Exhibition | Curator: Begüm Özden FIRAT


This artistic reseacrh set out to respond to a problem we encountered in our previous project entitled “From Tatavla to Kurtuluş: A Sociological Research on the Spatial Organization of Auditory Communities” we held in 2020-2021. During the interviews and sound walks we conducted in the area known as Son Durak district, we realized that this area started to transform along the axis from Dolapdere Flea Market to ARTER the contemporary art museum, which had just opened at the time we conducted the research, and with this transformation, the area around ARTER became relatively quiet. With the subsequent closure of the flea market that opened every Saturday night in the area during the pandemic, we observed that the physical coexistence in these areas was “under threat”. A similar transformation is slowly taking place in Tarlabaşı with the completion of the construction of residences moving down Tarlabaşı towards Dolapdere, overshadowing the neighborhood market that was established directly opposite the ARTER building. The research project centers on the Dolapdere axis in Istanbul, which is being transformed by urban projects with different institutional characteristics, such as the Beyoğlu Culture Road, Tarlabaşı 360, Piyalepaşa Istanbul Project, the series of hotels opening along Pangaltı-Dolapdere-Piyalepaşa, and the opening of large and small museums and galleries such as ARTER, the contemporary art museum affiliated to the Vehbi Koç Foundation, and Dirimart, Pilevneli Gallery, Tarlabaşı Neighborhood Bazaar, Dolapdere Flea Market and ARTER Museum, the project aims to record and archive the urban sounds embedded in these spaces before they disappear. On the other hand, this project aims to understand the sonic transitions, conflicts and negotiations between the spaces positioned as a triangle during the market day when both markets open and emphasizes the importance of listening to three different soundscapes, one permanent (museum) and two temporary (market), together.

In the context of the widespread neoliberal discourse promoting the concept of a hygienic and quiet city, markets become the new undesirables of the urban landscape, leaving them under the double siege of the commodification of public space (Öz and Eder, 2012). Again, as the authors underline, the relocation of markets to closed areas due to concerns about “hygiene”, traffic, noise and pollution has been on the public agenda for more than 10 years. Tarlabaşı and Dolapdere markets are the places where such a siege is felt most acutely. Although Tarlabaşı seems safe to some extent because it is under the supervision and regulation of the Municipality, the ongoing urban transformation is creating pressure down Tarlabaşı Boulevard and upwards from the ARTER. On the other hand, the presence of markets around museums and hotels, which are supposed to be “quiet”, creates a problem of “sonic hygiene”, i.e. noise. For this reason, it seems likely that in the near future Tarlabaşı Bazaar will be moved to a closed area like many other neighborhood markets, and Dolapdere Flea Market will be banned.

Based on this question and the studies mentioned above, the research proposal, which aims to record, archive and evaluate the everyday and ordinary sounds of the city “as intangible cultural heritage”, aims to record and preserve the sounds of two markets in particular. The phrase “a clean and safe Dolapdere” in the research conducted by ARTER through the YADA Foundation during the construction phase of the museum (2018) shows the expectation of appreciation in the region. When the museum is completed, its white and smooth facade seems to prove this hygienic transformation. Taksim 360 Project, Istanbul Piyalepaşa Project, Hotels and the Museum project are seen as projects that “clean”, “beautify” and “make safe” the area. This discourse also points to the danger that in the near future the area will be purged of market noises, which are considered as noise. For this reason, it is important to record and archive the sounds and listen to the encounters between the museum and the market sounds.

Dolapdere is an ethnically and culturally diverse neighborhood in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul. The current inhabitants are mostly Kurds who came to the region after 1980 due to internal migration and settled in abandoned houses left by the Greeks or Roma. In 1960, the number of Greeks was approximately 100,000, but in 1978 it dropped to 7,000. After the Greeks, the region was dominated by the Roma and then the Kurds. In the 1980s, immigrants from Africa also began to settle in the region, and in the 90s there were forced migrations to the region due to the conflicts in the East and Southeast. The majority of the Kurdish population is from Mardin and Diyarbakır. Real estate agents in the region say that due to the recent increase in the real estate market in the region, Kurdish homeowners can sell their houses and buy 2-3 apartments with the money of the house sold in more distant parts of the city, and that Dolapdere is more of a “station” (Yada, 2018). The Tarlabaşı Boulevard, which was constructed between 1986-88, cut the connection between Tarlabaşı and Dolapdere with Beyoğlu and these areas, which were overshadowed by Beyoğlu, became an area suitable for illegal businesses to the extent that they became derelict. For this reason, it is not seen as a safe area, especially for families with children, and people with higher incomes seek ways out of the Dolapdere District. For the poor, on the other hand, Dolapdere is an advantageous area due to its centrality and proximity to informal jobs, while kinship relations in the area facilitate the process of finding a settlement.

Two markets in the region constitute two important pillars of the research. The Dolapdere Flea Market used to be set up on Saturdays at noon in the Yenişehir Neighborhood and removed on Sunday afternoon, but according to a new municipal regulation, the market can now only be set up on Sundays. After the closure of the Topkapı Flea Market, the market has been established here since 2002, and the Roma population of the neighborhood predominantly constitutes the market vendors. Another important pillar of the research is the Tarlabaşı Neighborhood Market, which is also established on Sundays on Serdar Ömer Paşa Street and extends to Ömer Hayyam. According to YADA’s report (2018), the customers of this market exhibit a very heterogeneous profile, different from that of a typical neighborhood market. In addition to neighborhood residents, the customers of the neighborhood market include Taksim shopkeepers and a small number of foreigners. The third leg of the research in the neighborhood is ARTER, the contemporary art museum of the Vehbi Koç Foundation, which moved to Dolapdere in 2019. Every Sunday, there is an audio/visual encounter between the neighborhood market in Tarlabaşı, which ARTER faces, and the flea market in Yenişehir, which it leans on. Visitors listening to the sounds of the flea market, which started to be set up on Saturday afternoon when the museum was first opened and continued on Saturday evening and Sunday, looking out of the windows that open at the end points of the exhibition as if they were watching another exhibition, the backyard of ARTER opening directly into the neighborhood and people looking at this neighborhood while eating their meals or drinking their coffee cause the reality outside the museum to turn into an “object of display”. Although the security guards waiting at the door of the museum, the walls at eye level and the decorations covering the facade of the building like lace visually separate the museum from the outside, it is not possible to draw a border that will prevent the sounds from seeping inside. For this reason, the markets are actually an auditory part of the museum.

The Dolapdere Flea Market can now only exist in the area on Sundays since the pandemic, but these aural and visual encounters still continue. When İlkay Baliç, ARTER’s communications director for many years, was asked about the transparency of the building, but also about this situation in which the person inside becomes the looking/observing subject and the outside and the neighborhood becomes the object, she underlined that this is a “new encounter” for visitors who come to Dolapdere for the first time to see ARTER. Baliç says that it is up to the visitor how they want to relate to the city after this encounter, underlining that what is called an “encounter” is a moment that is meaningful in itself and open to new relationships.

Our research aims to record the soundscapes and auditory communities created by Dolapdere Flea Market, Tarlabaşı Neighborhood Market and ARTER in a single day, and to listen to the sonic transitions/intransitions, conflicts and negotiations between these spaces.

In the collage produced as the first output of the project, the sounds that can be considered as the soundmarks of these three spaces were emphasized, and all the sound recordings were listened to again and the prominent sound sources and elements of the spaces were tried to be included. These sound walks, which took place on Sundays throughout the research, varied according to the time spent in the spaces, but averaged between 60-90 minutes. In order to create an auditory narrative of these sound walks, specific elements were selected by the researcher and an approximate sound collage was created.