‘Contact’ exhibition opens at Istanbul’s historic Karaköy Palace

The “Temas” (“Contact”) exhibition, organized by the KÜME Foundation, opened on Aug. 17 at Karaköy Palace, exploring the architectural, social and cultural layers of Istanbul’s historic Karaköy district through the memory of the building itself.

According to a statement from the foundation, the exhibition treats Karaköy Palace not simply as a venue for displaying artworks but as a central part of the exhibition’s narrative. The building’s architectural character, its changing functions over time and the life that developed around it form the conceptual foundation of the show.

Curated by Murat Kösemen, “Contact” is the second exhibition in the foundation’s cultural and arts program at Karaköy Palace. The exhibition seeks to create new spaces for encounters, beginning with the memory of a single building and extending outward to its surroundings and the broader memory of the city.

Traces of history

Designed by Giulio Mongeri, Karaköy Palace bears traces of the different periods and uses it has experienced since it was built. Rather than reducing those traces to a nostalgic account of the past, “Temas” presents them as elements of a living memory that continues to engage with the present.

The exhibition examines how each interaction – between people and a place, between a place and its surroundings, and between the past and the present – can generate new meaning. Karaköy Palace is consequently positioned at the center of the exhibition as a space of memory where different periods, functions and experiences meet and transform one another.

Karaköy has long been one of Istanbul’s busiest points of encounter, where commerce, transportation, diverse communities, architectural styles and everyday life have intersected. As the neighborhood has continually evolved, it has also retained traces of its past.

“Contact” focuses on how a building establishes relationships with its surroundings and how urban memory is formed through those relationships. By bringing the architecture of Karaköy Palace together with the social, commercial and cultural life that developed around it, the exhibition expands beyond the boundaries of a single building to offer a broader reading of Karaköy.

Rather than presenting the past as a completed story, the exhibition approaches memory as a space that can be reconsidered from the perspective of the present. Connections among architecture, archives, the city and art bring different periods of Karaköy into dialogue while inviting visitors to trace the relationships between them.

“Contact” can be visited daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

DAILYSABAH