Exploring and showcasing the joint
European-Ottoman cultural heritage
through visual arts
Ottomans & Europeans
Exhibitions
Thematic circuit
The Ottoman Orient in Renaissance Art
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
04.05.2015 > 25.10.2015
The Sultan’s World.
The Ottoman Orient in Renaissance Art
BOZAR, Brussels
27.02.2015 > 31.05.2015
Ottomania.
The Ottoman Orient in Renaissance Art
Krakow National Museum, Krakow
26.06.2015 > 27.09.2015
Reﬂecting on Five Centuries
of Cultural Relations
Exhibitions
Conferences
Artist residencies
OttoEuropeanFolder.indd 1-4
The Ottomans and Europeans project proposes a journey
through five centuries of shared cultural history between
Europe and Turkey to change perceptions of citizens and
artists from both sides. It will showcase the results of artistic
exchanges between Europe and the Ottomans during the
Renaissance and will stimulate artistic encounters and
discussions on EU-Turkish cultural relations today. The
project focuses on living and non-living artists. By means
of exhibitions, conferences and artists residencies, the
project will attempt to raise awareness relating to cultural
interaction between Europe and Turkey during the Ottoman
era, to stimulate creative encounters between young artists
from both sides today and raise meaningful questions about
current relations in order to move towards a common future.
On 29 May 1453 the Ottomans took Constantinople. News
of the city’s fall spread throughout Europe. The approach of
the Ottomans coincided with the emergence of a veritable
fascination with this highly developed culture and its scientific
refinement. Artists from every corner of Europe travelled to
the shores of the Bosphorus; trade flourished, and so did
cultural exchange, giving rise to a large number of artworks
depicting this intercultural dynamic. The exhibition shows the
lure of the Near East for Western artists and draws attention
to the Islamic world’s influence on Renaissance thought.
With works by Bellini, Dürer, Titian, Memling and Tintoretto,
amongst others. The exhibition will be accompanied by a
richly illustrated catalogue published by Hatje Cantz (296
pages).
Curators: Dr. Guido Messling, Dr. Robert Born
Co-curator: Michał Dziewulski
Scientific committee: Prof. Dr. Suraiya Faroqhi,
Dr. Paul Huvenne, Prof. Dariusz Kołodziejczyk,
Prof. Dr. Günsel Renda
Paolo Veronese (School), Sultan Bajezid I
© Collection Bayerische
Staatsgemäldesammlungen, München
The innovative thematic tour through the permanent
collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum will adopt the
same approach as the exhibitions in Brussels and Krakow:
it will focus on Renaissance artworks that reflect various
influences of the Ottoman Orient, such as subject matter,
motifs and stylistic influences and the different validations of
the Ottomans and their culture. The visitor will be invited to
discover these works, which cannot be transported because
of their importance or fragile condition, while wending his way
through the museum’s various departments and buildings.
The selected works will be highlighted and provided with
explanatory labels, and an audioguide and visitors guide
will be offered to visitors, both in three languages (German,
English, Turkish). With works by Titian, Dürer, Memling and
Tintoretto amongst others.
www.ottomans-europeans.eu
© Kunsthistorisches Museum
With the support of the Cultural Program
of the European Union
Centre for Fine
Arts (BOZAR)
Brussels
Cittadellarte
– Fondazione
Pistoletto
Istanbul
Foundation for
Culture and Arts
Kunsthistorisches
Museum
Vienna
National
Museum
in Krakow
Witte de With
Center for
Contemporary Art
2/10/15 11:34 AM
Conversations on five centuries of cultural
relations between Turkey and Europe
Contemporary encounters between
young artists
Conferences
Artist residencies
Witte de With. Center for Contemporary Art –
Rotterdam
28.02.2015 - 3:00 > 7:30 pm
Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts - Istanbul
22.02.2016
Six young artists, involved in the artist residencies artist
residencies in Italy and Turkey, will put together a one
day conference on the topic of art mobility. Numerous
collections of old Turkish (or Ottoman) Art have been
publicly available in and outside of Turkey for a long time, but
they look back on quite different histories. The conference
in Istanbul will focus on the different objectives and
motivations of its founders and supporters; it will question
how these collections were received in museums and in
society in general and deal with differences and reciprocal
influences that exist between the European and North
American museums and those in the country of origin itself.
Similarly, the importance of this cultural heritage for the
shared cultural and political present and for the different
groups of visitors should be addressed.
The Last 100 Years, Part 1: WdW Review Offline WdW Review Offline, is a conference that discusses the
destabilizing wake, and subsequent geo-political reformations,
that can be traced to the demise of two centuries-old
Empires: the Ottoman and the Austro-Hungarian respectfully.
The conference, staged with and through the institutions’
online platform WdW Review.org, consists of three sections:
Exposition, featuring image readings of works featured in
the exhibition The Sultan’s World at BOZAR, Brussels and
Krakow, Poland; Conflict and Development, a critical section
with three keynote lectures; and Denouement, a geographic
panel session based on WdW Review’s international network
of editorial desks in Cairo, Istanbul, and Rotterdam.
Krakow National Museum - Krakow
26 & 27.06.2015
The National Museum in Krakow will organize an international
scientific conference entitled The Ottoman Orient in
Renaissance Art. During a two-day meeting the conference
guests will be given the opportunity to listen to and meet
renowned scholars from the field, including Dr Radu Păun,
prof. Dr. Suraiya Faroqhi, Dr Hedda Reindl-Kiel and Dr
Pal Acs. Speakers will be associated with museums and
universities from Poland, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Italy
and Turkey. The second conference day will be dedicated to
panel discussions. The conference will take place in the very
centre of Krakow’s old town, in the Renaissance Sukiennice
building (the Cloth Hall), inside the rooms of the famous
Gallery of Polish 19th century art.
OttoEuropeanFolder.indd 5-8
Photo Ali Güler
BOZAR (Centre for Fine Arts) - Brussels
27.04.2016
Photo Karol Kowalik
A final conference will take place at the Centre for Fine Arts
in Brussels, gathering policy makers, artists and partners
involved with the project to reflect on the main themes and
topics and present possible conclusions for the future. A
manifesto with recommendations arising from the discussions
on the state of play of cultural relations between Turkey and
Europe will be presented during this conference.
ambassador of the project “Ottomans & Europeans”
“Europe and Turkey have more than 500 years of shared
cultural history. Placing emphasis on culture enables
us to reach out to places which politics and politicians
cannot access. In a world where wisdom is systematically
threatened by “a little knowledge”, the role of the artist and
the role of the thinker is the same: to debunk the existing
myths, to introduce nuances into the debates and to bring
back memory. Yes, memory, that too is a responsibility, even
when the past is troubled… especially when the past is
troubled.”
Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto – Biella 11.07.2015 > 01.08.2015
Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts - Istanbul
15.02.2016 > 21.02.2016
Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto will organize, in
collaboration with the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and
Arts, two artist residencies, called the Blind Date Sessions.
Taking the exhibition, The Sultan’s World. The Ottoman Orient
in Renaissance Art, as a point of departure, the residencies
will create a platform which brings together European and
Turkish artists to tackle the main theme of Eastern and
Western “interculturality” by reflecting on several key issues
such as the image of the other, migration, shaping identity,
the role of the artists etc. During the first session in Italy a
group of mid-career artists will be invited to pair off and reflect
on the suggested key themes; experts from various fields
will be invited to share their vision and experiences. During
the second session in Istanbul these artists will present an
artistic outcome of their reflections, in an appropriate format.
During the first session in Biella a second group of younger
artists will work together with the invited pairs of artists and
the curators to develop a public event which will take place in
Istanbul on 22.02.2016. Two curators will be involved in both
Sessions, one based in Europe and one based in Turkey. (See
conferences)
Elif Shafak
Photo Enrico Amici
Excerpt from A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, Elif
Shafak’s text in the The Sultan’s World exhibition catalogue.
Elif Shafak is Turkey’s most-read woman writer and an awardwinning novelist, writing both in English and Turkish. She is
ambassador of the project Ottomans & Europeans. Reflecting of
Five Centuries of Cultural Relations. Her novel The Architect’s
Apprentice is set in the heyday of the Ottoman Empire.
Project Calendar
27.02 > 31.05.2015
26 & 27.06.2015
28.02.2015
11.07 > 1.08.2015
EXHIBITION | The Sultan’s World.
The Ottoman Orient in Renaissance Art
@ BOZAR Brussel
CONFERENCE |The Past 100 Years, Part 1: WdW
Review Offline
@ Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art,
Rotterdam
4.05 > 25.10.2015
THEMATIC CIRCUIT | The Ottoman Orient in
Renaissance Art
@Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna
26.06 > 27.09.2015
Photo Yves Gervais - BOZAR
Elif Shafak ©Zeynel Abidin
EXHIBITION | Ottomania. The Ottoman Orient in
Renaissance Art
@ National Museum Krakow
CONFERENCE | The Ottoman Orient in Renaissance
Art – scientific symposium
@ National Museum Krakow, Sukiennice building
BLIND DATES | Artist residency - session I
@ Pistoletto Foundation, Biella
15.02 > 21.02.2016
BLIND DATES | Artist residency – session II
@ Istanbul foundation for Culture and Arts
22.02.2016
CONFERENCE | Artist and collection mobility in
relation to the Ottomans & Europeans framework
@ Istanbul foundation for Culture and Arts
27.04.2016
CONFERENCE | Final conference - project’s results
@ BOZAR Brussel
For up-to-date information check www.ottomans-europeans.eu
2/10/15 11:35 AM