The Inonu Chimneys: 'Unseen Monuments' exhibition opened

FMV Gallery Işık Teşvikiye presented the photography exhibition " Invisible Monuments " by Eren İnönü , İsmet İnönü 's grandson and FMV Board Member, to art lovers at an event on October 18th. The opening was attended by numerous figures, including Gülsün Bilgehan , a 26th-term Ankara Member of Parliament, Honorary Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and Vice President of the İnönü Foundation, and Özalp Birol , General Manager of the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation's Culture and Arts Enterprise.

In this exhibition, Eren İnönü focuses on "chimneys," which he photographed at various times. These structures, once symbols of production, industry, and development, but no longer carrying the hot smoke of production, are now the focus of his work. These structures, which once graced the city's skyline but are often neglected, forgotten, and blinded to, are brought to light in the "Invisible Monuments" exhibition.

LOST CULTURAL HERITAGE

"I observed the chimneys standing tall, often standing tall and defying history," İnönü says. "For me, chimneys, which go unnoticed by most people, symbolize change, development, architectural concerns, and even environmental awareness," he says. He then asks: "Just like monuments, who knows what chimneys represent, and since they haven't been demolished today, whether they're perceived as works of art or whether they'll fall into disrepute tomorrow?"

As I searched for an answer, I remembered a few structures we pass by every day: the Mecidiyeköy Liqueur Factory, the Paşabahçe Bottle and Glass Factory, and the Paşabahçe Rakı and Spirit Factory. All that remains of these factories, which were key development initiatives of the Republican era, are their chimneys. In fact, some have even recently vanished. These structures symbolize not only lost industrial centers but also lost cultural heritage. These structures, once home to organizations, many of which suffered their share of privatization, also served as exemplars of modern architecture in the early Republican era. By immortalizing the Ovaakça Natural Gas Cycle Power Plant, Topkapı Industrial Zone, Dolmabahçe Palace, and the Haliç Silahtarağa chimneys, which, like these structures, remain as landmarks, Eren İnönü once again evokes the " forgotten in plain sight ."

Artist and architect Buşra Tunç handled the concept, design, and video installations for the exhibition, which doesn't just consist of photographs. A shell-like structure, placed at the center of the space just in front of the layered texture created by the curtains, transforms the chimneys from a visual experience into a physical experience. Screens placed in the windows, with moving images, extend the exhibition beyond the space and connect it to the public realm.

Beginning the exhibition's journey with Gaudí's chimneys, İnönü reveals the close connection between monumentality and history, as well as material, technique, and form. The rhythm that permeates the exhibition reflects the fluidity of the idea of ​​a monument, determined by the prevailing social context, while simultaneously facilitating a direct perception of the multilayered semantic world of this structure, aestheticized by Eren İnönü without separating it from its social function.

Unseen Monuments can be visited at Gallery Işık Teşvikiye until November 1st.