Icons and imagination at Pera Palace

Welcome back to Al-Monitor Istanbul.

This issue is about love and lahmacun — the thin, crisp flatbread topped with finely minced, unapologetically spicy meat — which, like love, is best approached hot and without overthinking. We begin with a whimsical exhibition in the heart of Istanbul, wander through recent shows, including one where Venus, the goddess of love, collides with modern algorithms, and end by examining lahmacun in its dual career: first as a beloved street food, and second as an unexpectedly reliable economic index.

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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: ‘Please do not disturb’

Ansen’s “No Vacancy”  (photo courtesy of x-ist)

“Please Do Not Disturb,” the new group exhibition at x-ist, takes the Pera Palace, a hotel that has inspired novels, films and endless speculation — and one we often revisit in this newsletter — as a starting point from which to rethink the lives of iconic figures who might, or might not, have passed through its rooms.

The works resist direct portraiture, unfolding instead as original creations shaped by intellectual ruptures and aesthetic codes left behind in contemporary encounters where past and present meet without collapsing into biography.

The exhibition’s historical anchor emerges through Tayfun Gulnar’s double portrait, which places Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in pensive conversation in “Room 101,” and his edgy second-in-command, Ismet Inonu, perched near the window in “Room 201.” The poses are quietly symbolic, positioning the formative figures of the Turkish Republic within the imagined geography of the hotel rather than on pedestals.

Fiction and popular memory enter next through Ansen’s works: “Agatha and Hercules” evokes the charged stillness of the grande dame of whodunnit fiction, Agatha Christie, while “No Vacancy” places director Alfred Hitchcock on a rooftop, eating a simit as birds circle overhead, with suspense softened into casualness.

Other works widen the cast with wit and theatrical flair. Murat Palta’s “Lagerfeld” situates designer Karl Lagerfeld, dark sunglasses on, at the top-left corner of the composition, overlooking the Bosporus like a knowing cameo. Serkan Yuksel’s cut-out “Hemingway” distills writer Ernest Hemingway into posture and silhouette.

Detail from Serkan Yuksel’s handcut-spray paper work, “Hemingway” (photo by Nazlan Ertan)

“Please Do Not Disturb” lets the Pera Palace speak as an unreliable narrator. What emerges is not a guest list, but a series of contemporary glances across icons of the past, comfortable with ambiguity and poetic licence.

Dates:  until Jan. 24

Address: Gumussuyu Mah., Mete Cd. No:8 Beyoglu

2. Word on the street: Lahmacun forever

Tatbak’s legendary lahmacun (Tatbak website)

Lahmacun is Turkey’s most democratic luxury: thin dough, minced meat, spice and the eternal argument over lemon versus pomegranate molasses. Nisantasi’s Tatbak, a common pick of the Michelin Bib Gourmand and Gault Millau guides, keeps things reassuringly old-school, serving crisp-edged lahmacun that arrives hot, fast and unapologetically meaty. Alternatively, you may opt for one of Develi’s many branches, where Gaziantep tradition comes with linen napkins, polished service and the comforting sense that some classics, thankfully, still scale.

3. Istanbul diary

Lal Batman’s “Venus of Algorithmic Desire.” Ink, acrylic, glass gemstones and pearls in engraving textured paper (photo courtesy of Pilevneli and artist)

• Lal Batman’s “The Grand Excess” at PILEVNELI Dolapdere, confronts the artificial glamour of the digital age with the elegance and excess of historical aesthetics, layering references from Ancient Egypt to the 21st century. Until Feb. 14.
• On the Asian side, Decollage Art Space’s annual ODAK 2025 exhibition, titled “Yansima” (Reflection), brings together 33 artists working across diverse materials and visual languages to explore reflection as both a visual and social act. Until March 1.
• “Upon a Rock, I Grew” at Galerist, presented in collaboration with Galeri Nev and with the support of the Kale Design and Art Center, builds outward from Melike Abasiyanik Kurtic’s ceramic practice to form a shared ground of material thinking and repetition. Works by Deniz Aktas, Ece Bal, Gokhun Baltaci, Elif Uras and Burcu Yagcioglu enter into dialogue with Kurtic’s universe, treating ceramic as a conceptual field rather than a craft end point. Until Feb. 21.