• Publish Date
  12.06.2021
• Subscribe
• Share

Metro Tunnels Become Art Venues !

Metro Istanbul, one of the affiliates of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM), is opening its doors to an unusual exhibition. The exhibition titled “Finding Healing in Istanbul” can be visited at the Yaklasim Tuneli of M2 Yenikapı-Hacıosman Metro Line in Taksim between 19th June and 19th July.
Turkey's largest urban rail system operator, Metro Istanbul, will host an unusual exhibition. The exhibition titled “Finding Healing in Istanbul”, which will be held in collaboration with Karsi Sanat, in the Yaklasim Tuneli on M2 Yenikapı-Hacıosman Metro Line, will be available to visitors between 19th June and 19th July.
Ozgur Soy, General Manager of Metro Istanbul, reminded that in Istanbul, one of the few metropolises of the world, daily rush hour makes it difficult to spare time for cultural and artistic activities.

“We will turn metros into cultural-art crossroads”

Underlining that Istanbulites spend a significant amount of time in the metros every day, General Manager Soy said, “A very important part of Istanbul's resources are allocated to rail system investments, and we are getting closer to our goal of being the backbone of public transportation with our increasing usage rate. Metros are not only transportation channels consisting of trains, but also a part of people's daily life. We have an area of over 1 million square meters, and we want to position these areas as cultural-art crossroads to keep up with the pace of metropolitan life, and make them areas where Istanbulites can have a pleasant time on their way to home, to work or to their loved ones. We want Istanbulites using our metros to see works of art in different branches on our walls. In this context, we have hosted works such as photography exhibitions and wall painting practices at various points until today. We think that this approach will be valuable for artists in Turkey as well, because they too have difficulties in finding spaces to express themselves. Our artists will meet the people of the city without intermediaries; art will find a place for itself not only in exhibitions, museums, but also in life by metros. For this reason, we want to include more works of art in our areas”.

“We want to bring different event venues to Istanbul”

Informing that they will organise an exhibition in the Yaklasim Tuneli at Taksim Station in addition to the stations, General Manager Ozgur Soy said, “The fact that the tunnel is located in a central area like Taksim is an important advantage in terms of hosting cultural and artistic events. We want to bring this special place, which opens out and inside at the same time, to the depths of the city, to Istanbul through art, as an escape and approach space in the centre of Istanbul. We dream that the tunnel will host art events, albeit intermittently, in order to open this impressive place to visitors and to approach the heart of the city with art by positioning Istanbul in the cultural and artistic life. Yaklasim Tuneli provides a unique context for the exhibition called “Finding Healing in Istanbul” with its atmosphere, architectural features and memory. On the other hand, with its location and opportunities, it deserves to be included in the map of culture and arts areas in Turkey and even in the world”.
Curated by Melis Bektas, the exhibition will feature the works of important artists such as Arek Qadrra, Berka Beste Kopuz, Canavar, Deniz Cimlikaya, Ece Eldek, Eda Aslan, Eda Emirdag & Irem Nalca, Emin Koseoglu, Ipek Yucesoy, Ismet Koroglu, Marina Papazyan, Metehan Ozcan, SABO, Seydi Murat Koc, Umut Erbas and Yekateryna Grygorenko.
Moreover; Researchers Cemre Gurbuz, Gabriel Doyle and Naomi Cohen, who study the history and relations of Surp Pirgic, Balikli Rum, Surp Agop, Balat Or-Ahayim and Bulgar Hospital, which were established in the Ottoman Empire at the height of the 19th century cholera epidemic; will exhibit some of their work with stories and an installation that they mapped to the archive.

About Taksim Yaklasim Tuneli:

Approach tunnels are tunnels that are opened for logistics purposes during the construction of metro lines and are connected to the main line or secondary roads. Although some of these tunnels are closed after the construction is completed, some approach tunnels are kept open to be used in critical situations for city life, such as passenger evacuation in emergency situations, even transportation of firefighters and medical teams, as well as providing transportation of maintenance vehicles or construction machines and material transfers. Yaklasim Tuneli, which was opened during the construction of the Taksim Station, of which the foundation of M2 Yenikapı-Haciosman Metro Line was laid in 1992, is one of the tunnels that are still open.
This tunnel, which is 200 meters long, 4 meters wide and 4.5 meters high, has an important feature in terms of opening one end to life that goes underground and the other end to Taksim Harbiye, one of the most active points of Istanbul. Taksim Yaklasim Tuneli, which descends to the metro line from the heart of the metropolis to its veins, and from Harbiye to the metro line, will bring different excitements to the people of Istanbul. Tunnel hosted the exhibition organised in collaboration with Karsi Sanat in 2005, but was left alone afterwards. The tunnel, which still bears the traces of the exhibition held in 2005, is preparing to open its heart to artists by hosting a new exhibition in 2021.

Tüm Etkinlikler