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Consuming the Orient
Edhem Eldem
Istanbul, 2007
ISBN 978-9944-731003 |
Consuming the Orient
From travel posters to cigarette packs, from postcards to ornaments, from advertisements to comic strips, the Orient has often been turned by the West into yet another commodity for mass consumption. A closer look at the way in which the Orient was represented in Western consumer societies reveals a number of images and stereotypes revolving around four major themes: exoticism, ethnography, eroticism, and history. From the late nineteenth century to our times, these images have greatly evolved, from rough clichés to more neutral visions. Nevertheless, the attraction exerted by the Orient on the greater public continues unabated, even in Turkey, where almost two centuries of Westernization has ended up creating the very particular phenomenon of “Oriental Orientalism”.
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Turgut Cansever: Thinker and Architect
Ugur Tanyeli, Atilla Yücel
Istanbul, 2007
ISBN 978-9944-5518-3-0 |
Turgut Cansever: Thinker and Architect
Turgut Cansever has a rightful claim to being one of the most original and critical voices of Republican Era Turkey. He not only worked actively as an architect since the 1940s, but also produced ideas on how to shape the physical environment; most importantly, he built himself a career of cultural criticism based on architecture. He strove to read the constructed space, from the urban scale to the single building, in the context of the realities of Turkey’s cultural makeover. From the processes of modernization and urbanization to Westernization, from public housing needs to technology, there is hardly a single topic he has not dwelt upon. Of critical importance is his attempt to understand transformation, modernization, and architecture by employing one of the cultural building blocs of Turkish society, i.e., Islamic sources of belief and thought. His approach is an invitation extended to contemporary Turkey, to think about architecture, and in general all cultural production, based not on a radical and traumatic "forgetting" but rather on a calm, cool-headed, and equanimous "remembering". The book, published on the occasition of the exhibition, consists of the considerations of Atilla Yücel and Ugur Tanyeli on Turgut Cansever, of interviews realized with Turgut Cansever at his home in Istanbul from October 1st, 2005 to December 30th, 2006 and of the biography and projects of the architect.
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Projecting the Nation: European States in the 1920s and 1930s
Sandrine Bertaux
Istanbul, 2006
ISBN 9944-5518-1-3 |
Projecting the Nation: European States in the 1920s and 1930s
At a time when the boundaries of Europe and the future of European modernity are contested once again in the face of Turkey’s candidacy to the European Union, the publication Projecting the Nation offers a critical reflection on the recent past of Europe. Focusing on the multiple and competing modernities of the 1920s and 1930s, a period which also saw the dawn of Turkish modernity, the exhibition explores how nations were invented and shaped by state power.
In the age of mass politics, visual political culture – itself a product of modern technology – took on a fundamental role in creating and molding mass consensus. For European states, in this era of competing ideologies and exacerbated nationalism, self-exhibition was no longer restricted to a message of authority and legitimacy targeting the cultural elite. It now became a crucial and novel element of statecraft, a cultural offensive grounded in propaganda, and a source of self-legitimation for political power. In all circumstances, the ultimate stake was control over mass culture.
Highlighting strong instances of self-exhibition in the Soviet Union, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Kemalist Turkey, interwar France and conflict-torn Spain, Projecting the Nation presents a cross-territorial examination of the similarities, differences and borrowings of forms of modernity unbound.
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The person you have called cannot be reached at the moment. Representations of Life Styles in Turkey, 1980-2005
Meltem Ahiska, Zafer Yenal
Istanbul, 2006
ISBN 975-98125-9-2 |
The person you have called cannot be reached at the moment. Representations of Life Styles in Turkey, 1980-2005
This publication, like the exhibition it accompanies, is organized around seven main headings inspired by popular song lyrics, and slogans or common expressions between 1980 and 2005. The book documents, interrelates and opens for discussion the various media representations of different lifestyles and their associated products in Turkey in this period. The concept "lifestyle" was redefined in Turkey with the growing professionalism of media practices after the 1980s. Everyday activities achieved through consumption such as the ways people dress, eat, communicate and enjoy themselves became the basic criteria to differentiate them. Just like any other merchandise, a "lifestyle" turned into something that could be purchased. However, the field of culture and consumption is also a field of struggle defined by continually changing indicators. A "lifestyle" therefore simultaneously expresses real conflicts and differences in society and is the shallow manifestations of perpetually shifting and transitory styles of living. Seen from this perspective, these representations hold up a mirror to both familiar and very different ways in which we see ourselves.
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Death in Istanbul:
Death and its Rituals in Ottoman-Islamic Culture
Edhem Eldem
Istanbul, 2005
ISBN 975-98125-2-5 |
Death in Istanbul:
Death and its Rituals in Ottoman-Islamic Culture
"The idea of an exhibition/catalogue on death may not sound very pleasant. After all, it is only natural to experience some discomfort, displeasure, anxiety, even disgust in the face of a phenomenon that may summon painful memories and provoke fears about the future. Yet, there is no denying that death, once tamed as an abstract notion or concept, can become a powerful tool for social analysis. It can thus become a fascinating area of study, likely to reveal much about the culture, mentalities and social structure of a given society. This is what this exhibition and its catalogue hope to attain. Their objective is to try to pinpoint, through hopefully representative examples, the ways in which death has been perceived by the Muslim population of Ottoman Istanbul throughout five centuries of existence, and to understand the role it may have played in the life of the Imperial capital."
To maintain a certain consistency, this publication has been limited to the period from 1453 to 1922 and deals uniquely with the culture and mentalities of the Muslim population within the boundaries of the Ottoman capital, Istanbul. Underlying the work is the notion of change in Ottoman death culture over this five-century period with a particular emphasis on the significant transformations which occurred in the 19th century. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach to balance the varying viewpoints on death contributed by ethnography, urban history, anthropology, political history and philology, this work is designed as a collection of case studies regrouped under a number of general headings, including amongst others, Death and the City, Empire and Death, the Birth of the Ottoman Tombstone, Suicide, Dealing with Death, Women, Aspects of Modernity, and State, Nation and Death.
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Pride and Privilege. A History of Ottoman Orders, Medals and Decorations
Edhem Eldem
Istanbul, 2004
ISBN 975-93692-8-1 |
Our new publication is the accompanying catalogue of the special exhibition of Ottoman orders and decorations on view at the Museum from September 28 through December 26. "From the very end of the eighteenth century to the collapse of their Empire after World War I, the Ottomans "discovered", adapted and gradually put to extensive use western forms of honors: orders, medals and decorations. From the aigrette bestowed on Admiral Nelson in 1798 to the "Iron Cescent" of a doomed war, this work retraces the complex and fascinating history of Ottoman decorations, with a particular emphasis on their historical significance, symbolism and meaning. Illustrated with real-size reproductions of each of the items discussed, it constitutes a serious attempt to merge historical analysis with a detailed phaleristic approach" (from the back cover of the book).
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Fantazya Çok Para Yok
Karikatürlerle Bir Borç Ekonomisinin Tarihi (1874-1954)
Edited by Behiç Ak, Tan Oral
Research: Turgut Çeviker
Economics adviser: Prof. Suut Dogruel
Istanbul, 2003
ISBN 97593692-6-5 |
The book is the product of an exhibition, which welcomes its visitors from 14th October 2003 to 15th February 2004 within the activities of the Ottoman Bank Museum. Retracing the debt economics through the caricatures, the book covers a period of 80 years, beginning on the eve of the 1 st Constitutional Reform until 1954 where the last instalment of the Ottomans debts were paid by the Turkish Government. From the bankruptcy of the Galata bankers in 1874 to the boycott against the Austrian goods... From the Minister of Finances Cavit Bey, who tries every door in Europe in order to contract a loan for the financing of the economy to the emergence of the concept of «internal debt» during the First World War and the newly rich class... From the «balanced budget» in the course of the Republican period to the 1929 crisis... From the formation of a national bourgeoisie to the capital levy... From the 1946 devaluation to the reappearance of the «budget deficit»... The book is an historical path among several economic events evoked through caracatures, which give the impression that the humour can persist even in difficult circumstances.
 Voyvoda Street From Ottoman Times to Today
Edhem Eldem
Published as the joint project of the Ottoman Bank Archives and Research Centre and the Economic and Social History Foundation of Turkey.
Istanbul,1999
ISBN 975-93692-0-6 (Bilingual edition)
Following the last two exhibitions; A-135-Year Old Treasure and A History of Paper Money- Traces of History, our third exhibition "Voyvoda Street from Ottoman Times to Today was opened. One of the most important parts of the exhibition is its monograph having the same title. Although the book is based on a spatial and architectural setting, it tries also to reflect economic and social dimensions of the street, and, more, particularly of 33 buildings.
 Banknotes of the Imperial Ottoman Bank (1863-1914)
Based on the Ottoman Bank Archives and
the Tahsin Isbiroglu Collection
Edhem Eldem
Copy editing Drew Batchelder
Ottoman Bank eds. Istanbul, 1999.
ISBN 975-7306-48-7
This book attempts to present all the banknotes and instruments of circulation issued by the Imperial Ottoman Bank from 1863 to 1914, within the framework of its privilege. The main reason behind this effort is to complete the patchy, or sometimes altogether missing, information available to this day. Indeed, even though some of the general features and figures of the bank's issue were already known, this information still remained extremely superficial. To give but one concrete example of the limits and superficiality of this knowledge, it should suffice to say that there was no clear information as to the exact dates and numbers of each issue. Figures and dates relating to the withdrawal, cancellation and incineration of these banknotes were even harder to come by. In short, it was clear that the only source likely to bring some clarity to the matter was the bank's own records. The Ottoman Bank historical research project, initiated in 1997 with the collaboration of the Ottoman Bank and the Economic and Social History Foundation of Turkey, made it possible to unearth, one after the other, all the documents relating to the Imperial Ottoman Bank's role as a bank of issue. Today, it is possible to study in great detail every single issue of the bank, to the point of following the fate of an individual banknote from issue to cancellation and to incineration. This book consists, therefore, of a systematic presentation of these sources and of the information that can be derived from them.
(Edhem Eldem, p. 13)
 A 135-Year-Old Treasure.
Glimpses from the past in the Ottoman Bank Archives
Edhem Eldem
On occasions of the exhibition "Traces of History" opened in December 1997 by the Centre, Istanbul, 1998
These pages should be considered as a journey into the memory of the Ottoman Bank, using all kinds of material to illustrate some of the points where this institution has met with history, and to provide the reader with as many snapshots, be they textual ar visual, of this historical process and legacy. The hope lying behind this is to offer the reader the pleasure of both a photograph album and a history book.
(p. 15-16)
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