IMM Istanbul Art Museum, which is planned to be opened in the Haliç Shipyard of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, met with art lovers at the Museum Gazhane with its first exhibition. Speaking at the opening of the exhibition, IMM President Ekrem İmamoğlu“We are working hard at Haliç Shipyard and we are making a very important special effort to bring an art museum to the city. It will be the first art museum of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. Our municipality's Istanbul Art Museum will have achieved the function of a new culture and art bridge connecting perhaps the two oldest sides of the city, and will have brought it to that level.”
As part of the IMM's efforts to bring the city's cultural spaces to the residents of the city, Turkey's first printing museum, İMOGA, met with Istanbulites for the first time in the Museum Gazhane with the “Together” exhibition, which was prepared with a special selection of print art works. IMM President Ekrem İmamoğluLeading names of the culture and arts community, IMM bureaucrats and many citizens attended the opening hosted by . Mahir Polat, Deputy Secretary General of IMM, made the opening speech of the exhibition. IMM President for the city's cultural and artistic activities Ekrem İmamoğluPolat then left the floor to Painter Süleyman Saim Tekcan. Tekcan said, “I think that today, my Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Mr. Ekrem, my brother's idea of bringing a museum to Istanbul with such a start is an event that will go down in history. I am an 82-year-old artist who had the chance to live together with the biggest names of Turkish art as an art educator, as a workshop owner. I don't know how long I will live, but I am happy to have lived today. I am very happy that Istanbul will have a great exhibition and a great museum.”
“WE STRIVED TO CARRY ART MARKETS OF THE CITY TO THE CITY'S REAR NEIGHBORHOODS”
Then IMM President Ekrem İmamoğlu took. Stating that Istanbul has boosted morale to its immediate surroundings and the world with its cultural and artistic activities, İmamoğlu said, “We know that the fields of culture and art have been shrinking in our city lately, and it made us sad. In this sense, we have determined that one of the most important cultural infrastructure problems of the city is the concentration of culture and arts in certain centers of the city and their concentration on trade and consumption. For this reason, we realized that it is an important responsibility of us to bring so many elements, areas and activities that people of all ages and walks of life can reach and interact with, together with art. Because we knew very well that a publicized culture and art life is a very important factor in achieving a fairer, more democratic and sustainable urban ground in this city. Since the day we took office, we have tried to bring culture and art activities into existence in city parks, squares, streets. We are not satisfied with that. We made a special effort to convey the cultural feelings and artistic traces of the city to many points defined as the 'back quarters of the city' and to bring them together with the society, and to enrich this with libraries and other areas.” He used his expressions.
ISTANBUL ART MUSEUM WILL BE THE FIRST ART MUSEUM OF IMM
“With new museums, centers and galleries, we have become a local government that is seriously involved in the cultural and artistic production of the city.” Imamoglu said, "Moreover, while doing these, we have carried out special works by touching the very precious cultural heritages and memories of Istanbul and bringing them back to the city life, being aware that they are a legacy and a trust. With the spaces we created such as our exhibition hall in Saraçhane, Mecidiyeköy Art, the Cistern in Bebek, Galatasaray Square, and the Museum Gazhane Exhibition Hall, which we are in now, we have brought 10 different exhibitions to Istanbul, which did not exist before. We are working hard at Haliç Shipyard and we are making a very important and special effort to bring an art museum to the city. It will be the first art museum of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. Istanbul Art Museum will have achieved the function of a new culture and art bridge connecting perhaps the two oldest sides of the city.” Said.
250 ARTWORKS WILL MEET ARTISTS AT ISTANBUL ART MUSEUM
Noting that the “Together Exhibition” is like a preview of the Istanbul Art Museum, İmamoğlu said, “Turkey's first printing museum IMOGA and the very valuable founder of IMOGA, Süleyman Saim Tekcan, and his beloved daughters cooperated with us and this beautiful moment brought us this beautiful moment. It is a great source of pride for me. On behalf of the people of Istanbul, I would like to thank them very much for their extensive donation to our municipality. Therefore, I would like to announce in advance that, in addition to the works presented to the audience here, 250 works will be presented to the audience at the Istanbul Art Museum. Of course, I would like to point out that the different stakeholders of this cooperation set a very meaningful example in terms of contributing to the field of public culture and arts with a common motivation. I would also like to state that our municipality is open to such collaborations and that we wish to collaborate with the actors in all cultural and artistic life. At the same time, our citizens will have the opportunity to see the painting collection of our municipality, which has survived with the addition of valuable works of art since 1929, at the Istanbul Art Museum. Of course, we will enjoy bringing together the paintings of Fatih Sultan Mehmet and Suleiman the Magnificent, which we have added to our collection with special efforts, to bring together a special moment with Istanbulites and all art lovers.
SPECIAL THANKS TO STAKEHOLDERS
Thanking all the stakeholders who contributed to the Together Exhibition, İmamoğlu said, “I would like to thank Mr. Markus and all other friends. As soon as we do not miss art and culture together in our lives, know that; we attain the highest values of hope. We live the moment. Personally, as a mayor who served in a very difficult period, I would like to express that one of the factors that gives me hope and raises that hope and desire to produce to the top is that I draw my road map by never forgetting my feelings of culture and art, by communicating with them, by having hope with them. I would like. Therefore, I believe that 16 million of these city people will have the same level of hope if we bring creativity, culture and art to the lives of 16 million people living in the city, from the moment our youngest child begins to experience the moment, to the adults. Therefore, in order for the morale in this city and the desire to improve the quality of life in this city to reach greater heights, cultural and artistic activities should be present in life as much as possible. Otherwise, we will become really hopeless, we will go towards being a pessimistic society that we will neither give him an opportunity nor a mass of people in this city that will tolerate him. I consider myself a very lucky mayor because he accompanied us with these feelings to the beautiful, valuable, art-loving, creative 16 million people of this city.”
IMOGA:
It was established as an artist's workshop under the leadership of Süleyman Saim Tekcan in 1974 in order to raise awareness of what original printing is in Turkey, and to explain the original printing to the art audience.
The workshops that Süleyman Saim Tekcan established in the field of original printing in Turkey enabled the artists to love this technique, to establish a bond with this technique and to produce in accordance with their own unique identities. The primary purpose of IMOGA, an institution that emerged from the life and experience of Süleyman Saim Tekcan, is to open a horizon for artists to produce with the original printing technique and to bring them together with this technique. IMOGA also aims to ensure that the works produced with original printing techniques reach the art audience. IMOGA started to serve in the building it is in in 2004 in order to preserve, document, create an inventory and display its very large collection, and then continue production in the workshop. Thus, IMOGA documented and formalized the works produced by the leading artists of Turkish art using the printing technique between 1970-2004 and created a memory of this period.
The “Together” exhibition of the IMM Istanbul Art Museum Collection, which makes visible the unity of the past and the future, the traditional and the modern, the personal and the public, can be visited at the Museum Gazhane between April 3 and July 3, 2022.
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