Exhibit | Istanbul’s Seaside Leisure

"...Istanbul’s Seaside Leisure: Nostalgia from Sea Baths to Beaches, currently on display at the Pera Museum, attempts to remedy the loss by offering visitors an opportunity to reminisce about the city’s once-celebrated beaches. The exhibition tickles the senses with music from the 1920s and black-and-white clips of local beachgoers enjoying their weekends. The space is designed with wall panels, an incredible diving tower and a cosy changing closet. These panels and structures are struck in boxes of sand. Beach paraphernalia decorates the space. Elsewhere, visitors can leaf through old magazine covers featuring images of Istanbul beaches. These elements and the refreshing colour palette come together to create a nostalgic but familiar atmosphere of the Istanbul seaside. The vibe is further enlivened by the paintings, illustrations, magazine covers and photographs on display, which narrate vibrant stories from the beaches’ heydays, allowing visitors to live vicariously through them...." [1]

Mavi Boncuk | 

Pera Museum's [2] Current Exhibit
Istanbul’s Seaside Leisure
Nostalgia from Sea Baths to Beaches

05 April - 26 August 2018

The First World War played a critical role in shaping the transformation of the Ottoman people’s relationship with the sea. Swimming in the sea, regarded as a matter of privacy, was considered wrong and even illegal for a long period. During the second half of the nineteenth century, the inhabitants of a waterside city like Istanbul had to make do with “sea baths” that were enclosed with wooden panels, despite the effect of Westernization. As secularism was embraced within the founding of the Republic, individuality would become socially visible and free, leading to a more intimate relationship with the sea.


The change from sea baths to beaches was nothing less than a revolution. The White Russians escaping the Revolution in Russia caused numerous transformations in Istanbul, arguably the most important being beach habits that brought the people to the sea. The inhabitants of the city were quick to get used to beach going and the activity created its own forms of fun, fashion, and culture in time. Once the sea became part of urban life, Istanbul developed a unique sense of freedom as well. The golden era of beach culture lasted until the 1960s, after which the rapid sociological change in Istanbul took its toll.


Curated by Zafer Toprak, the Istanbul’s Seaside Leisure exhibition brings together photographs, magazines, comics, objects, and books from various private and institutional collections, and tells a nostalgic story while also addressing the change and socialization of the norms of how Istanbulites used their free time. Istanbul’s Seaside Leisure is a documentary testament of the radical transformations in the Republic’s lifestyle.

Catalogue

Istanbul’s Seaside Leisure
Nostalgia from Sea Baths to Beaches

Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 429

ISBN: 978-605-4642- 78-6

CONTENTS
7 Foreword Suna, | İnan & İpek Kıraç
8 From Sea Baths to Beaches A Story of Nostalgia | Zafer Toprak
86 Life on the Beaches of Istanbul| Gökhan Akçura
130 Architectural Traces of Social Transformation along the Coasts of Istanbul: From Sea Baths to Modern Beaches | Meltem Ö. Gürel


Istanbul’s Seaside Leisure: Nostalgia from Sea Baths to Beaches analyzes Istanbulites’ relation with the sea and swimming from a cultural and sociological perspective. It scrutinizes the transformations of this relation, which started with the sea baths in the second half of the 19th century and continued till the mid-20th century.

Having brought together photographs, published material, ephemera, videos and music from varying private and institutional collections, prominently from Suna and İnan Kıraç Photography Collection, the exhibition illustrates how a waterside city like Istanbul had to make do with “sea baths” that were enclosed with wooden panels, despite the effect of Westernization. It is a documentary testament of the radical transformations in the Republic’s lifestyle, socialization of the norms of howIstanbulites used their free time, and the notion of sea, which once only evoked the ideas of trade, travel and scenery.

The exhibition catalogue presents three articles, which approaches the relation of Istanbul with the sea between the second half of the 19th century and the mid-20th century from varying perspectives. The curator of the exhibition Zafer Toprak’s article on the social transformation in relation with the Istanbulites’ intimacy with the sea is accompanied by Gökhan Akçura’s work on sea and entertainment culture, and Meltem Ö. Gürel’s study in which she reads the architectural interventions in regard to people’s relation with the sea.

[1] See source: Cornicopia Article | High Tide for Modernity Sea change on Istanbul’s Coasts BY SURAYA YUSOF | JULY 31, 2018

[2] About Pera Museum
Inaugurated on 8 June 2005, Pera Museum is a private museum founded by the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation. The aim of offering an outstanding range of diverse high quality culture and art services is as important today as when the Museum first opened its doors to the public.


Couched in the historic quarter of Tepebaşı, the impressive building was originally conceived as the Bristol Hotel, designed by architect Achille Manoussos. Restorer and architect Sinan Genim was given the daunting renovation operation in 2003; the triumph of transforming the interior into a modern and fully equipped museum is only matched by the architect’s mastery in simultaneously preserving the exterior façade, safeguarding an integral part of Istanbul’s architectural flavour.