Turkey, which is exhibiting at the Architecture Biennale for the first time this year, will occupy a room on the upper floor. An elongated black box is set up under the roof beams as a “memory tunnel”, on whose walls photos and models show a differentiated image of Istanbul.
For the first time, as many countries are being presented in the Arsenale as in the Giardini at this Biennale. However, while the country pavilions there provide orientation, it is easy to lose track of the often small-scale country presentations in the seemingly endless strand of the Artiglierie.
In contrast, the exhibition rooms in the discreetly renovated “Sale d’ Armi” – the former weapons warehouses of the Venetian naval power – appear spacious and flooded with light. Turkey, which is exhibiting at the Architecture Biennale for the first time this year, is occupying a room on the upper floor. Under the open roof beams, an elongated black box is set up as a “memory tunnel”, with photos and models on the walls showing a differentiated image of Istanbul. Beyond clichés and multi-million dollar investor projects, the curators focus here on personal perceptions of the metropolis. The large-format photographs of important Istanbul squares are impressive. Photographed in a mild, neutral light, they show the quality of the places – and yet the images of last year’s demonstrations involuntarily resonate, just as the title “Agoraphobia” refers to the ambiguity of urban squares.
The focal point of the exhibition is a single building: the Atatürk Cultural Center, to which the central area is dedicated. It is not only the history of this building that is condensed in large-format photos. The ups and downs of its planning and construction phases also reflect the social and political changes in Turkey: Auguste Perret’s initial plans for an opera house in 1939 were followed by redesigns and the laying of the foundation stone in 1946, then new plans and realization as a cultural center only 23 years later, shortly afterwards a fire damaged the building, it was rebuilt, renovated and finally, in 2013, the renovation was stopped. The photos are virtually self-explanatory, the lettering above the pictures is correspondingly brief: “From opera house to cultural center to backdrop for politics”. The last photo in the series is particularly memorable: banners from the demonstrations of early summer 2013 hang on the façade of the empty building. Even a visitor in a hurry can immediately grasp the significance of this building as a symbol of modernity in Turkey – not only as an architectural icon of the 1960s, but also in a cultural and political context. And one senses how far-reaching the discussion about the future of the Atatürk Cultural Center is.
The Baumeister’s coverage of the Biennale is supported by FSB.
Photo: Photo By Andrea Avezzù
