The Ara Güler Museum and Leica Gallery Istanbul have come together for an important exhibition in Istanbul for the first time. Within the scope of their project, "Hollow and Mounds: A Take On Göbeklitepe" exhibition by artist Sinem Dişli, opens its doors to art lovers at the Ara Güler Museum and Leica Gallery Istanbul. In addition to photographs, videos, paintings and installations produced by Dişli, the photos of Göbeklitepe by Ara Güler will meet art lovers at the exhibition. The exhibition at Yapı Kredi bomontiada will run until Jan. 15, 2020.

The main focus of the exhibition, a parallel event to the 16th Istanbul Biennial, is the Göbeklitepe archaeological site, the oldest known temple in Şanlıurfa. The Ara Güler Museum opens its doors to a young artist for the first time within the scope of this exhibition. In this long-term project, the artist makes use of science such as archaeology, geology and geography while reading history through water and stone. Blending fiction with documentary, she questions the life and history cycle and the roles that one has set for themselves with symbols appropriate to the mythology of the region. The artist, who lives between Şanlıurfa, Istanbul and New York, talks about our common history through the use of different mediums as a universal language. At the artist's exhibition, the Ara Güler Museum simultaneously presents the Göbeklitepe photographs of the master photographer to the audience for the first time.


The main focus of the exhibition, a parallel event to the 16th Istanbul Biennial, is the Göbeklitepe archaeological site, the oldest known temple in Şanlıurfa.

A book of the same name is also presented to readers at "Hollows and Mounds: A Take at Göbeklitepe." In the book, prepared by Ara Güler, texts by Christopher Lightfoot, Wendy M.K.Shaw, Ahmet A.Ersoy and İpek Ulusoy Akgül are included.

Leica Gallery Istanbul Director Yasemin Elçi said, "The reading of Göbeklitepe, which led the rewriting of the history of humanity, in mythological, geological and archaeological layers, and the observation of the effects of these layers on history and people of the region have brought Leica Gallery Istanbul and Ara Güler Museum together in the idea of a joint exhibition to be held for the first time. An exhibition which looks closest to the farthest history between the stone building of a factory that connects the underground and surface in the lands where the story of stone still continues and a book gather Göbeklitepe, the world's first known temple, with the interpretation of a contemporary artist after 12,000 years. Leica, which has left a mark in the history of photography, has become a meaningful host for a contemporary artist who combines archaeology and photography with her mission to include world-class galleries featuring history-related exhibitions, international photographic archives, and names that will be a heritage for future periods. The Ara Güler Archives and Research Center and Ara Güler Museum's aim to transport the unique heritage of Turkey's photos, Ara Güler's discovery of Aphrodisias, which started talks of photography and archaeology's relationship in Turkey, and Göbeklitepe photos that have never been seen to date also present a cultural and historical background to this exhibition."

Artist Sinem Dişli, who states that Göbeklitepe was discovered in Şanlıurfa, the city where she was born and raised, also remarked, "In the area between the Euphrates and Tigris River, this gigantic structure built by hunter-gatherers about 12,000 years ago by shaping limestone,

basalt and flint stone is thought to be a ritual area and observatory. Göbeklitepe reached a critical point in our complex timetable, pointing to the existence of a search for understanding the universe and producing spaces that mimic its movements, even in the early Neolithic period, when the established order was not yet seen. This structure, which has transformed our flow of knowledge and our approach to knowledge, refuting the assumptions about agricultural, architectural, religious and vital practices since its discovery, challenges traditional historiography. On the other hand, all of our practices from Göbeklitepe's period to the present, all changes in our understanding of life are only part of a long cycle of fermentation. I think that the daily rituals found in the region, looking deeper into the microcosm of the human-material relationship and tracing them back to their ancient origins can create a fertile ground for new approaches to reinterpreting history and interacting with our environment."