{"id":69856,"date":"2013-04-22T12:39:06","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T09:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=69856"},"modified":"2023-07-26T11:43:06","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T08:43:06","slug":"theartsdesk-in-istanbul-city-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/04\/22\/theartsdesk-in-istanbul-city-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown\/","title":{"rendered":"theartsdesk in Istanbul: City on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h2>\n

The arts and the economy might be prospering, but critics fear old Istanbul is turning into a new Dubai<\/h2>\n

by Sheila JohnstonSunday, 21 April 2013<\/p>\n

Late on a spring Friday evening, \u0130stiklal Caddesi, the main shopping thoroughfare in Istanbul\u2019s Beyo\u011flu district, exudes all the delicious traditional Turkish aromas: roasting chestnuts, fierce black coffee, d\u00f6ner grills and simit, \u0130stanbul\u2019s bagel, still selling like hot cakes way after midnight. Most of all, though, milling with the crowd, you are struck by something else, something less familiar these days, in Europe anyway: the smell of money.<\/p>\n

While the old economies are on their knees, Turkey has been booming: 9.2 percent growth in GDP in 2010, 8.5 percent in 2012. Last year the motor spluttered and stalled \u2013 only 2.2 percent growth \u2013 but is still chugging along nicely enough.<\/p>\n

\"OldSince I last visited the city seven years ago, the skyline has been transfigured (many say, disfigured) with shiny new high-rise buildings. \u0130stiklal Caddesi is lined with cash dispensers every few metres, with more lines of people eager to use them. (Pictured right: a lottery ticket seller stands guard by the Swatch shop on \u0130stiklal Caddesi<\/strong>)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In 2010 Istanbul was a European City of Culture. It was a strategic move designed partly to boost Turkey\u2019s application to join the European Union. Decades after making that bid, the country\u2019s still waiting. Though, frankly, joining the Eurozone is looking less attractive by the minute.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe economy is thriving here and the arts are too. Private museums and galleries are opening one after the other,\u201d observes Azize Tan, (pictured below left<\/strong>), the Director of the Istanbul Film Festival which, now in its 32nd year, has bravely kept afloat through foul weather and fair: the current edition, just finished, attracted guests including Peter Weir, Patricia Arquette, Carlos Reygadas and Bille August.<\/p>\n

\"AzizeRun under the aegis of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, which also stages theatre, music and art events throughout the year, its principal sponsor today is Akbank, whose spacious four-floor gallery at the top end of \u0130stiklal Caddesi is the festival\u2019s HQ (sponsors are the main source of the festival\u2019s funding; it receives nothing from the city).<\/p>\n

So it’s the banks and rich private patrons that are investing in the arts, specifically art: Istanbul boasts around 150 galleries, two biennials \u2014 one for design and one for art \u2014 and several contemporary art fairs. The following day I wander down \u0130stiklal Caddesi to see SALT, an opulent, cavernous building owned by Garanti Bank with a walk-in cinema, bookshop, tearoom and three floors of exhibition space, currently dedicated to a show about the notorious 1977 Labour Day massacre in Istanbul, at which 33 people died.<\/p>\n

A second SALT venue in Istanbul is twice as large again and there is a third outlet in Ankara. \u201cWe have a vibrant art scene,\u201d says Elif Obdan, who works with Tan at the Foundation. \u201cBut to make it sustainable there are things to do. Everyone wants to visit Istanbul.\u201d She pauses. \u201cIt\u2019s different when you live here, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

For critics are talking darkly of bubbles, of boom and bust, of unchecked speculation that will swallow up old Istanbul and turn it into a new Las Vegas, Disneyland, Dubai. Today the perception is that while 2010 did prompt some much needed restoration programmes, but that ephemeral year in the spotlight was, overall, a disappointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are growing too fast and sometimes hasty decisions are being made. There\u2019s no state control and no transparency,\u201d Tan says. \u201cI\u2019m not against change. But we do need to talk about what\u2019s going on. It\u2019s not always the point to have something new. In 10 years’ time nothing will survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheAlso on \u0130stiklal Caddesi, security personnel guard the entrance to the vast, Demir\u00f6ren shopping mall. Two listed historical buildings were razed in 2010 to make way for the bling, pseudo-classical edifice which towers over its surroundings and whichMilliyet<\/em> newspaper described as \u201ca hormone-filled pumpkin\u201d. The manoeuvring, deceptions and extended scandal around the project, are all chronicled in detail here.<\/p>\n

Turn right after you pass Demir\u00f6ren and you enter a dark, dingy back alley strewn with dust and builder\u2019s rubble. This is Ye\u015fil\u00e7am Soka\u011f\u0131, once known as the Turkish Hollywood. Production houses were based here, and cinemas; Kemal Atat\u00fcrk went to the movies there. It was formerly the heart of the Film Festival. Now it\u2019s at the centre of Istanbul\u2019s latest arts controversy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The arts and the economy might be prospering, but critics fear old Istanbul is turning into a new Dubai by Sheila JohnstonSunday, 21 April 2013 Late on a spring Friday evening, \u0130stiklal Caddesi, the main shopping thoroughfare in Istanbul\u2019s Beyo\u011flu district, exudes all the delicious traditional Turkish aromas: roasting chestnuts, fierce black coffee, d\u00f6ner grills […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":782209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2939],"tags":[7044],"class_list":["post-69856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultureart","tag-istanbul-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}