As the Turkish government announced that the Hagia Sophia will be converted back into a mosque, one of the primary responses worldwide has been to assert that the edifice constitutes “universal” heritage, that it belongs to all of us.
Turkey
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Turkish Activist and Arts Philanthropist Osman Kavala Nears 1,000 Days in Prison
Kavala has been detained since 2017. Human rights activists have called for his release due to a lack of “facts, information, or evidence.”
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After 85 Years as a Museum, the Hagia Sophia Will Become a Mosque
Art historians and conservationists worry Turkish authorities might remove the centuries-old Byzantine mosaics that adorn it.
Posted inArt
Revisiting Photography’s First Road Trip
Ten Turkish artists follow daguerreotypist Frédéric Auguste Antoine Goupil-Fesquet’s 180-year-old journey through the Eastern Mediterranean.
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Turkish Arts Philanthropist Acquitted, Then Detained Again
Imprisoned since 2017, Osman Kavala was found not guilty of attempting to overthrow the government, but re-detained on new charges before he could even taste freedom.
Posted inArt
The Artist Walking Between Two Seas in Istanbul
For years, artist Serkan Taycan has documented a nearly 40-mile route through the outskirts of Istanbul, which traverses rarely seen landscapes. He facilitates walks through the area, now at risk due to a proposed shipping canal.
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At the Istanbul Biennial, Pondering Just How Scared We All Are — or Should Be
In The Seventh Continent, installations don’t so much play off one another as lead to a feeling of fatigue, as one ponders a stream of disparate weighty topics in rapid succession.
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Cultural Boycott of Turkey Led by Major Scholars and Artists
A group of 280 leading scholars, writers, and artists — including Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, and Brian Eno — signed the petition in response to Turkey’s invasion of Kurdish regions in northeastern Syria.
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Controversy in Istanbul Underscores Rising Political Pressures on Turkish Art Scene
A nationalist message from the head of the country’s biggest contemporary art fair stands in stark contrast to limits of expression on other segments of the Turkish art world.
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Collaging an Alternate Reality for Gay Life in Turkey
By literally projecting himself into spaces typically reserved for heterosexual Turkish men, Sinan Tuncay has created a reality in which he takes part in rites of passage that he never experienced.
Posted inArt
A New Art Museum in Turkey Looks Beyond Istanbul
Odunpazari Modern Museum, Turkey’s first purpose-built modern art museum, has opened in a college town hours from Istanbul, but can it shift the center of gravity in a country seeing a wave of new art museums?
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Turkish Filmmaker Chains Himself to Culture Ministry to Protest Confiscation of His Archive
Oktay Ince, a longtime video activist fighting to retrieve an archive worth 20 years of his work, was held in police custody and accused of terrorist propaganda after he chained himself to a pole outside the culture ministry in Ankara.