İstiklal Avenue historically known as the Grand Avenue of Pera, in the historic Beyoğlu (Pera) district, is an elegant 1.4 kilometre (0.87 mi) pedestrian street and one of the most famous avenues in Istanbul, Turkey. It acquired its modern name after the declaration of the Republic on 29 October 1923, İstiklal (Independence) commemorating Turkey's triumph in its War of Independence.
The Golden Horn is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. As a natural estuary that connects with the Bosphorus Strait at the point where the strait meets the Sea of Marmara, the waters of the Golden Horn help define the northern boundary of the peninsula constituting "Old Istanbul", the tip of which is the promontory of Sarayburnu, or Seraglio Point. This estuarial inlet geographically separates the historic center of Istanbul from the rest of the city, and forms a horn-shaped, sheltered harbor that in the course of history has protected Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other maritime trade ships for thousands of years.
Galata is the former name of the Karaköy neighbourhood in Istanbul, which is located at the northern shore of the Golden Horn. The district is connected to the historic Fatih district by several bridges that cross the Golden Horn, most notably the Galata Bridge. The medieval citadel of Galata was a colony of the Republic of Genoa between 1273 and 1453. The famous Galata Tower was built by the Genoese in 1348 at the northernmost and highest point of the citadel. Galata is now a quarter within the district of Beyoğlu in Istanbul.
Beyoğlu is a district on the European side of İstanbul, Turkey, separated from the old city by the Golden Horn. It was known as the region of Pera surrounding the ancient coastal town Galata which faced Constantinople across the Horn. Beyoğlu continued to be named Pera during the Middle Ages and, in western languages, into the early 20th century.
Following the proclamation of the Republic, Turkish museums developed considerably, mainly due to the importance Atatürk had attached to the research and exhibition of artifacts of Anatolia. When the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed, there were only the İstanbul Archaeology Museum called the "Asar-ı Atika Müzesi", the Istanbul Military Museum housed in the St. Irene Church, the Islamic Museum in the Suleymaniye Complex in Istanbul and the smaller museums of the Ottoman Empire Museum in a few large cities of Anatolia.
The Ottoman Bank, known from 1863 to 1925 as the Imperial Ottoman Bank and correspondingly referred to by its French acronym BIO, was a bank that played a major role in the financial history of the Ottoman Empire. By the early 20th century, it was the dominant bank in the Ottoman Empire, and one of the largest in the world.
Ernest Mamboury was a Swiss scholar renowned for his works on the historic structures in Turkish cities, particularly on Byzantine art and architecture in Istanbul.
Vasif Kortun is a curator, writer and educator in the field of contemporary art, its institutions, and exhibition practices. Kortun served as the founding director of several international institutions, including SALT, Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Proje4L, and the Museum of the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. In 2006, he received the Award for Curatorial Excellence from the Center for Curatorial Studies for his "experimental approach and openness to new ideas to challenge the contemporary art world and push its parameters beyond national or international, local or global developments." Kortun has written extensively on contemporary art and visual culture in Turkey for publications and periodicals internationally. He currently lives in Ayvalık, a seaside town on the northwestern Aegean coast of Turkey.
Bankalar Caddesi, also known as Voyvoda Caddesi, in the historic Galata quarter of the district of Beyoğlu (Pera) in Istanbul, Turkey, was the financial centre of the late Ottoman Empire. It strikes out west from busy Kemeraltı Caddesi in Karaköy and segues into Okçu Musa Caddesi which leads up to Şişhane and Tepebaşı in Beyoğlu.
Ahmet Öğüt is a conceptual artist living and working in Amsterdam, Netherlands and Berlin, Germany. He works with a broad range of media including video, photography, installation, drawing and printed media.
The contemporary art institution Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center opened in 2001 and was located on the pedestrian Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul, Turkey. Platform Garanti organized exhibitions; conferences and events; hosted an international residency program; and maintained a library and archive of contemporary art.
Founded in March 1997 by the Ottoman Bank in collaboration with the History Foundation, the Ottoman Bank Archives and Research Centre (OBARC) operated in the former Head Office of the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul, Turkey from 1999 to 2010. Its projects included 400 conferences, symposia, workshops and exhibitions; as well as 70 publications and a bi-annual prize competition.
Garanti Gallery (GG) was a cultural institution based in Istanbul, Turkey, specializing in design, architecture and urbanism. Through its various exhibitions, lectures, conferences, workshops and publications, GG filled a great gap regarding its areas of expertise in the city and the country in general. GG was the first venue in Turkey to host the exhibitions of works by internationally renowned architects and designers such as Steven Holl, Zaha Hadid, Archigram, Hella Jongerius, Konstantin Grcic, Ezri Tarazi and Yossi Lemel.
Genco Gulan (Turkish pronunciation: [dʒendʒo ˈɟylan] is a contemporary conceptual artist and theorist, who lives and works in Istanbul. His transmedia contextual work involves painting, found objects, new media, drawings, sculpture, photography, performance and video. His work often carries political, social and/or cultural messages. He describes his work as idea art.
Aydan Murtezaoğlu is a visual artist working mainly in photography and installation. She lives and works in Istanbul.
Hale Tenger is a visual artist based in Istanbul. She is known for her large-scale installations that explore identity, collective memory, and political violence. Using sculpture, video, and sound, her work has been exhibited at numerous public institutions, including Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.; Martin-Gropius-Bau and Kunst-Werke, Berlin; Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn; Fridericianum, Kassel; New Museum, New York; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Lille; Carré d’Art-Nimes Museum of Contemporary Art, Nimes; Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna; Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; ZKM, Karlsruhe; Centre d’Art Contemporain Genéve, Geneva; Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen; Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, Arnhem; Istanbul Modern and ARTER, Istanbul.
Ipek Duben is a contemporary visual artist based in Istanbul. She produces artist books, poetry, installations, video, painting and sculpture. Her work deals with identity issues, feminism, and migration with a strong emphasis on social and political criticism. Besides actively producing and exhibiting art,Duben also has numerous published essays and books on art and criticism.Her work has been shown in international institutions including ), Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2022), Kunstraum Keuzberg/Bethanien (2022), Social Works,Frieze London (2018), Brighton Festival (2017), Fabrica, Brighton UK (2017), SALT Galata, Istanbul (2015), British Museum, London (2014), 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013), Istanbul Modern, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C., (2010) and Akademie der Künst, Berlin (2009). In 2015, SALT published a collection of her essays on art and criticism written between 1978 and 2010.
Didem Özbek is a conceptual artist, curator and graphic designer, living and working in Istanbul. She studied at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul and gained her MA in Communication Design at Central Saint Martins in London.
Krist Gruijthuijsen is a curator and art critic, and since July 2016, Director of KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Germany. At KW, he has curated exhibitions with, among others, Hanne Lippard, Ian Wilson, Adam Pendleton, Ronald Jones, Hiwa K, Willem de Rooij, Beatriz González, David Wojnarowicz, Hreinn Friðfinnsson, and Hassan Sharif.
Banking in Turkey is an important aspect of the financial system Turkey's dynamic economy. Banks handle the majority of money and capital market transactions and activity. Commercial banks make up the majority of Turkey's financial sector, accounting for 91 percent of overall financial sector assets as of 2020.
