{"id":12789,"date":"2025-01-30T14:12:22","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T14:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mck.krakow.pl\/wystawy\/stambul-dwa-swiaty-jedno-miasto\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T12:12:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T12:12:00","slug":"stambul-dwa-swiaty-jedno-miasto","status":"publish","type":"wystawy","link":"https:\/\/mck.krakow.pl\/en\/wystawy\/stambul-dwa-swiaty-jedno-miasto\/","title":{"rendered":"Istanbul. Two worlds, one city"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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The only city of its kind \u2013 the place where two continents are brought together and where two worlds meet. The only century of its kind \u2013 the time when the institution of sultanate was in decline, the republic was being born, and modernity was just about to revolutionise the old ways of life. The only story of its kind \u2013 a captivating narrative made from an assemblage of photographs, paintings, postcards, and posters.\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Istanbul from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century.<\/strong>\u00a0The Constantinople-based old town, vibrant and teeming with life fin-de-si\u00e8cle Pera neighbourhood, as well as districts located on the Asian side of the strait with their overwhelming atmosphere of the \u201cLevant\u201d. The always crowded Golden Horn, as well as peaceful areas situated along the meandering Bosporus. Street vendors selling boza and baklavas, shopping malls, luxurious hotels (one of them features in Agatha Christie\u2019s famous\u00a0Murder on the Orient Express<\/em>). Turkish coffee, shadow theatre, post-offices, telephone and telegraph. Fezes and wide brim hats, niqaabs and disrobed Miss Turkey. The court of the last Sultan, as well as a lesson of new alphabet. The \u201ccity of the cities\u201d in the century of great change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Postcards experienced a meteoric rise in popularity. Drawing heavily from the achievements of photography, they became not only a means of correspondence but also a treasured souvenir from oriental journeys.<\/strong>
One of the masters of this form was Max Fruchterman \u2014 a Galician by origin \u2014 whose numerous works were featured in the exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decadent atmosphere of the capital of an empire often referred to as \u201cthe sick man of Europe\u201d also captivated painters, including many Polish artists.
Jan Matejko spent several weeks on the Bosporus in 1872. The outstanding, though only recently rediscovered, landscape painter Jan Ci\u0105gli\u0144ski created his impressionist works in Istanbul.
Stanis\u0142aw Poraj Chlebowski became the court portraitist of Sultan Abd\u00fclaziz. Many of the works produced during this period were shown in the exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the same time, a period of profound transformation was approaching.<\/strong>
The former Constantinople became irrevocably Istanbul; the centuries-old coexistence of diverse ethnic and religious communities came to an end with the emergence of the modern republic; and the Latin alphabet replaced the Arabic script.
Photographers of successive generations followed this process closely, meticulously \u2014 though not always consciously \u2014 documenting its signs and symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The ICC Gallery featured the works by Istanbul\u2019s leading photographers such as James Robertson (the first Istanbul photographer known to have taken 360\u00b0 panoramic photographs of the city). The core of the display comprised photographs, postcards and posters from the Suna & \u0130nan K\u0131ra\u00e7 Foundation collection. The exhibition was fleshed out with postcards and images from Piotr Nykiel\u2019s personal collection, \u201coriental\u201d paintings and drawings by Jan Matejko, Jan Ci\u0105gli\u0144ski, Stanis\u0142\u0105w Chlebowski, Wac\u0142aw Pawliszak, F\u00e9lix Ziem, and Marian Mokwa from the National Museum in Warsaw, National Museum in Krakow, as well as Regional Museum in Toru\u0144.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The exhibition was accompanied by the publication of the album Istanbul. Two Worlds, One City<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Curators<\/div>
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dr Beata Nykiel<\/div>\n
Deputy Head of the Institute of European Heritage<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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dr Monika Rydiger<\/div>\n
Curator at the International Cultural Centre<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n
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Curators<\/div>\n \n
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dr Beata Nykiel<\/div>\n
Deputy Head of the Institute of European Heritage<\/div>\n \n
\n Historian and archivist, Deputy Head of the Institute of European Heritage at the International Cultural Centre in Krak\u00f3w.\r\nShe has been with the ICC since 2006. Her research focuses on the history of Central and Eastern Europe in the early modern period, particularly the social history of the eastern territories of the Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth (primarily the Podolia region) from the 14th to the 18th century.\r\nHer second area of interest concerns the Galician war cemeteries from World War I and issues related to the protection of cultural heritage, with a special emphasis on Eastern Europe.\r\nShe is a member of the editorial team of the quarterly Herito and the author of numerous scholarly and popular publications. <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
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dr Monika Rydiger<\/div>\n
Curator at the International Cultural Centre<\/div>\n \n
\n Art historian and art critic, curator.\r\nShe is the author and co-author of numerous exhibitions, including: Hunting the Avant-Garde: Forbidden Art in the Third Reich (2011), Memory: Registers and Territories (2013), Makom. Dani Karavan: The Essence of Place (2015), and The Logic of Locality: Norwegian and Polish Contemporary Design (2016).\r\nA member of the Polish section of AICA (International Association of Art Critics) and Vice President of the Krak\u00f3w branch of the Association of Art Historians.\r\nShe writes extensively on modern and contemporary art, with particular focus on sculpture and architecture. <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
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