Kaleiçi, Antalya’s historic old town, will turn into an open-air gallery during the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP31), hosting a series of exhibitions exploring the climate crisis, consumer habits, waste recycling, marine pollution and cultural heritage through art.
With a history spanning Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman civilizations, the historic district will be among the venues for events organized across Antalya as part of COP31, which Türkiye is hosting for the first time. The global climate summit has officially kicked off at the Antalya COP31 venue, with a range of activities also taking place throughout the city.
Known for its historic buildings, distinctive architecture and bougainvillea-lined streets, Kaleiçi offers visitors the feel of an open-air museum throughout the year. Now, as part of the COP TOWN program organized by Muratpaşa Municipality, the district will also host a series of exhibitions dedicated to the environment and sustainability.
Bringing together different artistic disciplines under the theme "If the Mediterranean Changes, So Does Humanity," the exhibitions will explore the climate crisis, consumption patterns, waste transformation, marine pollution and the preservation of cultural heritage.
Curated by Enver Güner, a faculty member at Akdeniz University's Faculty of Fine Arts, the exhibition “Akdeniz Değişirse” (“If the Mediterranean Changes”) will bring together 11 artists at a hotel in Kaleiçi. It will examine the impact of the climate crisis on cities and biodiversity.
At Karatay Madrasa, “Dönüşen Umut” (“Transforming Hope”), curated by Bergüm Berber, will showcase how 11 artists have given discarded objects new meaning. Coordinated by the International Association of Culture, Art, Migration and Harmony, the exhibition will highlight the role of recycling in building a sustainable future.
At Varuna Gezgin, painter Sevda Kesim's exhibition “Zamanın Kıyısındaki Ütopya” (“A Utopia on the Edge of Time”) will explore humanity's relationship with nature through the imagery of seashells.
Other projects will approach environmental issues through the creative reuse of everyday materials. In "Antalya’s weather and its pans are impossible to get enough of" (“Antalya’nın havaları, havasından geçilmez tavaları”), the Independent Art Movement will turn old, worn-out kitchen pans into artistic canvases. Semra Erkal's "The Apathy Trilogy," meanwhile, will use sculptures made from plastic waste to examine society's indifference to environmental pollution. “Doğaya Bakış” (“A View of Nature”), by Hüseyin Köse and Nazan Uzungül Köse, will feature reimagined works made from discarded materials such as wood, metal and stone.
Arif Durukan's exhibition “Likya, Işık Ülkesinin Zamansız Yüzleri” (“Lycia, Timeless Faces of the Land of Light”) will feature works made exclusively from Limra stone, a type of limestone native to Antalya, with an emphasis on minimizing the carbon footprint.
At the Suna and Inan Kıraç Kaleiçi Museum, Özgül Kahraman's “Sessiz Temas” (“Silent Contact”) will use fingerprints as a metaphor to illustrate humanity's impact on ecosystems. At Üç Kapılar (Hadrian's Gate), Serkan Türk's video art installation "Objects, Subjects" will explore the concept of waste.
Curated by Sevda Kesim, “Terra, Toğrağın Hafızası” (“Terra, The Memory of the Earth”), featuring artists from the Independent Art Movement, will revisit humanity's artistic connection with the soil through mud, clay and natural plant dyes.
Mine Aydoğan, a lecturer at Akdeniz University's Faculty of Fine Arts, will present “St. Nicholas: From 1997 to 2026,” bringing back a collection she created 29 years ago using the traditional batik technique on silk. The works feature St. Nicholas, closely associated with the Demre district of Antalya, alongside images of doves symbolizing peace.
The Independent Art Movement's young artists will also take part in “Akdeniz’de Olmak” (“Being in the Mediterranean”), an exhibition drawing attention to the climate crisis and environmental pollution through a contrast between good and bad. Eda Şarman's solo exhibition, "Yar," will round out the program.
