Everything I write doesn’t have to begin with the words: “I cannot catch up with the speed of life.....”

Yes, my conception of day and night got out of order after our return from Boston ; however, wakeful hours have made me catch up the agenda that I have missed out in İstanbul. 

The books not read but folded in the corner and articles I cut and kept with the intention to be read later, pictures that have to be organized, my photo files… The TV serials that I missed but recorded for me, DVDs to be watched, so days and hours passed quickly again… The notes I am writing now have came out during a conversation with my son on the phone last night.  He asked “Whereabouts are you, mother, I do not hear from you these days….”

‘I was here and did the following...’

I WENT TO A THEATRE

I saw the play called ‘I WAS LITTLE IN THE PAST’ at İş Sanat Hall in Levent, written and directed by Ali Poyrazoğlu. This was a part of a show organized for the benefit of Bolluca Children Village .  

Ai Poyrazoğlu came to the stage becoming more and more gigantic when he said “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am selling the dust of the stage in this play...” While he shared his experiences in the theatre world taking us to those old days, memories, wrapping us all inside the act and making us actors of the play, I said to myself “I hope this last role of his is not a farewell…”  Now and then, I had tears in my eyes that rolled down from my cheek; most of the time, I laughed and sometimes felt sad because of laughing at our pathetic situations. 

“I was little in past. I wished to be a sparrow. When it snowed, I sat beside the window glass and dreamed that I was a sparrow.  I would fly away from home, perch in front of the window glass of another house and peep inside. What is going on there? Why is the child crying inside? How would heart sound, when it is broken?  Do tears have sound? I know they do. We would hear the sound of tears coming from eyes. The sound of a broken heart… We would collect it all and convert it to a game. My only problem is to leave the sign of a sparrow’s flapping wing to this meaningless and senseless small world of ours.  I would share the tales with you so that there is a sign left. Let the foot sings of a sparrow remain in the on the dust of the stage... We are all a one-winged sparrow wishing to fly; but we can only fly holding each other” A.P. 

Then the curtains closed, with snow falls and stage dust underneath..

Happy smiling faces and loads of applause ending the evening.

I VISITED A MUSEUM;

Leaving the snowy days behind and with the first sign of the start of warm days, I have found myself at Pera with some friends very early in the morning.

The Pera Museum , which is a gift from Suna and İnan Kıraç, is very impressive.

The historical Bristol Hotel, built at Tepebaşı in 1893 by the architect Achille Manoussos, has been renovated by the architect Sinan Gerim.  He preserved the external appearance of the building and modernized the inside.  Pera Museum that opened its doors for us in June 2005 is a full ‘museum-cultural center’. Its main sections are the museum floors on the 1. and 2. Floor (Sevgi and Erdoğan Gönül Gallery): the multipurpose exhibition halls on the 3., 4. and 5. Floors), Auditorium/Foyer (basement floor) and Reception, Retail-Art shop and Peracafe on the entrance floor.  

A CULTURAL ENDEAVOR OF THE SUNA AND INAN KIRAC FOUNDATION

The Pera Museum, which opened its doors in early June 2005, is the first step of a comprehensive cultural endeavor that the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation has launched at this distinguished venue in the city for the purpose of providing cultural service on a variety of levels. An historical structure which was originally constructed in 1893 by the architect Achille Manoussos in Tepebaşı (İstanbul's most prestigious district in those days) and which was, until rather recently, known as the Bristol Hotel, was completely renovated to serve as a museum and cultural center for the project. Transformed into a fully-equipped modern museum, this venerable building is now serving the people of İstanbul once again.

The first and second floors of the Pera Museum house three permanent collections belonging to the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation, with the Sevgi and Erdoğan Gönül Gallery on the second floor. The third, fourth, and fifth floors are devoted to multipurpose exhibition spaces. There is an auditorium and lobby in the basement and on the ground floor are the reception desk and Perakende - Artshop and a cafe.

A large part of the first of the two museum floors above the ground floor displays choice examples from the foundation's collection of Anatolian Weights and Measures for the benefit of those who are in love with history and archaeology. Made from many different materials using many different techniques, these objects show the development of the devices used to weigh and measure in Anatolia since the earliest times. In another wing on the same floor is the foundation's collection of Kütahya Tiles and Ceramics, whose strikingly beautiful pieces seek to shed new light on an area of creativity in our cultural history that is not very well known.

The Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation's collection of Orientalist art consists of more than three hundred paintings. This rich collection brings together important works by European artists inspired by the Ottoman world from the 17th century to the early 19th. This collection, which presents a vast visual panorama of the last two centuries of the Ottoman Empire, includes works by Osman Hamdi, regarded by art historians as the genre's only "native Orientalist" and of course his most famous painting The Tortoise Trainer. Many paintings from the private collections of the late Sevgi and Erdoğan Gönül have also entered the foundation's permanent collection. It is planned to exhibit the collection in the Sevgi and Erdoğan Gönül Gallery dedicated to their name in a series of long-term thematic exhibitions. The first of these, which opened in early June 2005, is called "Portraits from the Empire" and consists of portraits of sultans, princes, and other members of the Ottoman imperial family as well as of foreign ambassadors together with other "portraits" in the general sense, showing people from many different periods and walks of life.

In addition to its function as a private museum in which to display the collection of the family, the Pera Museum is also intended to provide the people of İstanbul with a broad range of cultural services as a modern cultural center located in a vibrant part of the city and equipped with multipurpose exhibition spaces, an auditorium and lobby, and activity spaces for visitors.
I went up to the fifth floor with the lift; there is an exhibition of the works of the photographer HENRI CARTIER BRESSON.  The exhibition will be on until 9th of April. The artist has visualized for us the instant moments and memories here that he has immobilized in his photography prints.  The artist lived during 1908-2004 and the photos that he has taken since 1931 make us witness history; a way of living; the painters, sculptors and politicians of those times; streets and the war.

The photographer defines being famous as ‘an awful thing’ and brings forward his opinions about photography stating that ‘Photo is the metaphor of existence.’

3. Floor: Women, Pictures, Stories - woman in the process of modernization in Turkish painting.  We observe in the pictures the social, economical and cultural change of woman from the beginning of Twentieth century towards present times…

2. Floor: there is an exhibition of Portraits from the Empire in Sevgi and Erdoğan Gönül Gallery  

Ottoman World and Ottomans from 18th to 20th Century with the works selected from Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation collection. 

Sultans and their portraits

Ambassadors and Painters

Looks headed to the society

World of women from the eye point of Westerns painters and “harem”
The Ottoman woman and daily life

Women, cloths and portraits

After departing from Pera, one gets excited to be united with Beyoğlu

We had dinner at "Flamm" Bar&Cafe  (Sofyalı Sokak 16-1 Beyoğlu-Istanbul)

This bar-restaurant opened at Asmalımescit is very pleasant with its modern decoration and its old brick wall. The background music playing is good and enjoyable. The food is tasty.

Our chatting deepens while we drink coffee. On the return road, we buy chestnuts from the man at the auto park. Even the dense Istanbul traffic doesn’t spoil our joy while we eat them in the car giggling and laughing.

I ATTENDED A CONCERT

I went to FAZIL SAY’s Piano concert at Akbank Sanat.

The evening started in the glass cafe at the top floor with a well organized cocktail.

The concert hall is on the second floor. We get seated. Unfortunately, the hall is stuffy and hot. Being annoyed by this situation, I ask myself why they haven’t cooled the place while they entertained us upstairs. Dark black curtains and stage… Why not put flowers or that would look nice?

I start to scribble down notes on the back page of the program. I feel pressed down, I try to dilly myself; otherwise, I will get out of the place..

Fazıl Say starts playing the Bach-Busoni (Re minor) Chacconne on the piano.  I watch his fingers, flying on the keyboard of the piano. An artist at the climax of his art... I try not to think of the heath and the stuffy atmosphere.  The spot lights on top of us constrain our breathing. I look around, some use the program as fan that I put my notes on.  I write, ‘I will not allow the stuffiness of this room spoil the joy of this music’… His fingers waltz, then become as if caught into a storm.  Fazıl Say gets fused with music from the string of his hair until each muscle of his body, plays and plays. I forget where we are. Big applause comes.

Now, we listen to Beethoven’s (Ops. 31 No 2 re minor) sonata (storm).  A super performance, I think of the snow falls, it is as if a kind of blow comes to my face with the notes.

Interwal.. They say the air-conditioning causes noise.  Why not put it on for ten minutes while there was no one on the stage... But no!

Second part; M. Mussorgsky (tableaus from an exhibition), grasping epistles… A super performance.

Applauses… Piano epistles performed from a Turkish composer, then never ending applauses.... He is on the stage again. Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ with the artist’s performance.  Now the spot lights... They become like bright sun now, the heath is pleasant. A straw stick in between my teeth, with my straw hat, the sun light comes through, I am on the coast, I hear the sound of the  small waves beating the coast…

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky

But till that morning
There's a'nothing can harm you
With daddy and mamma standing by

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

Many thanks Fazıl Say, God bless you.....

Let’s meet again at another Istanbul Dairy...

Tülin Erkaya

(22.February.2006)