My neighborhood in Beyoglu has a great number of little galleries and two major museums, that I have visited in the past days

First, Istanbul Modern. It sits at the foot of the hill, a bit hidden between a beautifully renovated mosque, the cruise ship quay and an empty parking lot, that soon will be transformed into the ‘Mall of Turkey’.

Istanbul Modern has a great number of modern paintings from Turkey, starting at the end of the 19th century, as well as a number of interesting contemporary art and sculptures, photos and video installations.

It’s a great glimpse into the Turkish art scene, and definitely worth a visit.

I know now what do do with all my books I won’t read again. This ceiling installation was awesome. Ok, I don’t want to dust that off.

 

 

The Pera Museum, on top of the hill, is another gem, with a smaller permanent exhibition on Turkish art, and more space for changing exhibitions, currently showing Warhol.

On three floors you can see some of his lesser known works, from a private museum in Slovakia.

You won’t see Marilyn here, or Elvis, or Liz, but a number of interesting works from different series, I especially liked the Lenin and the communist symbols.

I went with Cihan again, who’s studying design. Afterwards, we went for a post-art beer, to round off the cultural experience.

I could not resist afterwards and had a late-night stop at SALT Gallery again, for another hour (!) of watching The Clock, this weird masterpiece collage of movie snippets I have already posted about.

There were – fitting – snippets from the 1960 classic The Time Machine.

I had to download it afterwards and watch it late at night, even though the Morlocks still give me the creeps…