Towards the City

“Towards the City” was situated in a large exhibition hall in the city’s newly restored nineteenth-century gasworks. Taycan, in collaboration with Superpool, transformed the space into four distinct compartments.

The first of these contained a long, winding table presenting a succession of mounted photos from the series “Habitat,” which document the topography of Turkey’s countryside. Some of the photos were propped up on the table at an angle to resemble a pedagogical display.

The visitor then moved into a walled space featuring photographs from the “Shell” series, which capture the expansion of Istanbul’s urban periphery. Shell #05, 2012, portrays man-made water channels and the luxury villas that have sprung up on their shores, while Shell #06, 2012, depicts trucks full of raw material navigating their way in and out of an excavation pit, revealing how this flurry of construction is transforming the very surface of the earth.

Visitors then passed through a space encircled by digitally enhanced photographs shot from high vantage points depicting public squares. These images, from the “Agora” series, bring to mind architectural renderings on CAD software while also borrowing from the visual language of advertising.

The last space in this sequence in the common area that throughout the exhibition period hosted talks and debates, and while not in use, offered a calm moment for contemplation and exchange.