Spring Rituals and Rooftop Views
Mid-April in Istanbul feels like a celebration of light. The trees are fully in bloom, balconies burst with geraniums, and everywhere I turned, people were sitting outside—reading, talking, sipping tea. This week I stayed close to the center but high above it, drawn to rooftops and windows, and the way the city looks when you give yourself a little distance from it.
“Behind the Shadow”– Hüsamettin Koçan at MERKUR
March 15 – April 19, 2025
At MERKUR Gallery this spring, Behind the Shadow offered something rare: a deeply personal collaboration that carried the warmth of touch into the realm of contemporary art. Hüsamettin Koçan, a name long familiar for his poetic visual language and cultural advocacy, turned his attention here to a shared memory space—one shaped not only by his hand, but by the collective hands of women in Bayburt, where he was born.
The bead weaving technique, revived and reimagined through this collaboration, became the emotional and material core of the exhibition. These weren’t nostalgic gestures or decorative flourishes. The beads, stitched into canvas, oil paint, and kitsch domestic materials, told stories about continuity, heritage, and the invisible labor behind beauty. The piece Kadının Güneşi I, with its bright palette and shimmering surface, felt like a sun breaking through fabric—light filtered through memory and craft.
What moved me most was how the show made space for these women’s gestures without appropriating them. Their presence was felt in the material, the rhythm, the patience. Koçan’s role wasn’t to elevate craft to “art” but to dissolve that boundary altogether. Here, crochet met canvas, tradition met abstraction, and the result was something deeply rooted but open-ended.
The title, Behind the Shadow, lingers. Perhaps it refers to the countless unnamed women whose artistry has shaped cultural life quietly, persistently. Or maybe it’s about what remains when fame, theory, and ego step aside. What’s left is human texture—made of thread, light, memory, and care.
Address: MERKUR Gallery, Hüsrev Gerede Cad. No: 37, Teşvikiye, Istanbul
Zeyrek Çinili Hamam – The Restored Baths
After years of renovation, this 500-year-old hamam in Fatih has reopened, and it’s absolutely worth a visit. I didn’t go for the bath (yet), but explored the restored interiors—glazed İznik tiles, soaring domes, and cool stone halls that feel untouched by time. The museum sections give fascinating insight into Ottoman bathing rituals and everyday life. A hidden jewel.
Address: Dervişali Mah. Çinili Hamam Sk. No:6, Fatih
There’s something about rooftops and old stones that slows you down, reminds you that this city has always been layered—empires over empires, stories on top of stories. And spring makes it all bloom again, in its own rhythm.
Why Turkiye? 
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