In lieu of an abstract:In 2018, three anonymous and hitherto unpublished, unexhibited drawings of Istanbul by the same hand, previously part of Dr. Müfid Ekdal’s collection, were donated to the... Show moreIn lieu of an abstract:In 2018, three anonymous and hitherto unpublished, unexhibited drawings of Istanbul by the same hand, previously part of Dr. Müfid Ekdal’s collection, were donated to the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation by his son Oral Ekdal, upon Dr. Ekdal’s passing. One of them, a 360-degree, threeand- a-half-meter-long panorama, inspired researchers and curators working at the Istanbul Research Institute and Pera Museum to work on an exhibition on the history of Istanbul panoramas. Four years after preparations began, On the Spot: Panoramic Gaze on Istanbul, a History, curated by Çiğdem Kafescioğlu, K. Mehmet Kentel, and M. Baha Tanman, opened on October 26, 2023, at the Pera Museum, and greets its visitors with the aforementioned panorama. While the exhibition and its accompanying catalog explore various facets of Istanbul’s panoramic imaginaries through the centuries and firmly locate Istanbul as a crucial spot within the global history of panoramas, this short piece aims to briefly introduce these three recent additions to the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation collections to the scholarly community. Show less
The exhibition On the Spot: Panoramic Gaze on Istanbul, a History takes the allure and amazement of the 360-degree urban image as its starting point and moves on to historicize the power of this... Show moreThe exhibition On the Spot: Panoramic Gaze on Istanbul, a History takes the allure and amazement of the 360-degree urban image as its starting point and moves on to historicize the power of this panoramic effect. It thinks through different media and materialities, following the variations of Istanbul’s representations in massive displays in purpose-built London halls as well as in the dining halls of Bosporus mansions. It explores the divergent paths that panoramic images of Istanbul have taken since the early modern period and reconsiders the connections and contestations between different styles, techniques, media, viewpoints, audiences, and circulation strategies.The accompanying catalog follows the exhibition’s suite in its historical outlook on the panoramic medium and Istanbul’s place within it. After the introduction by the curators that lays out their perspective on the history of panoramas, seven articles by Erkki Huhtamo, Çiğdem Kafescioğlu, Hilal Uğurlu, M. Baha Tanman, Ahmet A. Ersoy, K. Mehmet Kentel, Namık Günay Erkal and Tarkan Okçuoğlu explore different facets of this history. Show less
