An exhibition on the reconstruction of the Atatürk Culture Center (AKM) in Istanbul, as an extensive, cultural and urban building at one end of Taksim Square, within the available facilities and requirements of the new century, being loyal to the collective memory of the city and original form of the construction opened at the Architecktur Galerie in Berlin on March 16. Curated by Murat Tabanlıoğlu, the exhibition is open until April 28.
Tabanlıoğlu Architecture's exhibition, "Recomposing AKM," opened with a ceremony that brought together many important figures from the culture, art and architecture worlds. The exhibition tries to understand and to tell of the importance of the building in the collective memory with processes and cultural and urban roles. In a world where everything changes, the authentic basics to which the AKM project applied with an attention to find a balance between flexible ways of conducting new work together with basic values comprise the main elements of the exhibition.
For those who want to examine the old and new projects closely, detailed archives and architectural information are presented on interactive digital screens.
The objects at the exhibition include ceramics, lighting armatures, building materials such as stage and maintenance equipment, music stands, pieces of furniture, posters and brochures from the AKM stock. In addition, official reports regulated from the beginnings of the 1950s, notes and unofficial letters, photographs, magazines and newspapers, various projects for Taksim Square from the 1940s and for the AKM from the 1950s, sketches, plans, detailed technical drawings and reports and books of these projects are among the objects on display. Two sectional1/60-scale models compare the old and future building. For those who want to examine the old and new projects closely, detailed archives and architectural information are presented on interactive digital screens.
The materials and examples were chosen to determine the basic limits of the exhibition's content and to present the archive of architectural projects prepared from the beginning of the 1940s for the richness and building of the AKM. The surface of shelves, as the primary instrument to carry materials of different sizes, volumes and weights, have been prepared in a versatile, controllable and sized way for the anthology. In this three-dimensional frame, the materials of the building and sketches and documents of old and present produce meaning and integrity. A table that will be open to use over a wall of the exhibition was designed to enable people to examine printed publications, copies of materials and some original ones, as well.
Architecktur Galerie, Berlin.
In the exhibition, the work of contemporary artists are also on display together with original elements of the building to reflect the common memory of the city. The piece, "Invocation," by Berlin artist Theo Eshetu and work by Hasan Deniz, Serkan Taycan, Sercan Apaydın and Emre Dörter focus on different periods of the AKM.
While the new AKM continues its journey where it looks for an answer to how should we dealt with the 1960s architecture today, the exhibition, supported by BASF, BITUFA, Competenza, FSB, GEZE, Jung, Kalebodur, Nurus and Şişecam Flat Glass, will be open to visit until April 28 at Architektur Galerie Berlin. As part of the exhibition, there will be a conversation with Murat Tabanlıoğlu at Olaf Bartels on April 27 at 7 p.m.
