" WATER. LIKE TEARS OF LOVE " freely inspired by Tursun - - PDF document

ITALIAN INSTITUTE OF CULTURE IN ISTANBUL presents

under the patronage of

"WATER. LIKE TEARS OF LOVE"

freely inspired by Tursun Bey, Ottoman historian and poet of Fifteenth century

a site-specific art installation in Istanbul by

ANGELO BUCARELLI

Curator: Laura Barreca Executive director: Ayşe Pınar Akalın

• ISTANBUL. September 15 – October 25, 2013

Küçük Mustafa Paşa Hamamı, Mustantik Sokak. Cibali. Fatih PARALLEL EVENT OF THE 13TH INTERNATIONAL ISTANBUL BIENNIAL

A note by Angelo Bucarelli: “My work inquires the complex world of identity and primordial human instinct of communication. Isolating words I try to enter the difficult space of meanings and experience. In this new challenge offered to me by the Italian Institute of Culture in Istanbul, I would like to stimulate the observer to open his mind to a personal simple and deep perception of encountering a different culture and make it his own. I have chosen then to challenge myself creating a site-specific installation able to force me into Istanbul identity as well as a traveler from other Countries could do. The first site is the story that only architecture could report from the local history and experience. I have looked for a location able to tell as much as possible. A hamam, a roman tradition that became a real symbol of Costantinopolis and eventually of Istanbul. Since the first time I came to Istanbul (1972) I have understood that the key of its identity is the

• water. Looking at the Bosphorus from a terrace of Galata I have thought of Tursun Bey, the poet

and writer that was following Mehmet II Fatih while he conquered Costantinopolis, that was struck by the city abundance of water, so much.. like tears of lovers, he wrote. I wrote myself: “Water is the existence and the essence of Istanbul. From the water and through it, it was born. It gave the power, lost and then regained. Through the water Istanbul fed on other civilizations repaying them with its intelligence and beauties. In its lack of water within the walls, it found genius and development. As thought the water seeps and springs, escapes and disappears. It gives growth and death. Like the tears of love it joins together and separates”. I took Tursun Bey's vers for my title: Water. Like tears of love. Water is going to be the central theme of my installation. A path of several encounters of experience or perception of water that stay in me like memories are staying in a traveler mind. I have discovered in the Byzantine part of Town a place where water is the center as well as the local life, a hamam. Luck brought to me an abandoned hamam built at the time of Tursun Bey, the end of 15th century. Built in Cibali where there was one of the rare water springs of town, next to the Gul Camii a former Byzantine church on the south shore of the Golden Horn. The Küçük Mustafa Paşa Hamamı is a beautiful building that carries some arab architectural reminiscence very well kept. Its dome is one of the highest among Istanbul hamams, 18 meters. It has been dismantled in 1993 and ever since closed. I would like to transform it into a temple of water where water could be seen from different experiences.

My show and its work.

In the main room, the entrance of the man side, a ten meter high shiny green metal structure (realized and offered by the architect Mustafa Öney) will design a bowl that mirrors the dome designing a globe. In the center a Silver drop (ottoman calligraphy that says water) will hung as the central theme e center of the globe. A rain of glass words and drops will come down from that structure.

On the walls, peştemals (realized and offered by Simple Life and Şebnem Berker) will carry 11 golden embroidered water connected words such as Darkness, Light, Depth, Thirst, Respect, Mirror, Spring, Sweat, Weather, Poison, Horizon. Those peştemal remind usual hamam items but at the same time those calligraphy that signs that decorates Mosques and are hung as north European tapestries In the following bath rooms, a "welcome room" with 8 specially designed carpets (realized and

• ffered by Stepevi, the most important carpet Turkish producer and its Cem and Ayşegül Şengör).

In the tepidarium niches I will hang three 180 cm high metal and tridimentional photo ovals inspired by the Turkish eye. Each work will carry a word: Thirst, Sweat and Poison. In the corner small rooms, 150 different waters from Istanbul, from the Bosphorus or the Golden Horn, to different fountains, are collected in clear glass containers. Niche Glass of Hikmet Yumurtacı produced the glass. This installation try to combine a playful game for the eyes and the intellect bringing a different thought and awareness about water and its power to create life and death, tolerance and conflict”.

Küçük Mustafa Paşa Hamamı.

The Küçük Mustafa Paşa Hamamı is a beautiful complex - closed in the 90s and the subject of a meticulous restoration project - built in 1477 during the reign of Fatih Sultan Mehmet, 24 years after the conquest of Byzantium by the Ottomans. It is the largest complex for hamam. Its main dome is 18 meter high. It has a great man section and a side separated woman section. All the furniture has been dismantled in 1993. Ever since it has been closed to the activity. Remarkable arab decoration in the man baths. It is located in Cibali (in Fatih area), the most ancient part of Istanbul, between Sultanahmet (the historic and touristic district) and the Byzantine walls, a short walk from the south coast of the Golden Horn. Cibali and Fatih are neighborhoods full of authenticity, the subject of rediscovery and renovation: in this context, Bucarelli’s project acts as the main catalyst for a new awareness of the cultural richness of a part of Istanbul still poorly known. The executive director is Ayşe Pınar Akalın. Angelo Bucarelli especially thanks MUSTAFA ÖNEY for his personal and practical support. www.oneymimarlik.com We thank Atılgan Bostan, his team and his family that have collaborated with great enthusiasm and determination. Many thanks also to all our friends and shopkeepers from the Cibali neighborhood.