Kıraathane marks Italo Calvino’s centennial with exhibition and events

A kindred spirit exists between Italo Calvino and P24’s Kıraathane Istanbul Literature House. Kıraathane’s custom is to divide its programs into seasons, just like the way Italo Calvino structured his enchanting book Marcovaldo or the Seasons in the City. Surely, it was about time that our paths crossed.

Kıraathane’s new exhibition, “Italo Calvino 100 + 1 Yaşında! / Italo Calvino turns 100 + 1!” has opened on Friday, 23 February! Curated by Bilge Bal, Orhan Cem Doğan, and Sevil Enginsoy Ekinci, the exhibition brings together artists and designers from different disciplines with Calvino’s timeless stories. Drawing on Calvino’s narrative creativity and his essays published under the title The Written World and the Unwritten World, these artists have used a variety of materials (sketches, postcards, images, maps, figurines, weaving, and more) and techniques (photography, video, visual story-telling, board game) to emulate a sensory literary world. These unique artworks offer a compelling sight that is sure to capture the imagination of everyone who encounters them.

The exhibition will be open to visitors until Friday, 22 March 2024, every day except Sundays between 11:00 and 19:00. 

Kıraathane will mark Calvino’s centennial with workshops and events alongside the exhibited artworks. On Saturday, 9 March, at 11:00, actor and stage director Barış Arman will run a workshop on performative readings from excerpts of Calvino’s works (you can click this link for more information in Turkish on Kıraathane’s website). On Monday, 11 March, at 19:00, Ertuğ Uçar, Fırat Erdim, and Sevil Enginsoy Ekinci will discuss the different ways to read and discover Invisible Cities (please click this link for more information). On Saturday, 16 March, at 11:00, Bilge Bal and Ilgın Hancıoğlu will set sail to the Bosphorus for a virtual Istanbul city tour through Calvino’s eyes (please click this link for more information).

We are thrilled to be hosting these unique artworks and thank every single one of the artists who has helped this project to become a reality, namely: Ali Artun, Bilge Bal, Ci Demi, Aslıhan Demirtaş, Sevil Enginsoy Ekinci and Gülsen Şenol [+ Ege Özmen], Fırat Erdim [+ Micah Berger, Run-Qiang Lin, Luke Mcdonell, Peter Miller, Samarth-Vish Vachhrajani], Gökçen Erkılıç, fOlkolektif [Elif Kendir Beraha, Ceren Balkır Övünç, Nilay Yurtsever], Murat Germen, Ilgın Hancıoğlu, Evrim Kavcar, Onur Kutluoğlu and E S Kibele Yarman, Waseem Ahmad Siddiqui, Ertuğ Uçar, Levent Şentürk and Ayşenur Telli [+ Ali Yasin Altıparmak, Emine Atılgan, İrem Başülmez, Filiz Baykal, İsmail Gökhan Çatal, Dilay Dinç, Ömer Ege Güvendi, Ece Güvercin, Özge Karaman, Earta Pireva, Hatice Sarıkaya, Metehan Şahin, Havva Begüm Yılmaz, Ayça Yiğit]

Tags: Bilge Bal, exhibition, Istanbul Literature House, Italo Calvino, Kıraathane, Orhan Cem Doğan, Sevil Enginsoy Ekinci