Istanbul as Far as the Eye Can See: Views across Five Centuries

Meşher’s new exhibition Istanbul as Far as the Eye Can See: Views across Five Centuries is curated by Şeyda Çetin and Ebru Esra Satıcı. Based on a selection of more than 100 rare works from the Ömer Koç Collection, the exhibition spans 500 years, from the 15th century – when Istanbul became Ottoman Empire’s capital – to the first quarter of the 20th century. Paintings and engravings showing wide-angle views, together with rare books, albums, panoramic photographs, and even souvenirs of Istanbul, offer visitors a richly varied visual record of the city.

The many producers of these works are also very diverse, including a ship captain, travellers, soldiers, ambassadors, writers, photographers, architects, and city planners; many of them are Westerners with agendas ranging from political to military to aesthetic, and the medium they used varied. Their work reveals both diplomatic relations and the city’s multi-cultural structure and social life; they also trace the major changes that have taken place in the city over time. Quotations from written sources accompany the visual representations, creating a dialogue between Western perspectives and 19th- and early 20th-century Ottoman/Turkish literature. Rather than being yet another ode to the city, the exhibition encourages reflection on the diversity of its narratives and the differences in its many depictions.