Illuminating the Future: The Reconstruction of Higher Education in the Early Years of the Republic, 1923–1946
Place: Koç University Rumelifeneri Campus, SNA Building
Exhibition Content Team: Tuba Akbaytürk Çanak, Burak Başaranlar, İrem Ünal, Nathalie Defne Gier
Exhibition Texts and Advisor: Burak Başaranlar
Archive Research: İrem Ünal, Nathalie Defne Gier
This project was initially exhibited between February – 28 May 2023 at ANAMED’s Merkez Han Gallery.
Koç University presents a new exhibition that examines early reforms in higher education at the centenary anniversary of the Republic. “Illuminating the Future: The Reconstruction of Higher Education in the Early Years of the Republic, 1923–1946 ” focuses on a critical period that shaped the future of Turkey and brings together important documents and visual material from different archives, primarily from the Koç University Suna Kıraç Library. The content of the exhibition was prepared by the Koç University’s Suna Kıraç Library team, while the exhibition texts were written by the historian Burak Başaranlar.
The exhibition revolves around educational infrastructure, which was in need of development, and the social enterprises of a war-weary Republic. It also addresses achievements in education in the light of the women’s movement, while touching on issues such as equal opportunity, secularism, and democratization in academic institutions, just as it highlights important fields such as law, arts, agricultural studies, and humanities.
The years that constitute the focal point of the exhibition also cover a critical period for the world. This was a period when scientists left Germany due to the political atmosphere, seeking asylum in other countries, including Turkey. The exhibition also presents a key document that bears witness to this important period and examines how influential the emigre scientists for the Turkey’s higher education.
The exhibition focuses on institutions of higher education primarily, which were reorganized in the early Republican era and established during that time period and still exist in Ankara today, which were critical in shaping the future of higher education in Turkey.
What Josephine Saw 20th Century Photographic Visions of Rural Anatolia
Place: Koç University Rumelifeneri Campus
The exhibition “What Josephine Saw” features the American traveller and photographer Josephine Powell’s insightful photographs of rural Anatolia from a recent but distant era.
The subject-matter of Josephine’s photography was extremely diverse. It comprised ancient, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, vernacular, and portable architecture, and a wide range of ethnographic subjects, not only her beloved nomadic tribal peoples, but also a multitude of subjects encountered on the street. She took every single opportunity to follow the call of the road. Two subjects were of virtually no interest to her: the modern cityscape, and landscape in its pure form. If a contemporary town was photographed, it was only for its people, seen on the street or in the bazaar.
Artamonoff: Picturing Byzantine Istanbul, 1930-1947
Place: Koç University Rumelifeneri Campus
“Artamonofff: Picturing Byzantine Istanbul, 1930-1947” features the photographs taken by Nicholas V. Artamonoff, an amateur photographer of Russian origin, during the time he lived in Istanbul between 1922-1947. Artamonoff’s photographs constitutes a unique record of the city, which since then has gone through a radical transformation. The life and career of Artamonoff, who developed an interest in photography and Istanbul’s cultural heritage during the years he studied and worked at Robert College, were reconstructed through extensive research.
Byzantium’s Other Empire: Trebizond
Byzantium’s Other Empire: Trebizond introduces the extraordinary monuments of the now largely forgotten empire of Trebizond, whose capital was in the city of Trabzon on the Black Sea coast. It particularly focuses on the 13th century church of Hagia Sophia in Trabzon, Türkiye, the best preserved monument in the city, famed for its unusual architecture, unique sculptural decoration and extraordinary Byzantine wall paintings.
ON THE FRINGE The Istanbul Land Walls
The Istanbul Land Walls, also called the Theodosian Walls, were built in the beginning of the 5th century CE. Despite their original construction as structures of defense, the land walls and the areas surrounding them encapsulate a multi-layered cultural landscape that bear the traces of various events, situations, and people throughout the 1600-year-long history of the city.
John Garstang’s Footsteps Across Anatolia
This project was initially exhibited between 17 Septembe – 20 December 2015 at the ANAMED Gallery.
“John Garstang’s Footsteps Across Anatolia” aims to highlight the international contributions of John Garstang towards the study of archaeology in Türkiye and the Near East. He was one of the first advocates of using photography as a means of recording archaeological excavations. Moreover, he was the founding director of the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA).
Garstang’s photos from his survey of Anatolia and North Syria in 1907 established for the first time the full extent of the ancient Hittite Empire. The images he captured during that survey form the basis of this exhibition. Garstang also used photography to show his British sponsors how their financial contributions had been spent and the conspicuous display of “British” dress and behaviour that they would find pleasing.