Istanbul Research Institute is carrying out a new exhibition entitled
“Looking from In-Between: A Section of Meşrutiyet Street”
between March 20 – September 21. Focusing on a section of
Pera, which has undergone a multifaceted transformation including
social, economic and physical aspects starting from the
second half of the 19th century, the exhibition aims to capture
a holistic view of the region through this section. Featuring photographs
and documents pertaining to the period, the exhibition
also provides the visitors with the opportunity to experience
through virtual reality technologies the Bristol Hotel, one of the
important late-19th century hotels of İstanbul that is currently
being used as Pera Museum. Istanbul Research Institute’s “Looking from In-Between” exhibition
allows for analyzing Pera, one of the areas where the change
and transformation the city has undergone was experienced most
distinctively, through references produced by this section between
the buildings of Istanbul Research Institute and Pera Museum.
Curated and designed by Atolye Mil and having its VR design
and development carried out by APOLLO, the exhibition brings
together photographs, documents, maps and objects collected
primarily from Istanbul Research Institute, along with Istanbul
Metropolitan Municipality Ataturk Library, Salt Research, Pera
Palace Hotel, Grand Hotel de Londres, Celik Gulersoy Foundation
Istanbul’s Library, Harvard University Library, Yapı Kredi Bank and
private archives. In the exhibition, the early 19th century engraving
works that document the times when Tepebaşı was only a
cemetery, are accompanied by entertaining photographs from the
Playboy Club, which was opened during the 1960s when the area
was the center of the city’s nightlife. The exhibition also allows for
experiencing the former Bristol Hotel, which is now used as Pera
Museum, through virtual reality technologies that offer an almost
real glimpse of the past. Taking visitors on a 100 year-long journey
into the multilayered history of Pera Museum’s building, this
unique spatial experience draws on technical drawings of Bristol
Hotel, as well as architectural styles, furnishings and objects used
in the hotels of the same period. The lobby marks the beginning
of the hotel tour, which is recreated virtually through all the elements
of form, material, color and texture. Within the scope of
the tour, visitors find the opportunity to see the dining hall, which
unveils many details pertaining to the period, the hotel room designed in accordance with the comfort expectations of the late
19th century, as well as the artworks on the hotel walls, which
are selected from Suna and İnan Kırac Foundation’s Orientalist
Painting Collection.
The 19th century marks a period in which modernization led
to economic, social and physical transformations, everyday
life and urban spaces reconstructed each other, and the city’s
residents kept in step with this transformation. While the developments
in international transport networks, as well as the
accommodation, shopping and entertainment demands suited
for foreigners visiting the city influenced the opening of new
spaces, the increase in imports changed the direction of consumer
habits. This development led İstanbul and especially the
Pera district to undergo a multifaceted transformation. Starting
from the second half of the 19th century, Pera assumed its
own unique character with various spaces of entertainment,
recreation and spectacle. This character of the district with its
arcades, stores and hotels that became a part of the city’s social
life, where many local and international actors are intermixed,
continued to be a determinant factor for the area’s transformation
despite being affected by the dramatic changes in the
region’s demographic composition in the following century.
The front facade of the Rossolimo Apartment, which was built
by the architect Guglielmo Semprini in the early 1900s, which
overlooks the Meşrutiyet Street, constitutes a good example
of the period with its neoclassical architectural details and ornaments.
Renovated by the architect Sinan Genim after years
of service as a residence, Rossolimo Apartment was brought into service in 2007 by the Suna and İnan Kırac Foundation,
Istanbul Research Institute. While Bristol Hotel, which was designed
by the architect Achille Manoussos and completed in
1893, welcomed high-level guests until the early 1980s as one
of the most important hotels of the city. The building, which
was later sold to be used as Esbank General Directorate, was
renovated by the architect Doğan Hasol. This renovation process
led to the conservation of facades of both the hotel and
the adjacent five-story building overlooking Meşrutiyet Street,
and the two plots were thus merged. The building, which
served until 2002 as Bristol Hotel, Esbank, and Etibank for a
short period of time, respectively, was redesigned by conserving
the original facade of Manoussos and plots merged together
by Hasol, as a contemporary and full-fledged museum
in line with the project prepared by architect Sinan Genim. In
2005, it was brought into service as Suna and İnan Kırac Foundation,
Pera Museum.
Focusing on the area between historical buildings, which is
home to Istanbul Research Institute and Pera Museum, the
exhibition scrutinizes many historical buildings from Rossolimo
Apartment to Grand Hotel de Londres, Pera Palace Hotel,
Odakule, Bristol Hotel and Tepebaşı Theater, while also unveiling
the multilayered identity of the region with photographs
and documents pertaining to a period from the late 19th century
to the late 20th century. “Looking from In-Between” exhibition
is open for visitors at Istanbul Research Institute until
September 21.
