Contemporary art takes over restored Byzantine cistern

Welcome back to AL-MONITOR Istanbul.

Spring has a way of resetting the city — and, in my stubbornly traditional Turkish-housewife imagination, that reset begins with a proper clean. This week, we follow that instinct from a hammam turned art space in Zeyrek Cinili Hamam to a rooftop on Istiklal that thrives on spectacle, with stops in Balat, Izmir and Cyprus along the way.

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Thanks for reading,

Nazlan (@NazlanEr on X)

P.S. Have tips on Istanbul’s culture scene? Send them my way at nertan@al-monitor.com.

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1. Leading the week: Into the Temenos

Margaret R.Thompson’s “Temenos.” (Courtesy of the artist)

Since reopening in 2023 after a 13-year restoration, Zeyrek Cinili Hamam has built a reputation for staging ambitious contemporary art in its Byzantine cistern. Under the artistic direction of Anlam de Coster, the program has leaned toward younger, often female, artists who move fluidly between ancient symbols and contemporary materials, letting Istanbul and its materials — silks, spices, ironmongers and woodworks — inspire them.

Margaret R. Thompson’s “Temenos: The Inland Sea” is the latest. The title comes from the ancient Greek temenos, a word for a sacred space set apart from everyday life, a zone of protection and transition. In psychological terms, it also points to an inner chamber where difficult encounters can take place under shelter.

Thompson builds the exhibition around that idea with a tightly controlled visual language. Large-scale paintings are organized along central vertical axes, reading almost like passageways. Repeating forms include vessels, spirals and vortices, suggesting circulation and return rather than narrative scenes. Textile works hang and drape in the space, echoing the softness of water against the cistern’s hard surfaces.

Motifs surface and recede: winged chimeras, mythological figures, hybrid bodies that refuse to settle into a single story. Materials are specific and tactile. Oils mixed with spices, silks sourced in Istanbul, natural pigments and earth gathered from different geographies give the works a density that resists the clean neutrality of white-cube painting.

A scene from the exhibition. (Courtesy of Zeyrek Cinili Hamam)

Two elements shift the experience beyond the visual. A custom scent, developed with an Istanbul-based aromatherapy studio, recalls how fragrance once marked sacred space in antiquity. A sound installation, built from recordings of springs in Santa Fe, runs quietly through the cistern, linking distant landscapes through water.

Down here, the cistern is understood as a space that holds, filters and transforms. The exhibition follows that logic closely, offering something rare in Istanbul’s fast-moving art circuit: time to look, and time to stay with what you see. And do not leave without a stop at the hammam’s museum upstairs.

Date: Until Aug. 30

Location: Zeyrek Mah. Itfaiye Cad. No: 44 Fatih

2. Word on the street: 360

The girl who played with fire — as we ate and drank. (Courtesy of 360)

Perched atop the storied Misir Apartmani on Istiklal Street, 360 Istanbul has been holding court for 22 years and still knows how to surprise. You come for the view — a sweeping panorama of the Bosphorus and the city’s restless rooftops — and stay for the spectacle, from fire shows to a traditional belly dancer. The food is fine (not more), the wine list strong, but this is a place where atmosphere does the heavy lifting.

3. Istanbul diary

Lara Ogel’s “Locus Affestus.” (Courtesy of Galerist)

·   From Greek to Latin: At Galerist, Lara Ogel’s second solo exhibition, “Locus Affectus,” takes its name from the Latin for “the place where feeling takes hold.” Working with ceramics, watercolors and layered surfaces, Ogel explores what remains when the self is gradually stripped away.

·   Three exhibitions unfold side by side in Balat’s restored Fener Houses at Halic Sanat 1-2-3, where Havva Kilicbay’s “Listen to the Silence,” Cagla Celayir’s “Grounding,” and Emine Navruz’s “Rabbit Hole” explore memory, space and imagination through diorama, conceptual art and miniature. All three run until July 19.

·   From Istanbul to Izmir: The 9th International Women Directors Festival brings 69 films from 28 countries to venues across Izmir, including 27 world premieres and 30 Turkey premieres, along with workshops and panels supporting emerging filmmakers. It’s a compact, ambitious program that places women-led cinema firmly at the center.