Ankara, Turkey (2021)

In an effort to make the experience of shared sacred sites accessible to new audiences, our team has brought the Shared Holy Places (lieux saints partagés) exhibit, originally designed by The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (MuCEM), to numerous cities around the world. The affecting, multimedia exhibit features a variety of digital and traditional works of art and artifacts connected to modern sites where sharing occurs. We hope to communicate the themes of tolerance and understanding through the arts without defaulting to the hollow rhetoric of “a dialog of cultures and religions.” As the French exhibition describes, “it seems vital, amid debates about the clash of civilisations, to demonstrate that alienation and abhorrence of the other are not the required modalities of interaction between the religions of [the] Mediterranean.”

Religious identity is one of the most sensitive issues raised by “living together” in the Mediterranean. Seen in this light, the inland sea seems to be an area of separation and conflict. To each community, their own God, their scriptures, their saints: at worst, these exchanges result in religious wars and the clash of civilizations – at best, they appear exclusively in laborious and sterile in scholarly debates.

A religious phenomenon, little known to the general public, but very present in the Mediterranean, will be brought to the attention of Shared Holy Places visitors: the sacred places shared by the followers of different religions.

Curators:

Dionigi Albera (CNRS)
Manoël Pénicaud (CNRS)

Artists:

Saima Altunkaya / Hüsniye Ateş / Benji Boyadgian / Hera Büyüktaşçıyan / Manuel Çıtak / Ekrem Ekşi / Thierry Fournier / Giampaolo Galenda / Emrah Gökdemir / Nele Gülck & Nikolai Antoniadis / Engin Irız / Noha Ibrahim Jabbour / Robert Jankuloski / İzzet Keribar / Cynthia Madansky / Marco Maione / Jean-Luc Manaud / Diana Markosian / Cécile Massie / Andrea Merli / Ayşe Özalp / Manoël Pénicaud / Nira Pereg / Guy Raivitz / Sarkis / Gildas Sergé / Cemal Taş / Hale Tenger / Francesco Tuccio / Gençer Yurttaş

Researchers:

Dilşa Deniz / Sébastien de Courtois / Aylin de Tapia / Marion Lecoquierre / Jens Kreinath / Elizabeta Koneska / Sara Kuehn / Yael Navaro / Antonio Pusceddu

The press release can be found here.

The museum brochure can be found here.

Press Selection:

• Gazete Duvar : « Dilek Ağacı’nda bir kurdele » by Hülya Kurt (April 25, 2019)

• Milliyet : « Beyoğlu’nda haftanin sergileri » by Banu Çarmıklı (April 27, 2019)

• Medyascope :  « Kutsalı paylaşma: Akdeniz’de bir hac yolculuğu » by Fatima Çelik (April 29, 2019)

• Hürriyet : « Farklı inançlar, aynı mekânlar » by Ece çelik (May 22, 2019)

• Karar : « Paylaşılan Kutsal Mekânlar » by Yıldız Ramazanoğlu (July 10, 2019)

Exhibition Video (Courtesy of Medyascope)