Istanbul, Turkey - Depo Istanbul (2019)

This exhibition was produced with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the French Cultural Center. Taking place at the Depo Istanbul Museum from 20 April – 28 July 2019, the Shared Sacred Sites exhibition examined a diverse range of locations in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Balkans where the three Abrahamic religions have coexisted. Istanbul is ideally positioned to tell the story of Shared Sacred Sites, not only because the three monotheistic religions have historically flourished there, but also cohabited for centuries through the Byzantine and Ottoman periods.

Byzantium, Constantinople, and Istanbul: through its millennial history, this city of several names has often simply been the polis, ‘the city’ par excellence, one of the most populous and important urban centers in the world. Its political and economic centrality in Byzantine and Ottoman times also had repercussions in religious terms. The quantity and abundance of sacred buildings created an immensely rich religious topography, also with forms of superimposition and mutual influences between religions and civilizations. Moreover, the variegated profile of the population, from a religious point of view, has encouraged the crossing of confessional boundaries and the display of shared forms of worship.

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)