Turkish museums to remain open during holiday

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s state and private museums will be open during the Feast of Sacrifice holiday week.

All of the museums that are a part of Culture and Tourism ministry will be open during the Feast of Sacrifice holiday.

This year, a total of 189 museum and 131 archeological venues will remain open, according to a written statement sent by the ministry, which said that “everyone would have the chance to visit the art and culture events” because of the move.

Last year the most visited sites during the Feast of Sacrifice holiday were the Hagia Sophia Museum and Topkapı Palace. The Mevlana Museum, Topkapı Palace, the Antalya Noel Baba Museum, the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, the Hacıbektaş Museum, the Ankara Museum of Anatolian Civilizations and the Cumhuriyet Museum were among the most visited museums during Feast of Sacrifice holiday as well.

Private museums open

Among archaeological areas İzmir Efes, Denizli Hierapolis and Nevşehir Göreme were the most visited last year during the holiday.

On the other hand, while art galleries will be closed, private museums will be open during the Feast of Sacrifice holiday.

Borusan Contemporary is currently presenting two exhibitions at its museum office “Perili Köşk” (Haunted Mansion), parallel to the 13th Istanbul Biennial. Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s solo show, entitled “Vicious Circular Breathing and Segment #4,” a selection from the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, is currently on display.

Internationally acclaimed artist Lozano-Hemmer’s exhibition aims to explore the very personal, emotionally evocative nature of his work that was produced with technologies both high and low, including biometric sensors, projection, custom software, and motorized mechanics, not to mention air, paper bags and people. His work “Vicious Circular Breathing,” from which the exhibition takes its name, is a special new work commissioned by the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection that is being presented for the first time as part of this solo exhibition.

Several of Lozano-Hemmer’s installations include the use of particular words and sentences to add additional meaning to the installation. These texts are used to elaborate on a deeper meaning that involves the viewer and their actions in order to affect the atmosphere and perception. Some of the text based installations, such as “Third Person” and “Subtitled Public,” place words upon the subject itself.

The random nature of the texts leaves the viewer with a sense of helplessness, as they have no control over what they are labeled as, so they experience the pleasant and not-so-pleasant connotations that are associated with the words placed upon them. The text based installations such as “33 Questions Per Minute” and “There is No Business Like No Business” are reliant upon the viewer’s will to participate.

Istanbul Modern will also be open during the Feast of Sacrifice holiday other than the first of the holiday. The visitors will have the chance to visit the exhibition Erol Akyavaş “Retrospective,” a comprehensive inventory of the artist’s oeuvre that extends over half a century from the 1950s to the late 1990s. On the other hand, the new exhibition “Past and Future” draws from the museum’s permanent collection to highlight the historical link to the past that art museums establish as sites of memory and their role in shaping the future by their commitment to collecting and preserving works of art.

Meanwhile, the 13th Istanbul Biennial will also be open during the first day of the Feast of Sacrifice holiday. The biennial will stay open until Oct. 20. Opened on Sept. 14 with the titled “Mom, Am I a Barbarian,” a the biennial has been seen by 215,000 visitors.