Recent Stories
19 STORIES
In Istanbul, the fish told the season
Istanbul once kept its calendar by the sea. The arrival of bonito, bluefish and mackerel decided not only what would be cooked in the kitchen but also when the boats would be launched, how the fish stalls looked and the daily rhythm of the city. Some things never change. When October comes, eyes in Istanbul still turn back to the sea.
Instadocs: an age that breeds its own monsters, filmed as it happens
World literature’s elegant revolutionaries: on the ‘Latin American Boom’
“Latin Amerika Patlaması - Boom Mektupları” (The Boom Letters), brought into Turkish by Süleyman Doğru, invites us into the world of four groundbreaking names in Latin American and Spanish-language literature, through an “introduction” written jointly by the book’s editors, some 207 letters and messages, the writers’ interviews with one another, and the essays, critiques and articles they wrote about their works.
A community-built festival in the footsteps of Lycia: Kaş Tiyatro Günleri
Held for the fifth time from 15 to 18 October under the theme “Lycian Cultural Heritage”, Kaş Tiyatro Günleri (Kaş Theatre Days) this year reaches beyond Kaş to Myra and Patara. We spoke with Ahmet Murat Akoy, one of the festival’s founders and president of the Kaş Environment and Culture Association, and volunteer supporter Aslınur Sarıca about the space opened up by theatre, the ecological struggle and making things together.
The age of experience: how is the events economy shaping city life?
Events are handy formats: they bring together the city’s different players, make empty spaces visible, change the story of neighbourhoods and generate economic activity, and on top of all that turn all of this into something measurable and programmable. But designing a city as an “events stage” does not always give the right answer. What is left once the event is over? Does the value created contribute not only to the cultural ecosystem but also to access to public space, to local businesses and to the daily life of neighbourhoods?
Bozcaada International Ecological Documentary Festival: ‘Local, small, slow’
A generation meets its past: Çilekeş back on stage after 16 years
Organised by Epifoni Organizasyonu, Çilekeş returned to the stage with their original line-up after 16 years. The band did not just play their old songs, they also made us part of a collective crowd.
The film that forgets its main character: Unabomber
Nermin Ülker: ‘Sometimes the way to express something is to leave it incomplete’
Nermin Ülker’s exhibition “Dört Köşeli Üçgen: Yerini Bulamamış Cümlelerin Anıtları”, curated by Filiz Ağdemir, is on view at Black Light Gallery from 16 October to 5 December. We spoke with Nermin Ülker and Filiz Ağdemir about the show.
Imaginary events, fake views, decade-old ancient theatres: how fakery is on the rise in tourism
Franco Malosso, 69, who charged visitors up to 40 euros to enter a supposedly 2,000-year-old amphitheatre he had built from scratch in Italy, has been sentenced to 28 months in prison. Taking this extraordinary case as our starting point, we look at the non-existent tourist attractions spreading as a result of AI hallucinations.
A London food route: from Borough Market to Bermondsey Street
Getting to know London through its food doesn’t always mean chasing the city’s newest restaurants. Sometimes a route of a few streets is enough to see how the city’s food culture is changing. The area from Borough Market to Bermondsey Street is one of the best examples. Emre Onar walks us step by step through this short distance by way of his favourite stops and his own experiences, following a route that begins with coffee and moves from the market stalls to the restaurants, and from there to the calm of Bermondsey Street.
This week in Bibliotherapy: books for teenagers who struggle to express themselves
There is a longer distance than we imagine between thinking about our feelings and expressing them. Sometimes thinking even becomes an alternative to expressing. We spend so much time in our own minds that we never have to talk to anyone else. In adolescence, on top of all this comes a sensitivity to what other people think. Three books for teenagers who find it hard to express themselves.
The cast of ‘Animals’ on how privilege shapes our moral choices
Emin Hitay: “Real support means letting the artist stay in the room”
Aynı Mavinin Altında at Istanbul Modern: a polyphonic art history
Istanbul Modern’s new collection exhibition, Aynı Mavinin Altında, treats the art history of Türkiye as a living field, open to being rethought between past and contemporary work. We spoke to its co-curators, Çelenk Bafra and Deniz Pehlivaner, about how a museum might rewrite art history, and the possibilities this holds.
Stardust | Freeing spirituality: the cinema of Kieślowski
Kieślowski describes himself as agnostic. Although he created a work like “Dekalog”, which takes the Ten Commandments as its direct starting point, he does not turn Catholic teaching into the moral authority of his films. As we see in his own account, what shaped his moral world was not so much Catholicism as the experience of independent thought; the crown of “ethics” is returned to the king who deserves it: spirituality.
Istanbul from 6 to 6 | Tanrı Misafiri on Istanbul’s pop-up food scene
Istanbul from 6 to 6 | Beyond Hi-Fi and craft drinks: what a listening bar is, and isn’t
Born in Japan and now spreading across the big cities of Europe and the US, audiophile bars represent the spread of an analogue culture that puts experience, process and quality ahead of uniformity and fast consumption. One of the current versions of this approach, which brings food, drink and music together, is taproomx in Asmalı Mescit. In this instalment of the “Istanbul from 6 to 6” series, Can Çakmakçı, one of taproomx’s partners, tells us how the feel of vinyl and craft beer took the shape of a place.
Les Benjamins and Apple stage a spellbinding launch in Cappadocia
Cappadocia’s unique landscape, Barış Manço’s cultural legacy and the bold colours of contemporary fashion, all in one place. Les Benjamins presented “From Earth to Sky”, the collection celebrating its 15th year, in Gül Vadisi (Rose Valley) in collaboration with Apple. Rooted in Anatolia, this encounter reinterprets fashion’s relationship with culture through the lens of technology and creativity.
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