The traditional houses of Turkey's eastern Black Sea region have become famous throughout the world thanks to an exhibition put together by the Milli Reassurance Art Gallery.




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The exhibit has been traveling the world for the last three years, stopping in a number of countries so far, with Sweden's Stockholm being its latest stop.
Houses from the region have become famous the world over for their architectural characteristics and wooden structure. The "Rural Architecture in the Eastern Black Sea" exhibit has been so successful that it has been displayed in seven Turkish cities (Antalya, Bodrum, Kars, Trabzon, Diyarbakır, İzmir and Mardin), in addition to Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ljubljana and Lendava in Slovenia, Tbilisi and Batumi in Georgia, Oulu and Rovaniemi in Finland and Stockholm in Sweden. The organizer of the exhibit plans to open the exhibit in four more cities by the end of 2010.

A 256-page English-Turkish book written by Afife Batur provides a detailed account of the architecture of the houses. Amelia Edgü, the organizer of the exhibition, spoke with Today's Zaman, stating: "The Black Sea houses exhibition arouses great interest in any city it goes to and for this reason we plan to stop by many countries. We hope this exhibition will make history as the Turkish exhibit that traveled the world the most."

All exhibit photos were taken by Ali Konyalı.

Wooden mosque project to follow

Edgü also noted that in addition to the wooden houses, wooden mosques found throughout the eastern Black Sea region were of particular interest to her, adding that each mosque was a piece of artwork on its own. Such a treasure should be shown to the world, in her opinion, and in fact this is her next project.

Edgü said her team has selected 42 mosques to photograph and so far six mosques have been cataloged; however, the project is currently at a standstill due to a lack of sponsors. "If we can find a sponsor, the exhibition and the book on those mosques will be completed. After that, the two will visit European cities as there is great interest for them in Europe," Edgü said, noting that the project has three legs: first, 42 wooden mosques of Turkey's eastern Black Sea region are to be photographed; second, all of Turkey's wooden mosques will be photographed; and, finally, all wooden mosques of the Balkans will also be photographed.



14 October 2008, Tuesday


SEVİNÇ ÖZARSLAN İSTANBUL