serdar Darendeliler, brings together works by 11 photographers living and working in Istanbul that focus on the megacity under different themes. The photography exhibition, comprising works by Silva Bingaz, Osman Bozkurt, Ci Demi, Kıvılcım S. Güngörün, Ekin Özbiçer, Emin Özmen, Ahmet Sel, Ali Taptık, Kerem Uzel, Erdem Varol and Cansu Yıldıran, highlights the artists' practices of interpreting the city as a personal space of interaction and the extraordinary and equally ordinary oddities encountered in Istanbul's streets. Texts written for the exhibition catalogue by a group of writers who research, contemplate and produce narratives about Istanbul—Yaşar Adnan Adanalı, Fırat Genç, Şebnem İşigüzel, Melisa Kesmez, Biray Kolluoğlu, N. Gamze Toksoy and Sibel Yardımcı—add another important layer to Zamane İstanbulları.

Photographs given voice by stories

The photographs in the exhibition also inspired a series of stories. To the series titled Zamane Öyküleri, which can be read on the Pera Müzesi website, Pelin Buzluk contributed the story "Coal," inspired by photographer Kerem Uzel's Waiting for Transformation series. Ci Demi's Traces of Everything Going Wrong series is transformed into words in Özge Baykan Calafato's story "Cihangir," while Cansu Yıldıran's Shelter series becomes the story "Felis" by Hande Ortaç.