Toy exhibition to bring out playfulness in all

ISTANBUL

AA Photos

A new exhibition, “5,000-year-old story: Toy,” has been opened at MOI Art at the Mall of Istanbul.

The curator of the exhibition, writer and poet Sunay Akın, who is the founder of the Istanbul Toy Museum, said toys had the capability of producing better social peace.

“The history of toys is the history of civilization. A clock seen in one of the exhibitions of the Toy Museum equals the light of a thousand books. Here children become happy and are illuminated as well as their parents,” Akın said. 

Akın said the exhibition represented the culmination of his observations, experiences and work in museums around the world.

“You will see the most important pieces in the history of toys. Each toy is not worthy of a museum. Opening a new toy exhibition, organizing a toy museum does not mean bringing together old toys that children used to play with in the past,” Akın said. 

Speaking on behalf of Mall Of Istanbul, Torunlar GYO Executive Board member Zeynep Torun said Akın had not designed the museum for children alone. “He wanted fathers and mothers to become children with their children. We support it, too,” she added. 


Unseen toys 

The exhibition, the largest of its kind in Turkey, includes Akın’s special collection, revealing the 5,000-year-old history of toys from antiquity to the present day. 

Akın visited antique dealers in 40 countries over the past two decades to collect 4,000 toys. He currently displays most of his toy collection at the Istanbul Toy Museum, which was established in the Göztepe neighborhood on the city’s Asian side in 2005 at a historical mansion owned by the poet’s family.

Akın opened a second toy museum in the southern province of Antalya in 2011 and the third one in the southeastern province of Gaziantep in 2013. 

In the MOI exhibition, Akın has elected to showcase previously unseen toys, organizing the exhibits according to chronology.

The exhibition “5,000-year-old story: Toy” also offers workshops for children and adults. 

The exhibition at MOI Art will continue until April 24.