iSTANBULUM – handsigniert / signed by hand

Buch

Beschreibung

Das Schlüsselwort zu Istanbul ist eher die Zeit als der Raum. Die Seele der Stadt fließt durch die Zeit hindurch. In den Labyrinthen der Jahrtausende rufen Sie die Vielzahl der im Laufe der Zeit entstandenen Namen der Stadt, einen nach dem anderen, und wundern sich einmal darüber, dass die Räume seit Jahrtausenden immer noch dem gleichen Zweck dienen, und ein anderes Mal darüber, dass eine Straße, durch die Sie gestern noch gegangen sind, heute einfach nicht mehr da ist. Sie begreifen bei ihren Spaziergängen das Ineinandergreifen von Stillstand und Bewegung, von Dauerhaftigkeit und Wandel. Da, wo Sie vermuten, die Stadt habe ihre eifersüchtig geschützte Identität doch noch der Veränderung preisgeben müssen, stellen Sie plötzlich fest, dass diese gute, alte Identität die Richtung der Veränderung bestimmt hat. (Oya Baydar)

The key word in Istanbul is time rather than space. The soul of the city flows through time. In the labyrinths of the millennia, you call out numerous names by which the city is known, one after the other, and stop to marvel at how the spaces here have served same purpose for thousands of years. And on another occasion, that a street you walked down just yesterday is today simply no longer there, and you understand on your rambles the interlocking of standstill and movement, of permanence and change. In those places where you might suppose that the city has had to sacrifice its jealously guarded identity to ongoing changes, you suddenly realize that it’s that good old identity that has determined the direction of the change all along. (Oya Baydar)

In the project İSTANBULUM I was concentrated on peoples everyday lives, and exploring especially how the modern lifestyle coexists with traditional Islamic culture. Istanbul is a seismograph for what is happening in the rest of the country, holding up a mirror to the social and political changes taking place there. In many cases, the photographs only call to mind on second glance other images that reveal a deeper meaning and which raise questions about politics and society.

From 2010 until 2014 I have lived and worked in Istanbul, being fascinated by its thousand year old history and its mix of cultures. I loved Istanbul, the city on the Bosporus, there is nothing like it anywhere in the world, extending as it does with all the inhabitants on its outskirts across two continents. Europe is geographically near, but at the same time far away, to some extent unreachable.

Now we just can say Quo Vadis Turkey?

Artikel lesen/Read review here