‘Dream and Reality’ celebrates a century of Turkish famale artists

The works of women artists from Turkey who have left their mark on the last century are being celebrated with an exhibition and a lineup of events in the coming months. You can catch ‘Dream and Reality – Modern and Contemporary Women Artists from Turkey’ at the groundbreaking Istanbul Museum of Modern Art until Jan. 22

For an exhibition of influential, yet largely forgotten women artists, you couldn’t pick a much more symbolic name than Hayal ve Hakikat (Dream and Reality).

The title first belonged to an 1891 novel co-written by acclaimed writer and journalist Ahmet Mithat and Fatma Aliye Topuz, a lesser-known figure even though she was one of the first female novelists in Turkey. The first part of the romantic story, Dream, was written by Topuz, while Reality was penned by Mithat, a division of labor not reflected in the credits: The book’s cover listed its writers as Ahmet Mithat and “A Woman.”

Today, Hayal ve Hakikat is the name of a new exhibition at the groundbreaking Istanbul Museum of Modern Art (also known simply as the Istanbul Modern) that celebrates the works of 74 women artists who have left their mark on Turkey over the past century. As Levent Çalıkoğlu, Istanbul Modern’s chief curator and one of the curators of the exhibit, puts it, Dream and Reality – Modern and Contemporary Women Artists from Turkey is “a comprehensive anthology from early beginnings to the present day.”

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

Turkish cinema had its share of cowboys and aliens as well

While the much anticipated Hollywood movie ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ hits the movie theaters, we remember the cowboys and aliens of Turkish cinema..

Westerns and science fiction are two of Hollywood’s defining genres. Bringing together two action heroes of two generations, Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, Cowboys & Aliens blends two genres as it lands a spaceship into the Wild West of the 19th century.

It might come as a surprise to those not familiar with the history of Turkish cinema that these two genres had their moments here as well. The 1960s and 1970s witnessed an uncanny period, when movies flew high with everything from westerns and science fiction to adaptation of European comic books and American superheroes.

The movie researchers Giovanni Scognamillo and Metin Demirhan cite the release of the very first Turkish space movie in 1955 and the first western in 1963. When Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood made the spaghetti westerns a worldwide phenomenon in the 1960s, not only Hollywood but cinemas of many countries were inspired. Turkey was quick to jump on the bandwagon, which eventually saw at least 15 western movies produced per year in the 1970s.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)

The lonely male lead returns in 'Saç'

Minimalist writer and director Tayfun Pirselimoğlu’s award-winning ‘Saç’ (Hair) is the latest in a string of Turkish movies featuring a dysfunctional and lonely man at its center. It is the final film in the director’s trilogy exploring death and conscience

The row of shops with wigs and hair extensions in their windows is a familiar sight for many who pass through Tarlabaşı on their way to the heart of Istanbul, Taksim. For many, wigs are synonymous with Tarlabaşı, a run-down neighborhood where migrants, Turkish and non-Turkish, live in what is a hostile atmosphere for many.

Many pass by the shops riding in a taxi, catching a quick glimpse of the wigs and hair extensions, then forget the bizarre scene once the stores are out of sight. Writer and director Tayfun Pirselimoğlu’s award-winning Saç (Hair), however, takes one of these shops and puts it front and center.

Using his now-trademark minimalist style, Pirselimoğlu delves into one of those small shops marked by decay and gloom, as well as the life of the man who seems to be one with the shop. Hamdi (Ayberk Pekcan) is a lonely man who doesn’t seem to tire of silently staring out his window at the prostitute on the street and chain smoking. It’s highly probable that she’s one of his regular customers.

Click here for full review (Hürriyet Daily News)