Le Corbusier returns to Istanbul after 100 years

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

The photographs in the exhibition showcase a significant part of Le Corbusier’s architectural mind as well as the architecture photographer Cemal Emden’s point of view.

santralistanbul is exhibiting Le Corbusier’s works for the 100th anniversary of the famous architect’s journey to the East. His architecture is on view at gallery through the photos of photographer Cemal Emden.

Bilgi University’s santralistanbul is celebrating the centennial anniversary of pioneering French architect Le Corbusier’s 1911 trip to Turkey and the Balkans with an exhibition featuring oeuvre’s from the master’s work.

“Not only is Le Corbusier the most prominent of architects to have left their stamps on subsequent generations, his architecture is virtually a summary of the principal problematics of modern architecture; what’s more, [his work is] a summary not only of the past but of the future as well,” İhsan Bilgin, a Bilgi University Architecture Department professor, said in a statement to mark the opening of the “VISUAL LOG: A gaze at Le Corbusier’s Oeuvre” exhibition.

The exhibition features photographs from Cemal Emden, who photographed a number of structures made by the architect, whose birth name was Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, in India, France, Germany and Switzerland to create a visual memory of the master architect’s structures. The exhibition also showcases Villa Fallet in Sweden, the first structure built by Le Corbusier in 1905, as well as the Church of St. Pierre in France, a building that was finally completed posthumously in 2006 based on the architect’s last design.

Emden photographed most of Le Corbusier’s major structures in Europe and India during a period of four months. The photographic work led him to the discovery of certain continuities and themes, Begüm Küyükçüoğlu said at the exhibition’s opening at the end of last week. “By the time the photographs were completed, he had gathered a rich stock of visual material from the buildings produced by Le Corbusier at different periods and in different regions.”

The photographs showcase not only a significant part of Le Corbusier’s architectural mind but also Emden’s point of view and how he perceived the architectural background in Le Corbusier’s works.

Emden’s perception divided Le Corbusier’s architecture into nine themes: volume, surface, color, light, plasticity, succession of vision, grid, natural site and abstract tendency.

The fundamental problematics he questioned and that shaped his architecture not only constitute the principle themes which still occupy modern architecture, they also draw the axes of engagement of clusters competing with one another, Bilgin said.

The exhibit will continue until Nov. 13 and is being organized by BİLGİ-Architecture, Le Fondation de Corbusier (FLC), santralistanbul and Kalebodur, the main sponsor.

As part of the launch of the exhibition, the university’s architecture department also held a conference titled “Le Corbusier Journey to the East 1911: The role of travelling in architects’ formation” on Oct. 7-8