Empty Fields is the first exhibition to explore the archive of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey. The exhibition is shaped around the inventory catalog of more than a century-old natural science collection of the Museum of Anatolia College, Merzifon, Turkey. The collection amassed more than 7,000 artifacts under the curatorship of Prof. Johannes “John” Jacob Manissadjian, an Armenian-German scientist, botanist, and plant collector, whose work included specimen exchanges with international institutions. Prof. Manissadjian’s hand-written inventory identified all the specimens including the eighteen showcases of the museum, often with detailed descriptions.
By situating the traces of the dispersed museum within the contexts provided by the archive and the contemporary cultural institution, Empty Fields highlights the layered frameworks of museological, geo-politicized space in an attempt to face the irretrievability of a particular period in history, and to open up discussions about contemporary and future conditions of loss and displacement—unpredictable, unknown fields still to be cataloged and acted upon.
In 2014 SALT sought the assistance of Marianna Hovhannisyan during the process of cataloging this multilingual archive and subsequently commissioned her to curate an exhibition that reflects on the contemporary agency of the available content. “Empty Fields” is open until 5th June at SALT Galata.
