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Odunpazari Modern Museum Opens In Eskişehir
By Lauren Long
On September 8, the Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM) opened to the public in the northwestern Turkish city of Eskişehir. Founded by Erol Tabanca, art collector and chairperson of Turkish construction company Polimeks Holding, the private institution is dedicated to international modern and contemporary art. Its three-story, 4,500-square-meter building was designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates, and was inspired by the Ottoman-era wooden houses of the city’s Odunpazarı district, which was known for its timber trading market. The museum will house Tabanca’s 1,000-piece collection, which consists of works by Turkish practitioners, such as photorealist Taner Ceylan, multimedia artist İnci Eviner, and painter and filmmaker Gülsün Karamustafa, as well as international names like painter and sculptor Julian Opie, abstractionist Sarah Morris, and multimedia artist Hans Op De Beeck. Additionally, OMM will present rotating exhibitions, seminars, and workshops.
About the vision of OMM’s programs, chairperson and creative director Idil Tabanca stated that the museum will initiate “a new era of collaboration and innovation in the university city of Eskişehir.” She furthered: “I don’t see OMM as a museum—it’s a platform, a bridge, for young creatives to have their voices heard.”
The museum’s inaugural exhibition, “Vuslat (The Union),” is curated by Haldun Dostoğlu, owner of Galeri Nev in Istanbul, and features around 100 modern and contemporary works by 60 artists from the Tabanca family's collection, in a “union” of Turkey’s artistic past and present. The exhibited artists include abstract painter and installationist Canan Tolon, and painter Erol Akyavaş, among others. A newly commissioned, site-specific bamboo installation by Tanabe Chikuunsai IV, and two VR installations, focused on environmental issues, by digital art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast were also revealed.
Lauren Long is ArtAsiaPacific's news and web editor.
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