Istanbul Modern Opens New Building with Major Collection Survey

Altogether, five exhibitions inaugurate the new Renzo Piano-designed building on the Bosphorus.

Turkey's first museum of modern and contemporary art, Istanbul Modern, finally opens the doors of its brand new building today with the institution's largest ever collection exhibition and accompanying shows.

Established in 2004, the museum moved out of its original home in a former maritime warehouse nearby back in 2018.

Delays caused by Covid-19 and issues on a neighbouring development hampered construction of the new five-story, 10,500-square-metre building, which was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano. Its shimmering shaped-aluminium waterfront facade overlooks the waters of the Bospherus and Istanbul's historic Golden Horn.

'The new building's transparent and accessible design reflects the ethos of the museum: a multifaceted experience offering visitors audience-oriented exhibitions and programs inspired by the artistic diversity of the present day,' said Renzo Piano Building Workshop in a statement.

A comprehensive exhibition showcasing 280 works from Istanbul Modern's collection, titled Floating Island will be spread throughout the gallery's permanent and temporary exhibition spaces.

Sharing its name with the floating masses of aquatic plants that resemble islands, Floating Islands tells the story of Turkish art from 1945 to the 2000s.

The exhibition includes works by pioneering Turkish artists including Fahrelnissa Zeid, Nil Yalter, Sarkis, Ayşe Erkmen, Gülsün Karamustafa, and İnci Eviner, as well as global stars such as Daniel Buren, Mark Bradford, Anselm Kiefer, Alicja Kwade, Laure Prouvost and Haegue Yang.

The museum's opening programme also includes Always Here, an exhibition of 11 women artists backed by the Women Artists Fund, and a series of photography portraits by Palme d'Or-winning filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

Visitors will also encounter: Turkish-American media artist Refik Anadol's newly commissioned Infinity Room Bosphorus, an immersive digital installation affected by real-time environmental data; the Olafur Eliasson installation Your unexpected journey (2021), and Richard Wentworth's reinstalled False Ceiling (2005).

The museum's outdoor areas also feature large-scale sculptures by Adrian Villar Rojas, Richard Deacon, Tony Cragg, Anselm Reyle, and Selma Gürbüz, among others. —[O]