In the 102nd year of the Republic, Beykoz Kundura, one of the key witnesses to Türkiye’s history of industrialization, is opening a new chapter in its work to preserve industrial heritage and pass it on to future generations. Inaugurated on Saturday, October 25, the Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research Center is opening its doors to researchers as a multilayered research space born from the memory of a factory.

Having witnessed the country’s story of industrialization and modernization from the Ottoman era to the Republic, the Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası (Beykoz Leather and Shoe Factory), with its distinctive character extending from production to social life, was not merely a factory but also a space of labor, solidarity and social transformation. Today, this heritage lives on through the archive and research work carried out under the umbrella of the Kundura Hafıza Cultural Heritage Preservation Association.

Its foundations laid by the Oral History Project launched in 2015, the center sheds light on Türkiye’s industrial, labor and cultural history with its comprehensive collection of testimonies from factory workers and their families, along with objects, photographs, documents and drawings related to production processes. Located in the former Nursery building of the Sümerbank Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası, the Center opens to researchers not only its comprehensive collection, comprising the Sümerbank, Etibank, Sac Ambarı and Oral History archives, but also a specialized library focused on Ottoman and Republican-era industrial history, labor studies, and industrial and cultural heritage, with particular emphasis on the Sümerbank Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası.

Established with inspiration from the technical library housed in the directorate building during the factory years, the Kundura Hafıza Library carries the Republic’s ideals of producing knowledge, sharing it and progress into the present day. With its rich collection focusing on Ottoman and Republican-era industry, economics and labor history, the experiences of women workers and cultural heritage, it offers a productive meeting ground for researchers.

The opening program began with a tour of the exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory”, which focuses on the 200-year history and social life of the Sümerbank Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası, and continued with opening remarks by Erdi Yüksel, Kundura Hafıza Library and Archive Lead. As part of the day-long opening, Çelik Gülersoy Foundation İstanbul Library’s Hayri Fehmi Yılmaz, Vitali Hakko Creative Industries Library’s Begüm Başoğlu Öner and Bursa Metropolitan Municipality Bursa City Archive’s Dilek Yıldız Karakaş shared their experiences through the archive and memory work of their own institutions.

While discussing the historical development of their institutions, the ways in which they built their archives and collections, and their methods of providing access to and preserving information, the speakers presented examples touching on diverse fields such as urban history, the creative industries and cultural heritage. Bringing together the memory and archival practices of different institutions, this gathering created a rich environment for sharing, in which current approaches to library, archive and memory studies in Türkiye were discussed and the roles of institutions in producing and transmitting knowledge were evaluated.

Two special documentary screenings exploring the concepts of library and memory through narratives from different geographies, in November at Beykoz Kundura

As part of the opening of the Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research library, two very special documentary screenings will also meet audiences free of charge in November, opening up a discussion of the concepts of library and memory through narratives from different geographies. Screening on November 15 and 29, ‘Umberto Eco – A Library of the World’ approaches the library as a universe of thought, a space of imagination and a carrier of cultural continuity; meanwhile, screening on November 8 and 22, ‘How to Build a Library’ follows the initiative of two women in Nairobi who, confronting the shadows of the colonial past, turn the library into a stage for social transformation. The encounter between these two films invites us to reimagine the library not only as an archive of knowledge, but also as a living, organic universe of both individual and collective memory and of cultural resilience.

* The Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research Center will serve visitors by appointment.

About Beykoz Kundura

Beykoz Kundura is a multifaceted center for culture, arts and production built on the legacy of the Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası, one of the key witnesses to Türkiye’s history of industrialization, whose origins date back to the mid-19th century. Having witnessed the country’s industrial and social development from the Ottoman era to the Republic, the factory was restructured under Sümerbank during the Republican period and became not only a site of production but also a place of living, with its own hospital, nursery, cinema and social facilities. In this respect, Beykoz Kundura holds a unique place among Türkiye’s early industrial complexes.

With the transformation that began in the 2000s, the building complex was given a new function with the aim of preserving its industrial heritage and bringing it together with cultural production. Today, alongside its cinema, stage, exhibition and workshop programs, Beykoz Kundura carries the memory of the past into the present through the Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research Center and, by offering an inspiring environment for the creative industries and artistic production, stands out as a pioneering example that brings together industrial heritage and contemporary cultural production.

About Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research

Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research holds a rich collection that sheds light on Türkiye’s industrial history from the Ottoman era to the Republic. Made up of the archives of institutions such as Sümerbank and Etibank, first and foremost the Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası, the collection carries the factory’s cultural heritage into the future through photographs, documents, objects and oral history recordings.

While the Oral History Collection, launched in 2015 in collaboration with the History Foundation (Tarih Vakfı), gathers the testimonies of more than 200 factory workers and their families, the Sac Ambarı Collection preserves more than 5,000 objects related to the factory’s production and social life, and the Sümerbank and Etibank collections bring together thousands of images and documents on Türkiye’s industrial past.

About Kundura Hafıza Learning Programs

Kundura Hafıza approaches learning not merely as the transfer of knowledge, but as a process intertwined with experience, inquiry and creativity. Through its children’s and adult workshops, Kundura Hafıza aims to enable participants to explore the venue, question heritage and engage in creative production; while the children’s workshops reach children free of charge with activities such as robotic coding, collage, architecture, landscape design and leatherwork, the adult workshops offer industrial heritage-themed practices such as paper, leather and glass crafts. As part of the public programs, the permanent exhibition “A World Fit into a Factory” conveys the factory’s history, production processes and social life to students and the public.

Oral history workshops and the “Vardiya” program give participants experience in production and research through archives and art. The summer school and teacher training programs spread awareness of cultural heritage and enable knowledge to be passed on to others. While events such as panels, films, festivals and memory walks build a bridge between past and present, accessibility is ensured through sign language tours and digital content. All these programs make it possible for participants to experience and share the past and to spread awareness of cultural heritage throughout society.

About the Kundura Hafıza Library

Housed within the Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research Center—established to preserve, study and pass on Beykoz Kundura’s industrial heritage—the library is a specialized library that complements the archival work under way since 2015. Re-established with inspiration from the technical library that served in the directorate building during the factory years, this space carries on the factory’s tradition of producing and sharing knowledge.

Comprising approximately 5,000 works, the collection focuses on leather and shoe production as well as Ottoman and Republican-era industry, economics, labor history and cultural heritage. Enriched by personal donations in addition to printed sources from the Sümerbank and Etibank archives, the library collection also includes Prof. Dr. Arzu Öztürkmen’s personal library in the fields of oral history, performance studies and folklore.

With its archive and library, the Archive and Research Center forms a productive meeting point for researchers from diverse disciplines such as history, economics, sociology, architecture and design.

For detailed information:
Evrim Eylem Şişman • e.eylemsisman@gmail.com • 0554 348 80 26

Cultural Heritage Summer School for Young People from Kundura Hafıza The Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research Center at Beykoz Kundura is organizing a special five-day summer school for young people aged 14–17 from August 18–22, 2025. Through interactive lessons, hands-on workshops and creative design work, the program aims to raise young people’s awareness of cultural heritage.

Developed by Kundura Hafıza, the Cultural Heritage Summer School offers participants the opportunity to discover and experience tangible and intangible cultural heritage through different disciplines such as archaeology, architecture, urban planning, museum studies and history. Each day, theoretical knowledge will be shared by expert academics and educators in their fields, and then put into practice in the workshops that follow.

At the end of each day, the young participants will transform the knowledge and experience they have gained into their own original designs, taking their connection with cultural heritage to a personal level. At the end of the summer school, all participants will receive a Certificate of Participation from the Kundura Hafıza Cultural Heritage Preservation Association. With this certificate, students will also earn the title of “Cultural Heritage Ambassador.”

During the school year, the “Cultural Heritage Ambassadors” will stay in touch with Kundura Hafıza and pass on what they have learned to their peers at their own schools and at primary schools in their communities. In this way, the impact of the summer school will not be limited to a single week; awareness of cultural heritage will spread to wider audiences.

For more information and registration: https://beykozkundura.com/

Sümerbank, one of the most important industrial breakthroughs in the history of the Republic, will celebrate its 92nd founding anniversary with events held on July 11–12, 2025 at Beykoz Kundura. Spanning exhibitions and workshops, talks, an archive visit and an exhibition tour, this comprehensive program will offer visitors an experience that refreshes the memory of Sümerbank, a legacy of the Early Republican Period.

The events will begin on the evening of Friday, July 11, with a guided tour of “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory,” Hafıza’s permanent exhibition, and will continue on Saturday, July 12, with workshops and talks. Under the title “Memory and Flavor Gatherings,” participants will use recipes from a 1971 issue of Sümerbank magazine to prepare Circassian Chicken and Princess Salad. Leather wallet design and photo embroidery workshops will bring together practices of production and remembrance. Throughout the day, in the factory’s former carpentry workshop building, children’s workshops will continue.

On an exhibition tour with factory retirees, visitors will hear from witnesses of production and socio-cultural life, then move on to the factory’s nursery, where memories of Sümerbank’s nurseries will be shared. The Kundura Hafıza Archive will open physically to visitors for the first time, offering them direct contact with archival documents.

As part of the event, a book talk on “Beykoz Kundura” with M. Hakan Koçak and İsmet Akça will be held, in which the author and the editor will discuss the process of writing the book.

Sümerbank’s deep-rooted history will be remembered anew through these events, meeting today’s visitors around the themes of collective production and memory.

For program details and tickets, you can visit www.beykozkundura.com.

Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research Center carries into the future the legacy of Sümerbank and Etibank, which shaped Türkiye’s industrialization, modernization and cultural transformation. Having meticulously collected, restored and archived more than 25,000 documents and objects to date, Kundura Hafıza has built one of the most comprehensive archives of Türkiye’s industrial heritage.

The works in the collection are restored, preserved and documented by Kundura Hafıza, and are made accessible to the public through the free exhibition Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory and to researchers through the research center, contributing to the growth of knowledge and scholarly production.

Let’s Build a Stronger Memory Together!

Kundura Hafıza now invites everyone to become part of this collective memory! Through its open call, it welcomes all those who wish to donate correspondence and other material related to Sümerbank and Etibank, including letters, photographs, books, publications, postcards, clothing, shoes and other documents and objects. Every item you donate will contribute to the growth and diversification of the collection; it will be documented and preserved under the donor’s name, your name, too, will become part of this deep-rooted history, and, once restored, it will be passed on to future generations and become a lasting cultural resource for researchers and visitors.

Leave your mark on history! To become part of the collective memory and make a donation, please contact us at hafiza@beykozkundura.com.

Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research Center

Kundura Hafıza began its work in 2015 with oral history studies conducted with former employees of the Sümerbank Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası (Beykoz Leather and Shoe Factory), and has since added to its archive thousands of documents on Sümerbank, Etibank, Beykoz, the Beykoz Kundura and Leather Factory, and Istanbul’s industrial heritage. Continuing its work under the umbrella of the Kundura Hafıza Cultural Heritage Preservation Association, the Center has taken on the identity of a civil society organization. The Kundura Hafıza Archive and Research Center was established to digitize the archive and open it to researchers, bringing together the entire archive, the oral history recordings and the library to serve as a resource for academia and researchers. In 2021, the permanent exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory,” the product of oral history and archival work, which can be visited free of charge, opened its doors to visitors. Through panels, trainings, children’s and adult workshops, a summer school, artist-in-residence programs and corporate collaborations, all free of charge, the Center reaches many people of different ages and interests beyond the academic world.

Beykoz Kundura offers its visitors an exhibition experience beyond time. Taking place at Beykoz Kundura on Friday, May 30, at 19:30, accompanied by a professional guide, the exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory” gives visitors the opportunity to journey through the memory of a historic factory.

Beykoz Kundura, which holds an important place in Istanbul’s arts and culture scene, this time opens the doors of its permanent exhibition, open to visitors on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between 14:00 and 18:00, to collective memory with a guided tour. Due to limited capacity, visitors wishing to tour the exhibition, which is free of charge, are required to make a reservation in advance via the website.

Drawing on the Kundura Hafıza archive and telling the story of the transformation of an industrial heritage site, the exhibition offers visitors a journey through time at the heart of production. Accompanied by a professional guide, participants will have the chance to explore the historic factory buildings where shoes and leather were once produced, the production tools, and Beykoz Kundura’s process of transformation.

Beykoz Kundura welcomes to its permanent exhibition everyone who wishes to connect with the past, bear witness to the stories hidden in the memory of a factory and set out on a cultural journey.

For more information and reservations:
www.beykozkundura.com

“Maybe Tomorrow,” the adaptation to today’s Türkiye of Forced Entertainment’s contemporary theater classic “Tomorrow’s Parties,” starring masters of the stage Aslı İçözü and Şerif Erol and directed by Ayşe Draz, will meet theatergoers at Beykoz Kundura on March 8 and 22. Tickets for “Maybe Tomorrow,” produced by Lita House of Production and Beykoz Kundura, are available on Passo.

Created by Forced Entertainment, one of the leading companies of the contemporary theater scene and regarded as a pioneer of the devising method, and originally titled “Tomorrow’s Parties,” the play has been adapted to the present day and to today’s Türkiye as “Maybe Tomorrow,” produced by Lita House of Production and Beykoz Kundura, and continues to meet audiences with its March performances.

Blending today’s hopes and fears with questions about the future to offer an immersive theater experience, “Maybe Tomorrow” stars seasoned stage actors Aslı İçözü and Şerif Erol, with Ayşe Draz in the director’s chair.

Described by critics as “absurd but optimistic,” “razor-sharp” and “unforgettable,” and offering audiences both a critical and a humorous perspective, “Maybe Tomorrow” reflects the creative beauty of modern theater, bringing to the stage a story that ranges from speculations about the future to utopian and dystopian dreams, and from political nightmares to science-fiction fantasies. With a captivating performance in the style of an âşık duel, the improvised poetic contest of Turkish minstrels, the actors bounce thoughts about the possibilities of the future off one another on a bare stage, inviting audiences both to think and to laugh, while addressing today’s social issues in an ironic and striking way.

Tickets for the March 8 and 22 performances of “Maybe Tomorrow,” co-produced by Lita House of Production and Beykoz Kundura and continuing its run throughout the season, are available on Passo.

“Maybe Tomorrow” Credits

Director: Ayşe Draz

Dramaturg: Özlem Hemiş

Translation: Semih Fırıncıoğlu

Adaptation: Ayse Draz, Aslı İçözü, Şerif Erol, Özlem Hemiş, Bora Aksu

Associate Director: Bora Aksu

Assistant Director: Berfin Tolmaç

Cast: Aslı İçözü, Şerif Erol

Lighting Operators: Umut Rışvanlı, Hüseyin Ege Kök

Sound & Effects Operator: Ayça Özkan

Production Coordinator: İzel Şenal

Production: Beykoz Kundura, Lita House of Production, Forced Entertainment

Age limit: 14+

“A little over an hour…”

One act

For more information:

Evrim Eylem Şişman

05543488026

Keeping the tradition of repertory cinema alive, Kundura Sinema continues to meet film lovers until February 22 with ‘Kundura Classics: The Golden Age of Monsters,’ a carefully curated selection of restored classic films that brings together the unforgettable creatures and iconic figures of horror cinema. In this special program, which reaches into the depths of both fear and human nature, audiences will have the chance to rediscover on the big screen the golden age of gothic atmospheres and unforgettable monsters. The program, which offers the opportunity to watch two films with a single ticket, invites audiences into the magical world of film history; tickets are available on Passo.

In addition to its repertory approach, Kundura Sinema also devotes special space to restored classics of modern cinema, and with its new program ‘Kundura Classics: The Golden Age of Monsters,’ it invites film lovers to rediscover on the big screen the golden age of gothic atmospheres and unforgettable monsters. With a selection that forges a unique link between the cinema of the past and the present, featuring restored prints of horror classics made between 1930 and 1945 such as Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolf Man alongside the modern take on classic monster films offered by contemporary productions such as The Shape of Water, ‘Kundura Classics: The Golden Age of Monsters’ offers its audience a viewing experience that reaches into the depths of both fear and human nature.

As part of ‘The Golden Age of Monsters’ program, the 1931 Frankenstein, directed by James Whale and adapted from Mary Shelley’s literary classic, and Bride of Frankenstein, made in 1935, will meet film lovers on the big screen on Saturday, February 8. While Frankenstein questions the limits of science, ethics and human nature through the experiments an obsessed scientist conducts on a corpse that he has stitched together and brought back from the dead, Bride of Frankenstein follows the same scientist as he is persuaded to create a mate for the monster he made.

On the evening of Friday, February 14, the program will present Guillermo del Toro’s 2017 film The Shape of Water. The film centers on the deep and moving bond that Elisa, a mute woman, forms with a mysterious aquatic creature brought to the laboratory where she works. Winner of the Golden Lion, the top prize in Venice, The Shape of Water went on to win four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Another literary adaptation in ‘The Golden Age of Monsters’ program, the 1931 Dracula, adapted for the screen by Tod Browning from Bram Stoker’s novel, will be screened on Saturday, February 15. The film tells the terrifying story of Count Dracula, who wishes to move from his castle in Transylvania to London, and is regarded as one of the cornerstones of horror cinema; its iconic character, Count Dracula, is all but immortalized by Bela Lugosi’s unforgettable performance. Lambert Hillyer’s Dracula’s Daughter , screening the same day, is a direct sequel to Dracula. Inspired by a short story by Bram Stoker, the film offers its audience a powerful narrative focusing on the identity, freedom and inner conflicts of the count’s daughter, Marya Zaleska.

The program will conclude on Saturday, February 22, with two iconic films based on the werewolf legend. Directed by George Waggner, the 1941 The Wolf Man tells the story of Larry Talbot, who is cursed after being bitten by a mysterious werewolf in the forest. With a powerful narrative that is not merely a monster story but also explores the inner conflicts of human nature, The Wolf Man stands as a timeless classic. In the selection’s other werewolf film, another iconic figure comes back to life: Roy William Neill’s 1943 Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man follows Larry Talbot, who longs to be free of his curse, on a journey that leads him to Frankenstein. Offering a compelling narrative on the curses of human nature and the search for salvation, the film is considered one of the pioneers of the “monster universe” concept in film history.

With the ‘Double Feature’ scheme that Kundura Sinema has introduced as part of the program, valid for films with two screenings on the same day, participants can watch two films back to back with a single ticket. Tickets for ‘Kundura Classics: The Golden Age of Monsters,’ which runs until February 22, are available on Passo.

KUNDURA CLASSICS: THE GOLDEN AGE OF MONSTERS PROGRAM

Saturday, February 8, 2025

16:00 – Frankenstein 1931 / USA / 70′ / Black & White / In English with Turkish Subtitles

Bride of Frankenstein 1935 / USA / 75′ / Black & White / In English with Turkish Subtitles

Friday, February 14, 2025

21:00 – The Shape of Water 2017 / USA / 123′ / Color / In English with Turkish Subtitles

Saturday, February 15, 2025

16:00 – Dracula 1931 / USA / 75′ / Black & White / In English with Turkish Subtitles

Dracula’s Daughter 1936 / USA / 71′ / Black & White / In English with Turkish Subtitles

Saturday, February 22, 2025

16:00 – The Wolf Man 1941 / USA / 70′ / Black & White / In English with Turkish Subtitles

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man 1943 / USA / 74′ / Black & White / In English with Turkish Subtitles

About Beykoz Kundura

With a history dating back to the early 1800s, Beykoz Kundura, one of Türkiye’s most important industrial heritage sites, was transformed into a film studio in 2005 following an extensive restoration and became the heart of today’s film and television industry. Since 2018, through its events, its location and its historic venues, it has also become one of Istanbul’s alternative centers for arts and culture. Creating new meeting grounds and opportunities for production in culture, thought and the arts through its interdisciplinary stage Kundura Sahne, its cinema Kundura Sinema, known for its curated programs, its open-air event A Summer Night Festival, its artist program Vardiya, and KunduraLab, its platform for philosophy, performance and documentary, Beykoz Kundura also looks at the past from the present through its archive and research center Kundura Hafıza, and continues to keep the memory of the factory alive.

For more information:

Evrim Eylem Şişman • 0554 348 80 26

Beykoz Kundura is launching KunduraLab, its new platform that aims to create opportunities for discussion and production along the paths of different disciplines, from performance to documentary film and from philosophy to anthropology. The first program of the initiative, which aims to turn Beykoz Kundura, one of Istanbul’s major arts and culture institutions, into an art-focused center of thought and production, will be FelsefeLab. Taking Beykoz Kundura’s curatorial programs as its starting point and inviting participants to understand and read concepts by following philosophical methods, FelsefeLab will open on January 28 with a talk by academic Dr. Umut Eldem titled “Is a Human Being an Artificial Intelligence?”, and throughout 2021 will offer opportunities for discussion and discovery with a program shaped around intriguing topics ranging from artificial intelligence to science-fiction cinema.

KunduraLab, which also aims to turn Beykoz Kundura, one of Istanbul’s leading arts and culture institutions, into an art-focused center of thought and art, is launching. The first program of the platform, which will offer new opportunities for discussion and production along the paths of different disciplines, from performance to documentary film and from philosophy to anthropology, will be FelsefeLab.

The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence

Taking the curatorial programs of Kundura Sinema & Sahne as its starting point and inviting participants to understand and read concepts by following philosophical methods, FelsefeLab will hold talks and film programs throughout 2021 around intriguing topics ranging from artificial intelligence to science-fiction cinema. The first event of FelsefeLab will be a talk by academic Dr. Umut Eldem titled “Is a Human Being an Artificial Intelligence?”. Taking place on Thursday, January 28, the talk will take as its starting point the play ​“Uncanny Valley,” currently streaming online on Kundura Blog, and, following in the footsteps of thinkers such as Hubert Dreyfus, Jacques Derrida and Benjamin Libet, will open up for discussion concepts such as the philosophy of technology, behaviorism, free will and philosophical anthropology.

FelsefeLab’s talk series with Dr. Umut Eldem will continue with the talks “Artificial Intelligence Rights” on February 4 and “The Synthetic World of the Future” on February 18.

‘Uncanny Valley’ Continues

The online screening of the Rimini Protokoll​ play “Uncanny Valley”, which is at the center of the talk, continues on kultur.beykozkundura.com. Directed by Stefan Kaegi and starring a humanoid robot copied and produced with reference to the German writer Thomas Melle, the play also takes the use of artificial intelligence in theater to a new threshold.

Umut Eldem’s online talk titled “Is a Human Being an Artificial Intelligence?” can be watched free of charge via the Zoom link to be posted on beykozkundura.com, starting at 21:00 on the evening of Thursday, January 28.

Kundura Sahne’s performance development program PerformLab, held for the first time this year, took place at Beykoz Kundura last week. At PerformLab, held under the artistic direction of Ayşe Draz, Melih Gençboyacı, Pelin Başaran and S. Buse Yıldırım, 9 artists selected from Türkiye had the opportunity to develop their work and practices alongside guest artists from the Netherlands. Over the course of a week, participants engaged with the original working methods of Benjamin Kahn, Cherish Menzo, Khadija El Kharraz Alami and Samara Hersch in the field of performance, and in a workshop accompanied by Turkish artist İlyas Odman as Art Fermenter, they made their own pickles and interpreted their artistic processes through the concept of fermentation. Organized in partnership between Kundura Sahne and Productiehuis Theater Rotterdam and with the support of Dutch Performing Arts, the program also aims to mark the beginning of an artistic dialogue between the Netherlands and Türkiye.

Kundura Sahne’s interdisciplinary and international concept and practice development program in the field of performance, PerformLab, has concluded its first edition. Bringing together artists from Türkiye and the Netherlands, the program took place at Beykoz Kundura from May 29 to June 6, 2021.

Artists from Türkiye and the Netherlands came together

At PerformLab, held under the artistic direction of Ayşe Draz, Melih Gençboyacı, Pelin Başaran and S. Buse Yıldırım, 9 artists selected through an Open Call had the opportunity to spend a week developing their work and practices alongside guest artists from the Netherlands.

Bringing together artists from different disciplines such as video, dance and performance, PerformLab was the scene of intensive work and exchange. Actor and performer Khadija El Kharraz Alami invited participants to discover their own voices on stage through her work ‘Re-claiming Space,’ while dancer and performer Cherish Menzo, in her workshop sharing the ‘Chopped and Screwed’ technique, opened up for collective exploration ways of stretching, deforming, tearing down and rebuilding the moving body.

In her workshop, educator, artist, theater-maker and director Samara Hersch invited participants to jointly explore the performative possibilities of the concepts of ‘distance’ and ‘intimacy/closeness,’ which she also examines in her own work. Dancer and choreographer Benjamin Kahn, in turn, let participants experience in his workshop how they could turn ‘screaming,’ which he has begun working on for his next piece, into material for both voice and body on stage. Meanwhile, participant Nadir Sönmez shared with the other participants his presentation, which draws on his own biographical material and questions the position of performance in the art market, while Barış Arman shared the research process of his new site-specific work, which he is developing around the island, isolation and building a community.

Benjamin Kahn and Cherish Menzo also presented to the participants, as a special gift to PerformLab, a screening of their original work ‘Sorry, But I Feel Slightly Disidentified…’, designed by Kahn and featuring Menzo as performer, which problematizes the concepts of gender and race as well as the power relations between those who create and those who perform, and which has won admiration at many festivals.

Guest artist İlyas Odman from Türkiye also joined PerformLab as Art Fermenter, bringing a new perspective to artistic processes through the concept of fermentation. In the workshop, which began with participants making pickles with their own hands, fermentation became a creative tool for interpreting and understanding artistic processes.

Held for the first time in partnership between Kundura Sahne and Productiehuis Theater Rotterdam and with the support of Dutch Performing Arts, PerformLab aims to sow the first seeds not only of possible artistic collaborations between Türkiye and the Netherlands, but also of a sustainable artistic dialogue.

KunduraLab, the art and thought program launched this year by Beykoz Kundura, one of Istanbul’s major arts and culture institutions, continues with PerformLab, an interdisciplinary and international concept and practice development program in the field of performance. Applications for the first workshop of PerformLab, which will be open to all artists from Türkiye who are interested in creating work in the field of performance and have experience in it, open today at beykozkundura.com and will run until March 1, with the results to be announced on March 22. The 10 artists to be selected for PerformLab, which aims to give new creative tools and perspectives to artists who wish to diversify their work by incorporating performance into their practices in different fields, will be invited to take part in the workshop to be held from May 29 to June 6, 2021. Organized by Kundura Sahne in partnership with Productiehuis Theater Rotterdam, a research and development institution for new-generation artists, and with the support of Dutch Performing Arts, the workshop will also mark the beginning of an artistic dialogue between the Netherlands and Türkiye.

KunduraLab, the art and thought program launched last month by Beykoz Kundura, one of Istanbul’s leading arts and culture institutions, continues with PerformLab, an interdisciplinary and international concept and practice development program in the field of performance. The first workshop of PerformLab, for which applications open today, will be open to all artists from Türkiye who are interested in creating work in the field of performance and have experience in it. Applications will run until March 1, and the results will be announced on March 22.

The 10 artists selected by a jury made up of Ayşe Draz, who pursues her research and artistic production in the field of performance; Melih Gençboyacı, artist, curator and Artistic Coordinator of Productiehuis Theater Rotterdam; Pelin Başaran, performing arts curator and producer; and S.Buse Yıldırım, culture & arts director and curator of Beykoz Kundura, will be invited to the first PerformLab workshop from May 29 to June 6, 2021. At the end of the 7-day workshop, hosted by Beykoz Kundura in Istanbul, the participants are expected to give a presentation, to which representatives of leading arts and culture institutions will be invited as audience members.

Artistic collaboration between Türkiye and the Netherlands

Bringing together artists from Türkiye and the Netherlands, PerformLab, where Cherish Menzo, Benjamin Kahn and Khadija El Kharraz Alami, artists based in the Netherlands who stand out in their fields, will share experiences with participants from Türkiye through their own practices, aims to sow the first seeds of possible collaborations and of a sustainable artistic dialogue between the two countries. The open call is open to artists from Türkiye who are interested in creating work in the field of performance and have experience in it, and participation in the workshop is free of charge.

FelsefeLab continues

FelsefeLab, which started last month, was the first link in KunduraLab, Beykoz Kundura’s new platform that aims to offer new opportunities for discussion and production along the paths of different disciplines, from performance to documentary film and from philosophy to anthropology. Taking the curatorial programs of Kundura Sinema & Sahne as its starting point and inviting participants to understand and read concepts by following philosophical methods, FelsefeLab will hold talks and film programs throughout 2021 around intriguing topics ranging from artificial intelligence to science-fiction cinema. FelsefeLab’s talk series with Dr. Umut Eldem will continue with the talks “Artificial Intelligence Rights” on February 11 and “The Synthetic World of the Future” on February 25.

The talk series of FelsefeLab, Beykoz Kundura’s new platform inviting participants to understand and read concepts by following philosophical methods, continues with Artificial Intelligence Rights. Featuring academic Dr. Umut Eldem as speaker, the event will open up for discussion the legal, political and ethical aspects of the near-future coexistence of humans and robots with artificial intelligence, while pursuing the question “Can beings with artificial intelligence be considered individuals with rights and responsibilities?” The free talk Artificial Intelligence Rights can be watched on beykozkundura.com tomorrow evening from 21:00.

The talk series of FelsefeLab, the new platform of Beykoz Kundura, one of Istanbul’s leading arts and culture institutions, which takes its curatorial programs as a starting point and invites participants to understand and read concepts by following philosophical methods, continues with Artificial Intelligence Rights.

Prepared with the play ​“Uncanny Valley,” currently streaming online on Kundura Blog, as its starting point and featuring academic Dr. Umut Eldem as speaker, the event will pursue the question “Can beings with artificial intelligence be considered individuals with rights and responsibilities?” Questioning the legal, political and ethical aspects of a future, very close at hand, in which humans and robots with artificial intelligence will begin to live together, the talk will follow in the footsteps of thinkers such as Peter Singer, Colin Allen, Gary Varner, David Gunkel and Emmanuel Levinas to open up for discussion concepts such as the philosophy of technology, behaviorism, free will and philosophical anthropology.

Umut Eldem’s online talk titled “Is a Human Being an Artificial Intelligence?” can be watched free of charge via the Zoom link to be posted on beykozkundura.com, starting at 21:00 tomorrow evening (February 11).

‘Uncanny Valley’ on Kundura Blog

The online screening of the Rimini Protokoll​ play “Uncanny Valley”, which is at the center of the talk, continues on kultur.beykozkundura.com. Directed by Stefan Kaegi and starring a humanoid robot copied and produced with reference to the German writer Thomas Melle, the play also takes the use of artificial intelligence in theater to a new threshold.

The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence

Taking the curatorial programs of Kundura Sinema & Sahne as its starting point and inviting participants to understand and read concepts by following philosophical methods, FelsefeLab will hold talks and film programs throughout 2021 around intriguing topics ranging from artificial intelligence to science-fiction cinema. FelsefeLab’s talk series with Dr. Umut Eldem will continue on February 25 with the talk titled “The Synthetic World of the Future”.

Launched this year by Beykoz Kundura, the thought platform FelsefeLab, whose first edition focused on the theme of “Artificial Intelligence,” continues this month with readings on Star Wars. Led by Dr. Umut Eldem and inviting participants to understand and read concepts by following philosophical methods, FelsefeLab will interpret, around the themes of metaphysics, politics and ethics, the Star Wars saga, which began with George Lucas’s 1977 film “A New Hope” and expanded its universe with television series, animations and comic books, profoundly influencing not only science-fiction cinema but many fields, from literature to television and from fashion to politics and popular culture. The series will open on the evening of Tuesday, April 6 at 21:00 with the talk “Is the Force with Us?”, continue on April 20 with “Opposite or Mirror?: The Empire and the Rebels”, and conclude on May 4, Star Wars Day, with the talk “How Does a Good Jedi Live?”. The free FelsefeLab talks can be watched at beykozkundura.com.

The thought platform FelsefeLab, launched by Beykoz Kundura in February and inviting participants to understand and read concepts by following philosophical methods, continues. Having focused last month on the theme of “Artificial Intelligence,” FelsefeLab opens up to the Star Wars universe this month, led by academic Dr. Umut Eldem.

The talk series will examine, under metaphysical, political and ethical themes, the Star Wars saga, which began with the film “A New Hope,” directed by George Lucas in 1977, and has continued over the years by expanding its universe with television series, animations and comic books. Drawing at times on Hegel and at times on Kant, and also touching on modern thinkers such as Adam Barkman, Judith Barad and William Lindenmuth, it will interpret this unique universe by following its unforgettable heroes and through different ethical approaches.

The first Star Wars reading, to be held on the evening of Tuesday, April 6, will be the talk “Is the Force with Us?”. Umut Eldem will examine, in the light of Hegel’s philosophy, the metaphysical and social bond of the Force, which is used by both the Jedi and the knights of the Empire and is spread throughout the entire universe. Proceeding in the light of Hegel’s ideas on Spirit and social consciousness and developing around themes such as will, causality, dialectics and the spirit of the age, the talk will open up for discussion topics such as the unity of good and evil in the Force; the training, virtue and sociality required to use the Force; the Force as an extension of individual will; and the influence of societies’ ways of life, beliefs and values on metaphysical understanding.

FelsefeLab’s Star Wars readings will continue on April 20 with “Opposite or Mirror?: The Empire and the Rebels”, while the talk “How Does a Good Jedi Live?” will take place on May 4, Star Wars Day, which is celebrated around the world. Starting at 21:00, the talks can be watched free of charge via the Zoom link to be posted on beykozkundura.com.

Beykoz Kundura, one of Türkiye’s important industrial heritage sites and cultural centers, says ‘hello’ to 2022 with its artist-in-residence program Vardiya. Designed around the meanings of the word vardiya (shift), ‘to protect, to watch over, to keep watch,’ and inspired by the shift system of the workers at the Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası (Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory), the program will each year invite three artists from Türkiye working in different disciplines. Spending 10 days at Beykoz Kundura in the archive of Kundura Hafıza, made up of thousands of objects, sound recordings and photographs, the artists will interpret the past and history from the present, drawing on their own artistic practices and experimenting with different research methods. Born of the combination of Kundura Sahne’s experimental, innovative and research-driven view of performance practice and Kundura Hafıza’s approach of pursuing local wisdom and preserving what has been lost, Vardiya aims to create new spaces for thinking and encounter. The first artist of the First Vardiya, which begins today, will be Gözde İlkin, who has become one of the leading names in the contemporary art world with works that use photography, video and sound installations as well as sewing, drawing and painting. Working with found household textiles such as tablecloths, curtains and bedsheets, each an object of memory that represents social identity and processes, the artist is known for using fabrics as a space on which she stages the motifs and images she creates. Detailed information about Vardiya is available at beykozkundura.com.

Beykoz Kundura, which, with a history dating back to the early 1800s, is one of Türkiye’s most important industrial heritage sites and has since 2018 become one of Istanbul’s favorite arts and culture centers, says ‘hello’ to 2022 with its artist-in-residence program Vardiya.

Inspired by the factory workers’ shift system

Held once a year, with three artists from Türkiye working in different disciplines selected and invited to take part, Vardiya was designed as a sequence of work that protects, watches over and keeps watch over the archive. Inspired by the dictionary meaning of the word ‘vardiya’ (shift), which entered Turkish from the Venetian ‘vàrdia’ and the Italian ‘guardia,’ and from the Italian verb ‘guardare,’ meaning ‘to protect, to watch over, to keep watch,’ the program was conceived with inspiration from the shift system at the Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası, in which workers handed over their watch to one another.

As part of Vardiya, which begins today (January 14), the artists will each spend 10 days in the archive of Kundura Hafıza and develop ideas from the thoughts and inspiration it awakens in them; when they leave at the end of the ten days, they will hand over what they have gathered to the artist taking the next watch. In the final stage of the program, the three artists will come together and present their work in a program open to the public at Beykoz Kundura.

Realized in partnership between Kundura Sahne and Kundura Hafıza, Vardiya aims to create new spaces for thinking and encounter where art and the archive meet.

Gözde İlkin, the first artist of the First Vardiya

Born of the combination of Kundura Sahne’s experimental, innovative and research-driven approach to performance practice and Kundura Hafıza’s approach of pursuing local wisdom and preserving what has been lost, Vardiya will have as its first artist Gözde İlkin, who has become one of the leading names in the contemporary art world with works that use photography, video and sound installations as well as sewing, drawing and painting. Working with found household textiles such as tablecloths, curtains and bedsheets, each an object of memory that represents social identity and processes, the artist is known for using fabrics as a space on which she stages the motifs and images she creates. Her motifs and drawings on fabric depict today’s cultural knowledge, political and social relations, and gender issues. İlkin also follows the traces of nature to explore different forms of belonging, tracing forms inspired by nature as well as the healing and transformative effects of plants, animals and people as they draw closer to one another.

In February and March, Vardiya will continue with musician, drummer and graphic design artist Alican Tezer and with contemporary dance artist, choreographer and lecturer Canan Yücel Pekiçten.

Beykoz Kundura, one of Türkiye’s important industrial heritage sites and cultural centers, continues its artist-in-residence program Vardiya, launched in mid-January with contemporary artist Gözde İlkin, with multi-instrumentalist, interdisciplinary artist and drummer Alican Tezer. Known for his work with bands such as Athena, Büyük Ev Ablukada and İnsanlar, as well as Ayyuka, which he co-founded, and for numerous album covers, posters, and stage and video designs, the artist will take over the experiences of Gözde İlkin, who spent 10 days in the archive of Kundura Hafıza, and begin his own research-driven production process. Held for the first time this year, with three invited artists from Türkiye working in different disciplines, Vardiya aims to create new spaces for thinking and encounter. Designed around the meanings of the word vardiya (shift), ‘to protect, to watch over, to keep watch,’ and inspired by the shift system of the workers at the Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası (Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory), the program was born of the combination of Kundura Sahne’s experimental, innovative and research-driven approach to performance practice and Kundura Hafıza’s outlook of pursuing local wisdom and preserving what has been lost. Reinterpreting the archive of Kundura Hafıza, made up of thousands of objects, sound recordings and photographs, through their own artistic practices and different research methods, the artists will share their experiences in a program open to the public at Beykoz Kundura in the middle of the year. Detailed information about Vardiya is available at beykozkundura.com.

Beykoz Kundura, one of Türkiye’s most important industrial heritage sites and since 2018 one of Istanbul’s favorite arts and culture centers, continues its artist-in-residence program Vardiya. Having begun in mid-January with contemporary artist Gözde İlkin, the program now turns to multi-instrumentalist, interdisciplinary artist and drummer Alican Tezer.

Known for his work with bands such as Athena, Büyük Ev Ablukada and İnsanlar, as well as Ayyuka, which he co-founded, and for numerous album covers, posters, and stage and video designs, the artist has been working in Berlin since 2018. Believing in the importance of improvisation in music and design, Tezer brings aesthetic elements together to create works that can hold feeling and idea together. The artist will take over the experiences of Gözde İlkin, who spent 10 days in the archive of Kundura Hafıza, and begin his own research-driven production process.

Inspired by the factory workers’ shift system

Held once a year, with three artists from Türkiye working in different disciplines selected and invited to take part, Vardiya was designed as a sequence of work that protects, watches over and keeps watch over the archive. Inspired by the dictionary meaning of the word ‘vardiya’ (shift), which entered Turkish from the Venetian ‘vàrdia’ and the Italian ‘guardia,’ and from the Italian verb ‘guardare,’ meaning ‘to protect, to watch over, to keep watch,’ the program was conceived with inspiration from the shift system at the Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası, in which workers handed over their watch to one another.

Their experiences will also be shared with audiences

Each artist spends 10 days in the archive of Kundura Hafıza, developing through their own practice the research-driven production taken over from the previous artist and generating original ideas; when they leave at the end of the ten days, they hand over what they have gathered to the artist taking the next watch. In the final stage of the program, the three artists will come together and share their experiences in a program open to the public at Beykoz Kundura in the middle of the year.

Realized in partnership between Kundura Sahne and Kundura Hafıza and aiming to create new spaces for thinking and encounter where art and the archive meet, Vardiya will welcome as its third and final artist contemporary dance artist, choreographer and faculty member Canan Yücel Pekiçten.

Beykoz Kundura’s interdisciplinary performance stage Kundura Sahne opens tomorrow evening with the original dance project REVERT. Designed especially for Kundura Sahne by dance artist, choreographer and academic Tuğçe Ulugün Tuna, REVERT focuses on the primitiveness, intelligence and timelessness of the human body. Created with a holistic approach and taking as its starting point the word ‘Revert,’ which carries the meanings of “shedding additions and returning to the original structure, to what is primal and rooted,” the work looks, through the body, at journeys, searches and the fine bridge between the real and the surreal. For REVERT, a Kundura Sahne production, the sound design, created together with Tuğçe Ulugün Tuna, is by Metin Kalaç, and the lighting design is by Utku Kara. Tickets for the performance, which runs until November 7 and will meet a limited audience three days a week, from Friday to Sunday, are available at beykozkundura.com​.

Beykoz Kundura’s stage Kundura Sahne, which aims to create an innovative and interdisciplinary space for the performing arts, holds its opening, postponed due to the pandemic, tomorrow evening (October 1) with the original dance project REVERT.

“REVERT: Time Transcended,” with concept, choreography and videography by dance artist, choreographer and academic Tuğçe Ulugün Tuna, is an interdisciplinary dance project focusing on the primitiveness, intelligence and timelessness of the human body. Designed especially for Kundura Sahne, the work aims to bring into the present moment, through a body that stands between past and future, the knowledge, experience and impulse of the whole across all layers of consciousness.

‘Returning to the roots’ through body and dance

Approaching the body as a means of conveying, carrying and transmitting time, Tuğçe Ulugün Tuna focuses, through the body, on journeys, searches and the fine bridge between the real and the surreal. Emerging from a dream the artist had, REVERT set out from the word ‘Revert,’ which carries the meanings of “shedding additions and returning to the original structure, to what is primal and rooted,” and was created during the pandemic with a holistic approach. In the work, with sound design by Metin Kalaç, created together with Tuğçe Ulugün Tuna, and lighting design by Utku Kara, the artist will be joined by contemporary dance artists Aybike İpekçi, Diren Ezgi Yıldızkan, Ekin Ançel, Ezgi Yaren Karademir, Furkan Yılmaz, Gizem Seçkin, Hilal Sibel Pekel, Umut Özdaloğlu and Yoseob Kim.

Tickets for REVERT, which will meet audiences until November 7 with one performance on Fridays and two on Saturdays and Sundays, are on sale at 60 TL (discounted) and 80 TL (full price) and can be purchased at beykozkundura.com.

More than a stage

Founded under the roof of Beykoz Kundura, which, with a history dating back to the early 1800s, is one of Türkiye’s important industrial heritage sites and has since 2018 become one of Istanbul’s favorite arts and culture centers, Kundura Sahne focuses on the contemporary performing arts and aims to create an innovative and interdisciplinary space.

Completed in 2020 with the consultancy of the Dutch firms Theater Advies​ and TenBras​, the stage stands out for its impressive restoration and, with the possibilities it offers for different configurations, including proscenium and central stage, will also create an alternative space for the local performance world.

Kundura Sahne will also continue to host international projects, among them the performance it launched last year as the local producer of ‘Remote X,’ the famous Rimini Protokoll​ project presented in more than 50 cities around the world: Remote İstanbul; and the concept and practice development program held for the first time in June in partnership with Productiehuis Theater Rotterdam and with the support of Dutch Performing Arts: PerformLab. The doors of Kundura Sahne will open to audiences for the first time on October 1, 2021.

‘How To Enjoy Ceylon Tea’ at Beykoz Kundura, for the first time in Türkiye

The latest project of dance artist, choreographer and faculty member Canan Yücel Pekiçten, known for her award-winning original works, “How To Enjoy Ceylon Tea,” meets audiences for the first time in Türkiye at Kundura Sahne. Having had its world premiere at Podium Mozaïek in Amsterdam, the performance will be staged on Saturday, April 23, at 18:00, and can also be seen on Sunday, April 24, at 17:00. With concept, choreography and performance by Canan Yücel Pekiçten, whose recent work focuses on the forms of representation of the female body in contemporary art, “How To Enjoy Ceylon Tea” will set out on a journey that follows Georges Bizet’s orientalist opera “The Pearl Fishers” all the way to Ceylon tea, a colonial product of Sri Lanka. For film lovers, too, the cult thriller “Niagara,” in which we see Marilyn Monroe as Rose, one of film noir’s famous femmes fatales, will be at Kundura Sinema for the last time on Saturday in a restored 4K screening. Tickets for the events, available in limited numbers, can be purchased at beykozkundura.com.

This weekend at Kundura Sahne, which is hosting original dance projects from local stages throughout April, Canan Yücel Pekiçten’s latest performance “How To Enjoy Ceylon Tea” meets audiences for the first time in Türkiye. Having had its world premiere at Podium Mozaïek in Amsterdam, the performance will be staged on Saturday, April 23, at 18:00, with a repeat performance at Kundura Sahne on Sunday, April 24, at 17:00.

The “Other” ways of enjoying Ceylon Tea

With concept, choreography and performance by dance artist, choreographer and faculty member Canan Yücel Pekiçten, known for her award-winning original works, whose recent work focuses on the forms of representation of the female body in contemporary art, “How To Enjoy Ceylon Tea” will set out on a journey that follows Georges Bizet’s orientalist opera “The Pearl Fishers” all the way to Ceylon tea, a colonial product of Sri Lanka.

Canan Yücel Pekiçten describes the creation process of her performance, in which she seeks the “Other” ways of enjoying Ceylon Tea, a colonial product, in these words: “Operas and arias, symbols of ‘Western’ culture, have for some time been a critical source for my work. While working on an aria from a classical Western opera and becoming a part of it, I am interested in the contrast of turning inside out, tearing down and remaking the issues that are the subject of the opera. This time, in order to hear the voice of Georges Bizet’s orientalist opera ‘The Pearl Fishers,’ my thoughts reached out to Ceylon itself and led me to tea, Sri Lanka’s colonial product.”

‘Niagara’ in 4K for the last time at Kundura Sinema

For film lovers this weekend, the 1953 crime film “Niagara,” considered the beginning of the Marilyn Monroe legend in cinema, will be at Kundura Sinema for the last time in a restored 4K screening. Screening on Saturday, April 23, at 17:00, the film is one of the treasures of film noir, as much for its superb performances and rhythmic pace as for Monroe’s character Rose, who left a deep mark on everything from fashion to popular culture.

Tickets at beykozkundura.com

The limited tickets, on sale at 110 TL for the performance and at 85 TL (full price) and 65 TL (discounted) for the film screening, can be purchased at beykozkundura.com, with a 20% discount on purchases of two or more tickets. In addition, throughout April, new members signing up at beykozkundura.com are offered 40% off tickets for Kundura Sinema and Kundura Sahne events.

Experience Beykoz Kundura before the event

On event days, by presenting your ticket you can enter Beykoz Kundura 2 hours before the show; you may spend time in our food and drink areas or visit the Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory exhibition free of charge. Inviting visitors to look from a different perspective at the production history of the Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası (Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory), whose rich past spans the Ottoman Empire and the Republic, the exhibition keeps alive the memory of these fascinating buildings by bringing together machines left from the factory, documents, objects donated by former employees and their families, and the oral history interviews conducted since 2015.

You can reach Beykoz Kundura by sea on the boats departing from Yeniköy every 20 minutes and on Şehir Hatları ferries, and after the event you can use the free shuttles departing from Beykoz Kundura to Taksim and, via Üsküdar, to Kadıköy. Audience members who prefer a sea taxi can arrive at Beykoz Kundura’s private pier, and those coming by car can use the parking service free of charge.

This month, the online program of Kundura Sahne, the performance and theater stage of Beykoz Kundura, welcomes Swiss director and artist Stefan Kaegi, known for his extraordinary projects. Having sparked debate and won awards with the plays he has created under the roof of ​Rimini Protokoll, one of Europe’s most important art collectives, with ‘non-professional’ performers from different fields such as Formula 1 drivers, pet owners and politicians, Stefan Kaegi will share his artistic practice with audiences in Türkiye in an Artist Talk on January 14. Another surprise from Kundura Sahne will be the online screening of Kaegi’s 2018 performance “Uncanny Valley,” in which he staged a humanoid robot he created, taking the use of artificial intelligence in theater to a new turning point. The screening on kultur.beykozkundura.com can be watched free of charge with the option of Turkish subtitles.

This month, the online program of Kundura Sahne, the stage of Beykoz Kundura that will open its doors in spring 2021 and aims to create an innovative and interdisciplinary space for the performing arts, dance in particular, welcomes Stefan Kaegi, the provocative name of European theater. Known for interactive, entertaining and striking projects created in different forms, the artist will share his award-winning artistic practice with audiences in Türkiye in an Artist Talk on Thursday, January 14. The talk, for which free registration is available at beykozkundura.com, will take place live on Zoom at 20:00 with simultaneous Turkish interpretation.

One of the founders of Rimini Protokoll​, one of the most important art collectives in European theater, Kaegi has brought new questions to the sense of reality in theater with projects designed in different formats, from documentary theater to audio projects; the talk in which he will share his experiences will be titled “On Transported Acting and Remote-Controlled Spectators”. Working with performers from different groups, among them Formula 1 drivers, pet owners and politicians, who are ‘experts in their fields but not professional performers,’ the artist is known for interactive, entertaining and surprising projects that bring together different understandings of form and media possibilities such as GPS navigators, radio waves, telephone recordings and video games.

A Humanoid Robot on Stage

Another surprise from Kundura Sahne will be the screening of Kaegi’s performance with a humanoid robot, “Uncanny Valley,” which was much talked about when it was staged in 2018 and took the use of artificial intelligence in theater to a new threshold. In the play, in which we watch, alone on stage, a humanoid robot copied and produced with reference to Thomas Melle, an extraordinary author of German literature, the writer’s literary journey from his childhood onward and his experiences of manic depression are also recounted. Taking as its starting point the concept of the ‘Uncanny Valley,’ first used in the 1970s by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori to describe the uncanny and existential zone of uncertainty people experience when they encounter humanlike machines, the play will offer audiences a viewing experience as unsettling as it is intriguing, in this uncanny zone where the questions ‘what is human’ and ‘what is machine’ become entangled. Available from January 15 on kultur.beykozkundura.com, the play can be watched online free of charge, with the option of Turkish subtitles, until February 15.

‘Remote X’ in Istanbul this summer

Kundura Sahne’s collaboration with Stefan Kaegi and Rimini Protokoll will continue in the summer of 2021. “Remote İstanbul”, the Istanbul adaptation of Kaegi’s “Remote X” series, designed especially for developing cities from Moscow to Taipei, will meet Istanbulites again in the summer of 2021. Brought to Istanbul by Kundura Sahne last September and October but postponed due to pandemic conditions, the play, with a concept that turns audience members into performers, will invite us to question our relationship with the city and to observe our behavior accompanied by an artificial intelligence.

STEFAN KAEGI: Interdisciplinary and provocative theater

Born in 1972 in Solothurn, Switzerland, Stefan Kaegi studied art at the F&F School of Art and Design in Zurich. In 2000, together with Helgard Haug and Daniel Wetzel, whom he had met during his school years in the ’90s, he founded Rimini Protokoll. Theatre der Zeit, one of Germany’s most established theater publications, greeted the group, which made a strong impact on the young theater scene, with the words “the heroes and founders of a new current of reality on stage.” The projects Kaegi created under the Rimini Protokoll umbrella brought together, instead of professional actors, writers, directors and expert designers from different disciplines, and questioned the layers of interaction, knowledge transfer, communication and interactive technology. In his performance “Deutschland 2”, created especially for the 2002 Theater der Welt Festival, he re-enacted an entire session of the German Parliament together with 200 citizens of Bonn. The performance, which the then President of the German Parliament, Wolfgang Thierse, tried to block on the grounds of ‘the privacy of the house,’ sparked a heated debate in the country on artistic freedom and the relationship between politics and art. His projects “Mnemopark” (2005), winner of the Jury’s Special Prize at the Politik im Freien Theater Festival; “Cargo Sofia” (2006), which takes the audience on a journey inside a truck accompanied by two Bulgarian truck drivers; and “Karl Marx – Das Kapital, Band 1” (2007), adapted from the foundational work of Marxism, were staged at major festivals around the world. He won the Faust Theater Prize in 2007, the European Theater Prize in 2008 and the European Award for Cultural Diversity in 2010. With the project “Radio Muezzin”, which takes as its starting point the live radio broadcast of the call to prayer from a single center in Egypt during the Hosni Mubarak era and explores the transformation of religion from a ritual into a technical method, he toured many countries, including Türkiye, and in 2011 won the Jury’s Special Prize at the Sarajevo Theater Festival. That same year he was honored with the Silver Lion at the Venice Theater Festival, while his 2013 multi-player video installation about the arms industry, “Situation Rooms”, received the Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival. With “Call Cutta in a Box” (2012), an intercontinental telephone performance conducted live between an employee of a call center in India and audiences in different countries around the world, and “Weltklimakonferenz” (2014), a simulation of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, he won the Honorary Mention of Ars Electronica, the Austrian institute for culture, education and science. He adapted his project “Remote X”, launched in 2013 and designed especially for developing cities, to 55 different cities, including Shanghai, Moscow and New York. In 2015 the project earned him a nomination for the Golden Mask Award of the Russian Theater Festival, and that same year he received the Swiss Grand Theater Award, given to the most influential names of the year in the theater world. In 2018, with the play “Uncanny Valley,” in which he staged a humanoid robot he created to perform as if it were a clone of German writer Thomas Melle, he set a new milestone in the use of artificial intelligence in theater. Continuing to tour the world with “Remote X”, which takes participants on a virtual treasure hunt, and with the interactive installation “Nachlass”, which he staged together with 8 people nearing the end of their lives, Kaegi will be at Kundura Sahne once again this summer with “Remote İstanbul”.

KUNDURA SAHNE: More than a stage

Founded under the roof of Beykoz Kundura, whose history dates back to the early 1800s and which since 2018 has become one of Istanbul’s important arts and culture centers, Kundura Sahne focuses on the contemporary performing arts, dance in particular, and aims to create an innovative and interdisciplinary space. Having brought to Istanbul in September the Remote project, staged in different cities around the world by Rimini Protokoll, one of the renowned companies of documentary theater, Kundura Sahne has postponed its opening to spring 2021 due to pandemic conditions but continues to meet its audience through online events. Notable for its impressive restoration completed with the consultancy of the Dutch firms Theater Advies and TenBras, the stage allows for different configurations, including proscenium and central stage, and with a capacity of nearly 500 spectators, it will become an alternative space for Istanbul’s performance world.

KUNDURA SAHNE

kultur.beykozkundura.com

ARTIST TALKS: STEFAN KAEGI

Transported Acting and Remote-Controlled Spectators

Date: January 14, 2021

Time: 20:00

Language: English (Simultaneous Turkish interpretation will be provided.)

Free

Welcome to the threshold between fiction and reality, where a blend of documentary material and the theatrical can suddenly pull you into far more complex subjects such as climate change or European politics! Kundura Sahne invites artists and students in the performing arts, dramaturgs, critics, journalists, designers, writers and directors to this special artist talk by Stefan Kaegi, one of the founders of Germany’s distinctive theater collective Rimini Protokoll.

ONLINE THEATER: UNCANNY VALLEY

Date: January 15–February 15, 2021

With Turkish subtitles, Free

Concept, Text & Direction: Stefan Kaegi

Text/Body/Voice: Thomas Melle

2018, 60’

We mostly think of robots as work machines, as doers that carry out tasks efficiently and precisely. Unlike the humanoid robots long developed in Asia for roles such as sex partners and service staff, those created in German industry resemble humans far less. Physical closeness to humans also makes machines easier to accept, and yet the more a machine resembles a human, the more insecure we begin to feel. The play takes as its starting point the concept of the “Uncanny Valley,” with which Japanese robotics researchers describe this ambiguous and uncanny zone where the questions ‘what is human’ and ‘what is machine’ become entangled.

German writer Thomas Melle agreed to have an animatronic copy of himself made. This humanoid copy takes the writer’s place and asks a number of questions: What does it mean for the original when the copy takes its place? Might the original come to know himself better through this electronic double? Are the copy and the original competing with each other, or are they helping one another?

Kundura Sahne’s performance Remote İstanbul, which turns Istanbul into a stage and invites participants to explore the city accompanied by an artificial intelligence, begins on Saturday, August 7. Held for the second time this year in partnership between Beykoz Kundura and Rimini Protokoll​, one of the pioneers of documentary theater, Remote İstanbul will bring the stage to the heart of the city throughout August. Inviting us to look again, and with new eyes, at the city we were kept apart from during the pandemic, the performance will reintroduce us to the Istanbul that escapes our notice in the daily rush, with its textures, sounds and colors. The Istanbul adaptation of the performance, designed by Stefan Kaegi especially for developing cities from Moscow to Taipei and staged in more than 50 countries, was written and directed by Jörg Karrenbauer. Tickets for Remote İstanbul, which will take place four days a week, from Thursday to Sunday, throughout August, can be purchased at beykozkundura.com.

Beykoz Kundura’s performance and theater stage Kundura Sahne brings its performance Remote İstanbul, which will carry the stage to the heart of the city, to Istanbul for the second time. The Istanbul adaptation of the “Remote X” series designed by Rimini Protokoll​, one of the pioneers of documentary theater, especially for developing cities from Moscow to Taipei, the performance will turn audience members into performers and the city into a stage throughout August.

Looking at Istanbul again, with new eyes

A co-production of Kundura Sahne and Lita YapımEvi, Remote İstanbul will take place from August 7 to 30, 2021, along a route stretching from Manolya Park to Koşuyolu, turning participants, who set out wearing headphones and guided by the voice of an artificial intelligence, into part of the play. Inviting us to question our relationship with the city and to observe our behavior accompanied by an artificial intelligence, the performance will offer a chance to look again, and with new eyes, at the city we were kept apart from in times of pandemic, with its textures, sounds and colors.

The Istanbul adaptation of “Remote X,” designed and written by Stefan Kaegi, one of the founders of the German artist collective Rimini Protokoll, one of the most creative groups in European theater, which has won countless awards for projects that expand the boundaries of theater through technology, was written and directed by Jörg Karrenbauer of the collective.

Held for the second time in partnership between Kundura Sahne and Rimini Protokoll​, Remote İstanbul will take place in collaboration with Kadıköy Municipality and with the contributions of Tepe Nautilus Shopping Mall. Running four days a week, from Thursday to Sunday, from August 7 to 30, 2021, the performance will be in Turkish, with an English option also offered on Sundays, August 15 and August 29. Tickets for Remote İstanbul, on sale at 80 TL (students) and 120 TL (full price), can be purchased at beykozkundura.com.

Opened last week and set to welcome Istanbul’s art lovers at Beykoz Kundura with its innovative program focused on performance and music as much as with its impressive architecture, Kundura Sahne will have as its first musical guest Austrian Hang drummer and musician Manu Delago. Followed closely by electronic music enthusiasts in particular for his albums “Silver Kobalt” (2013), “Metromonk” (2015) and “Parasol Peak” (2018), the artist will come to Istanbul on November 13 as the guest of Kundura Sahne. Having performed in more than 50 countries around the world with names such as Björk, Anoushka Shankar, Ólafur Arnalds and The Cinematic Orchestra as well as with his solo projects, and known especially for his widely viewed YouTube videos, the Grammy-nominated artist will perform his album “Circadian” live for the first time in Türkiye. Fans of the artist will also be able to watch for free, on Beykoz Kundura’s online streaming platform Kundurama, the music film “Parasol Peak,” about the performances Manu Delago gave with six musicians in 2018 at different altitudes and locations in the Alps, and the documentary “On Rock and Ice,” which tells the behind-the-scenes story of this unique process. Given top marks by critics for their visuals and striking sound design, the film and the documentary are screening from today on Kundurama with Turkish subtitles, free of charge. Tickets for the Manu Delago concert can be purchased at beykozkundura.com.

Beykoz Kundura’s stage Kundura Sahne, which opened last week and, with its innovative and interdisciplinary program focused on music and the performing arts as much as with its impressive architecture, is set to become a new favorite haunt of Istanbul’s art lovers, will welcome as its first musical guest Austrian Hang drummer and musician Manu Delago.

Known to electronic music enthusiasts in particular for his albums “Silver Kobalt” (2013), “Metromonk” (2015) and “Parasol Peak” (2018), the artist will come to Türkiye on November 13 as the guest of Kundura Sahne. One of the foremost exponents of the Hang drum, a Swiss musical instrument, Delago will perform for the first time in Türkiye his album “Circadian,” recorded with inspiration from the sleeplessness he experienced as a musician who frequently tours the world.

A spiritual musical journey toward REM sleep

Having performed at prestigious venues in more than 50 countries around the world with names such as Björk, Anoushka Shankar, Ólafur Arnalds and The Cinematic Orchestra as well as with his solo projects, and known especially for his widely viewed YouTube videos, the Grammy-nominated artist will give Istanbul audiences unforgettable moments in a concert that brings acoustic percussion together with electronic beats and natural ambient sounds.

Performing live his album “Circadian,” which features percussion instruments he came across on tours of countries such as Vietnam, Russia, Indonesia and Türkiye, the artist will take listeners on a spiritual musical journey that begins with light sleep, passes through the stages of sleep and finally reaches REM sleep.

In the concert, featuring Manu Delago on handpan and drums, Isa Krz on violin, piano and vocals, Christoph Pepe Auer on wind instruments, Bernie Mallinger on violin, Clemens Rofner on bass and Chris Norz on percussion will take the stage. Starting at 21:00 on Saturday evening, November 13, the concert will take place at Kundura Sahne, and tickets can be purchased at beykozkundura.com.

‘Parasol Peak’ on Kundurama

Another surprise from Kundura Sahne for the artist’s fans will be free screenings of the film “Parasol Peak,” about the journey Manu Delago set out on in 2018 with 6 musicians and the performances they gave at different altitudes and locations in the Alps, and of “On Rock and Ice,” which tells the story of its making.

Written by Manu Delago and co-directed by Johannes Aitzetmüller and Jeb Hardwick, “Parasol Peak” tells the story of this enchanting journey undertaken by Delago and his friends, and is a music film given top marks by critics for its music, accompanied by the sounds of thunder, wind, rushing streams and rain. Directed by Viktoria Waldegger, “On Rock and Ice” documents the behind-the-scenes story of this journey and its extraordinary production process.

From today (October 11), you can watch the films “Parasol Peak” and “On Rock and Ice” free of charge, with Turkish subtitles, on Beykoz Kundura’s online streaming platform Kundurama.

More than a stage

Founded under the roof of Beykoz Kundura, which, with a history dating back to the early 1800s, is one of Türkiye’s important industrial heritage sites and has since 2018 become one of Istanbul’s favorite arts and culture centers, Kundura Sahne focuses on the contemporary performing arts and aims to create an innovative and interdisciplinary space.

Completed in 2020 with the consultancy of the Dutch firms Theater Advies​ and TenBras​, the stage stands out for its impressive restoration and, with the possibilities it offers for different configurations, including proscenium and central stage, will also create an alternative space for the local performance world. Kundura Sahne will also continue to host international projects, among them the performance it launched last year as the local producer of ‘Remote X,’ the famous Rimini Protokoll​ project presented in more than 50 cities around the world: Remote İstanbul; and the concept and practice development program held for the first time in June in partnership with Productiehuis Theater Rotterdam and with the support of Dutch Performing Arts: PerformLab. The doors of Kundura Sahne opened to audiences for the first time on October 1, 2021, with Tuğçe Ulugün Tuna’s original dance work REVERT.

Kundura Sahne’s music-and-conversation program Bi’Sahne, Bi’Sohbet, which will host the young troubadours of local music, begins with its first guests on Sunday, May 22 at Beykoz Kundura. Aiming to create a contemporary memory of Turkish-language music by following the inspiring stories as well as the songs of young singer-songwriters, Bi’Sahne, Bi’Sohbet will offer the chance to hear the artists’ beloved songs in acoustic versions, while also providing an opportunity to get to know today’s urban troubadours up close. Prepared in partnership with Bir Baba Indie, one of Türkiye’s leading music platforms, and bringing together original singer-songwriters of alternative music, the program’s first guests will be Eren Alıcı, a.k.a. Evdeki Saat, who drew attention in 2014 with his song “Biraz Olsun,” released on YouTube, and has continued his success with much-streamed singles such as “Hiç Uyanmasam,” “Sarmaşık” and especially “Uzunlar,” which became a phenomenon; multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter Dilan Balkay, who in her solo career, which began in 2019 with the singles “Bizi Bir Ettim” and “Derken,” has produced original projects such as “Parçalanmadan,” “Hepsi Kafamda,” “Zor” and “Kuyu,” named by critics as one of the best albums of 2021; and Melis Karaduman, who has sparked curiosity with her solo work first released in 2021, such as “Anda,” “Zamansız” and “Maske,” as well as with her R&B-style songs with musicians such as Canay Doğan, Veys Çolak, Yaşar Görkem Arslan and Metehan, and with her powerful voice. Limited tickets and details at beykozkundura.com!

Kundura Sahne’s music-and-conversation program Bi’Sahne, Bi’Sohbet begins on May 22. Hosting young and original musicians from local stages at Beykoz Kundura, the program promises delightful hours in which conversation and music flow together.

Aiming to create a contemporary memory of Turkish-language music by following the inspiring stories as well as the songs of young singer-songwriters, Bi’Sahne, Bi’Sohbet will offer the chance to hear the artists’ beloved songs in acoustic versions, while also providing an opportunity to get to know today’s urban troubadours up close.

First guests: Evdeki Saat, Dilan Balkay and Melis Karaduman

The guests of the first program, to be organized in partnership with Bir Baba Indie, one of Türkiye’s leading music platforms, and moderated by Cihad Satıroğlu and Ahsen Çamlıca, will be Eren Alıcı, a.k.a. Evdeki Saat, who drew attention in 2014 with his song “Biraz Olsun,” released on YouTube, and is known for his first solo album “Bizi Orada Arama,” released in 2017, as well as for much-streamed singles such as “Dibi Ne Kadar,” “Hiç Uyanmasam,” “Sarmaşık” and especially “Uzunlar,” which became a phenomenon; multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter Dilan Balkay, who has accompanied many bands and musicians from the local scene, such as Dolu Kadehi Ters Tut, Evrencan Gündüz and Can Ozan, with her trumpet and powerful voice, and who in her solo career, which began in 2019 with the singles “Bizi Bir Ettim” and “Derken,” has produced original projects such as “Parçalanmadan,” “Hepsi Kafamda,” “Zor” and “Kuyu,” named by critics as one of the best albums of 2021; and Melis Karaduman, who has sparked curiosity with her solo work first released in 2021, such as “Anda,” “Zamansız” and “Maske,” as well as with her R&B-style songs with musicians such as Canay Doğan, Veys Çolak, Yaşar Görkem Arslan and Metehan, and with her powerful voice, who has continued her success this year with her EP “Sensus” and her single “Kadın.”

On Sunday, May 22, at 19:00, Kundura Sahne will host Bi’Sahne, Bi’Sohbet; limited tickets, on sale at 45 TL, can be purchased at beykozkundura.com.

‘Majub’s Journey’ at Kundura Sinema

On Sunday, there are also free documentary screenings at Kundura Sinema. Cem Kaya’s “Remake, Remix, Rip-Off: About Copy Culture & Turkish Pop Cinema” (2014) and Eva Knopf’s “Majub’s Journey” (2013) will be screened back to back starting at 17:00. Focusing on Yeşilçam’s culture of copying, “Remake, Remix, Rip-Off: About Copy Culture & Turkish Pop Cinema” examines remakes in Türkiye’s film and television industry through the testimonies of their creators, while “Majub’s Journey” tells the story of Majub, an African American man who worked as a film extra in 1930s Nazi Germany. Launched under the leadership of the Berlin-based cultural project space bi’bak and bringing together 8 cinemas and centers from 8 countries that organize alternative film programs outside mainstream release, the Cinema of Commoning project presents the film, which you can watch by making a free reservation at beykozkundura.com.

Experience Beykoz Kundura before the event

On event days, by presenting your ticket you can enter Beykoz Kundura 2 hours before the show; you may spend time in our food and drink areas or visit the Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory exhibition free of charge. Inviting visitors to look from a different perspective at the production history of the Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası (Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory), whose rich past spans the Ottoman Empire and the Republic, the exhibition keeps alive the memory of these fascinating buildings by bringing together machines left from the factory, documents, objects donated by former employees and their families, and the oral history interviews conducted since 2015.

You can reach Beykoz Kundura by sea on the boats departing from Yeniköy every 20 minutes and on Şehir Hatları ferries, and after the event you can use the free shuttles departing from Beykoz Kundura to Taksim and, via Üsküdar, to Kadıköy. Audience members who prefer a sea taxi can arrive at Beykoz Kundura’s private pier, and those coming by car can use the parking service free of charge.

For more information: beykozkundura.com

Every weekend throughout April, Beykoz Kundura welcomes leading names of performance and contemporary dance at Kundura Sahne. Çıplak Ayaklar Kumpanyası, one of Türkiye’s leading contemporary dance companies, will meet dance lovers on Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3, with their performance “Nothing Is in Its Place,” which builds a visual and auditory universe inviting us to understand the feeling of loss and migration. The company will also present its latest project, “What We Carry,” which offers a powerful viewing experience, at Kundura Sahne on April 16 and 17. The program will also feature two solo performances, one of them a Türkiye premiere, by dance artist, choreographer and faculty member Canan Yücel Pekiçten, known for her award-winning original works. “All About The Heart,” which brings to the stage, in a surprising interpretation, the stories of female characters who have been the subject of three different operas, will be staged in the unique atmosphere of Kundura Sahne, while her latest performance, “How To Enjoy Ceylon Tea,” which had its world premiere in Amsterdam, will have its Türkiye premiere on the evening of April 23. Limited tickets for the performances are on sale at beykozkundura.com!

Beykoz Kundura’s innovative and interdisciplinary stage Kundura Sahne will host, every weekend throughout April, performances that will thrill contemporary dance and performance enthusiasts.

‘Nothing Is in Its Place’ this weekend

“Nothing Is in Its Place,” the performance by Çıplak Ayaklar Kumpanyası, one of the leading contemporary dance companies of the local performance scene, which builds a visual and auditory universe inviting us to understand the feeling of loss and migration, will be staged on Saturday, April 2, at 17:00, with a repeat performance at Kundura Sahne on Sunday, April 3, at 21:00.

Following the stories of people who have been displaced or forced to relocate, and inviting us to understand the feeling of loss and migration, “Nothing Is in Its Place” builds a visual and auditory universe where dance, music and video art meet. In this universe, in which four dancers from Çıplak Ayaklar Kumpanyası use objects that are carried, that divide and that separate to create places that are built, belonged to and abandoned, their bodies, which transform into one another, touch and break away from one another, are accompanied by the music of Ahmet Kenan Bilgiç.

“What We Carry” also at Kundura Sahne

Another of the company’s performances, “What We Carry,” will also be part of the April program. Offering a powerful viewing experience as it pursues the questions “Are the things we carry really the things we need? Do they exist to keep us alive, or do they allow us to carry on a life we have accepted without ever questioning it?”, their latest project “What We Carry” can be seen at Kundura Sahne on April 16 and 17.

A Türkiye premiere from Pekiçten

Dance artist, choreographer and faculty member Canan Yücel Pekiçten, known for her award-winning original works and whose recent work focuses on the forms of representation of the female body in contemporary art, comes to Kundura Sahne with two solo performances, one of them a Türkiye premiere. While “All About The Heart,” in which the artist brings to the stage, in a striking interpretation, the stories of female characters who have been the subject of three different operas, will be staged on April 9 and 10, her latest performance, “How To Enjoy Ceylon Tea,” which had its world premiere at Podium Mozaïek in Amsterdam, will meet audiences for the first time in Türkiye at Kundura Sahne on the evening of April 23. With a repeat performance on April 24, the piece will set out on a journey that follows Georges Bizet’s orientalist opera “The Pearl Fishers” all the way to Ceylon tea, a colonial product of Sri Lanka.

‘Niagara’ at Kundura Sinema for those who missed it

For film lovers this weekend, the 1953 crime film “Niagara,” considered the beginning of the Marilyn Monroe legend in cinema, will be at Kundura Sinema. Screening on Saturday, April 2, at 17:00, the film is one of the treasures of film noir, as much for its superb performances and rhythmic pace as for Monroe’s character Rose, who left a deep mark on everything from fashion to popular culture.

Tickets, on sale at 125 TL for the performances and at 85 TL (full price) and 65 TL (discounted) for the film screening, can be purchased at beykozkundura.com, with a 20% discount on purchases of two or more tickets.

Experience Beykoz Kundura before the event

On event days, by presenting your ticket you can enter Beykoz Kundura 2 hours before the show; you may spend time in our food and drink areas or visit the Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory exhibition free of charge. Inviting visitors to look from a different perspective at the production history of the Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası (Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory), whose rich past spans the Ottoman Empire and the Republic, the exhibition keeps alive the memory of these fascinating buildings by bringing together machines left from the factory, documents, objects donated by former employees and their families, and the oral history interviews conducted since 2015.

You can reach Beykoz Kundura by sea on the boats departing from Yeniköy every 20 minutes and on Şehir Hatları ferries, and after the event you can use the free shuttles departing from Beykoz Kundura to Taksim and, via Üsküdar, to Kadıköy. Audience members who prefer a sea taxi can arrive at Beykoz Kundura’s private pier, and those coming by car can use the parking service free of charge.

The original dance work that dance artist, choreographer and academic Tuğçe Ulugün Tuna designed especially for Kundura Sahne, REVERT, which premiered on October 1, meets audiences for the last time this week. Setting out from the word ‘Revert,’ which carries the meanings of “shedding additions and returning to the original structure, to what is primal and rooted,” and created during the pandemic with a holistic approach, REVERT will be on stage for three days, from Friday to Sunday. The film selection New Beginnings, We Hope, screened at Kundura Sinema, the cinema hall that offers an extraordinary viewing experience with its original industrial architecture, also comes to an end on Sunday. Aiming to remind us anew of the value of touching, moving and coming closer in a pandemic world, the selection, which includes Maya Deren’s last completed film “The Very Eye of Night,” can be watched free of charge with a reservation on Saturdays and Sundays in a looped viewing format. Tickets and reservations for both events, taking place at Beykoz Kundura and ending on Sunday, November 7, are available at beykozkundura.com​.

Final week to see the original dance work that also opened Kundura Sahne on October 1, REVERT, and the film selection New Beginnings, We Hope at Kundura Sinema! On Sunday, November 7, both events welcome dance and film lovers to Beykoz Kundura for the last time.

Dance in pursuit of the primal

An interdisciplinary dance work focusing on the primitiveness, intelligence and timelessness of the human body, REVERT meets audiences with one performance on Friday and two on Saturday and Sunday. With concept, choreography and spatial design by dance artist, choreographer and academic Tuğçe Ulugün Tuna, and designed especially for Kundura Sahne, the work focuses, through the body, on journeys, searches and the fine bridge between the real and the surreal. Emerging from a dream the artist had, REVERT set out from the word ‘Revert,’ which carries the meanings of “shedding additions and returning to the original structure, to what is primal and rooted,” and was created during the pandemic with a holistic approach. In the work, with sound design by Metin Kalaç, created together with Tuğçe Ulugün Tuna, and lighting design by Utku Kara, the artist is joined by contemporary dance artists Aybike İpekçi, Diren Ezgi Yıldızkan, Ekin Ançel, Ezgi Yaren Karademir, Furkan Yılmaz, Gizem Seçkin, Hilal Sibel Pekel, Umut Özdaloğlu and Yoseob Kim.

Remembering the value of touch

The film selection New Beginnings, We Hope, which began on October 23 at Beykoz Kundura’s cinema hall Kundura Sinema, offering an extraordinary viewing experience with its original industrial architecture, also holds its final screenings this weekend. Curated by Berlin-based curator and writer Pia Chakraverti-Wuerthwein, the selection aims to remind us anew of the value of touching, moving and coming closer in the difficult pandemic times we are going through, while also questioning the dualities that shape the way we think. Offering audiences a viewing experience that leads to emotional stimulation, the New Beginnings, We Hope selection includes “The Very Eye of Night,” the last film of Maya Deren, one of the creators of avant-garde cinema, whom we lost in 1961, as well as “Coyolxauhqui” (2017) by the Mexican independent film collective Los Ingrávidos, “Explosion Ma’ Baby” by French visual artist Pauline Curnier Jardin, and Lisa Jackson’s “Lichen” (2019).

Tickets and reservations at beykozkundura.com

Tickets for REVERT, on sale at 60 TL (discounted) and 80 TL (full price), are available at beykozkundura.com. Presented in a looped screening format, the New Beginnings, We Hope film selection can be watched free of charge at Kundura Sinema on Saturdays and Sundays between 17:30 and 19:30. You can attend the screenings by making a free reservation at beykozkundura.com, while audience members holding a ticket for REVERT can catch the program at Kundura Sinema without a reservation.

Time at Beykoz Kundura

Before the screening, you can also spend time in Beykoz Kundura’s food and drink areas and visit the exhibition Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory, which opened in June, free of charge. Inviting visitors to look from a different perspective at the production history of the Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası (Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory), whose rich past spans the Ottoman Empire and the Republic, the exhibition keeps alive the memory of these fascinating buildings by bringing together machines left from the factory, documents, objects donated by former employees and their families, and the oral history interviews conducted since 2015.

On screening days, you can reach Beykoz Kundura by sea on the boats departing from Yeniköy every 20 minutes and on Şehir Hatları ferries, and use the free shuttle that runs every half hour from Beykoz Pier to Beykoz Kundura. Audience members who prefer a water taxi can arrive at Beykoz Kundura’s private pier, and those coming by car can use the parking service free of charge.

The exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Within a Factory”, organized by the Kundura Hafıza Cultural Heritage Preservation Association, has opened to visitors as of today. Inviting visitors to look from a different perspective at the production history of the Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası (Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory), whose rich past spans the Ottoman Empire and the Republic, the exhibition brings together machines left from the factory, documents and objects donated by former employees and their families, as well as the oral history interviews conducted since 2015. Welcoming visitors in the Marangozhane (Carpentry Workshop) building, where Sümerbank shoe lasts were produced, the “Kundura’s Memory: A World Within a Factory” exhibition can be visited free of charge at Beykoz Kundura by making a reservation at beykozkundura.com. The Association’s work toward the preservation of cultural heritage will continue with children’s workshops starting at the end of July and with artist support programs.

The exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory,” which invites visitors to look from a different perspective at the production history of the Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası, one of the most important buildings in the history of Türkiye’s industrialization, has opened to visitors as of today (July 1).

The exhibition, which is also the first project of the Kundura Hafıza Cultural Heritage Preservation Association, founded in February, opened its doors on June 18 and until the end of the month had welcomed only Sümerbank veterans and their families. Open to the general public from July 1, the exhibition can be visited free of charge at Beykoz Kundura by making a reservation at beykozkundura.com.

Welcoming visitors at the Marangozhane

Including photographs, machines left from the factory, documents and many objects donated by former employees and their families, as well as the oral history interviews conducted since 2015, the exhibition consists of nearly 600 visual and written documents. Welcoming visitors in the Marangozhane building, known to have been built in the 1800s, where the wooden lasts placed inside Sümerbank shoes to help them keep their shape for a long time were produced, the exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory” examines the factory not only as a production facility that operated until 1999 but as a space of encounter where multiple connections were formed, and aims to diversify knowledge of the period and to generate future models and collaborations by sharing local wisdom.

Workshops for children

The Kundura Hafıza Cultural Heritage Preservation Association will continue its work toward the preservation of this cultural heritage, whose rich past spans the Ottoman Empire and the Republic, through children’s workshops and artist support programs. The workshops, which will allow children to encounter at an early age themes such as the importance of industrial heritage and its adaptive reuse, conservation and restoration practices, the importance of oral history and the importance of intangible cultural heritage, and to question them through fun methods, will begin at the end of July.

The exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory,” which is also the first project of the Kundura Hafıza Association, is curated by Seda Yıldız, designed by Future Anecdotes İstanbul (FAI), and produced and installed by BARN Architects. You can visit the exhibition free of charge at Beykoz Kundura through a staggered reservation system by making a reservation at beykozkundura.com.

The Kundura Hafıza Cultural Heritage Preservation Association, which looks from the present at the past of Beykoz Kundura, one of Istanbul’s most important industrial heritage buildings, has been founded. The association was founded by the creators of the archive that set out in 2015 with the motto “It researches, preserves, traces, collects, remembers and reminds”: the Kundura Hafıza Archive. It aims to produce work toward preserving the cultural heritage of the factory, whose rich past spans the Ottoman Empire and the Republic, and to create new spaces in which different disciplines will also be used. Kundura Hafıza, which will be a rich resource for workshops and publications, will also offer support programs for researchers and artists. The association’s first project will be the exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory,” which will open at Beykoz Kundura in May.

The Kundura Hafıza Cultural Heritage Preservation Association, which looks from the present at the past of Beykoz Kundura, one of Istanbul’s most important industrial heritage buildings, has been founded. Established by the creators of the Kundura Hafıza Archive, which began in 2015 and has grown through its research as well as through oral history accounts, the association aims to preserve this cultural heritage, whose rich past spans the Ottoman Empire and the Republic,

by opening creative spaces that use different disciplines and methods. Forming a rich resource for exhibitions, workshops and publications, the association will also offer support programs for researchers and artists.

Aiming to build a more dynamic relationship with the history of Beykoz Kundura and to carry out work that re-enriches the cultural and social life of this heritage site, Kundura Hafıza will also continue to update and develop its archive of nearly 200 interviews, nearly 1,000 photographs and hundreds of documents, wrapping papers and newspaper clippings.

The memory of a factory and its veterans

The association’s first project will be the exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory.” The exhibition, which will tell the story of the Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası (Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory), one of the most important buildings in the history of Türkiye’s industrialization, from the past to the present, will open in May. Curated by Seda Yıldız and inspired by the state of ‘being connected to one another’ shared by nearly three thousand workers, civil servants and their families, the exhibition will bring back to life, through selected archival materials and oral history accounts, what took place at the factory, where daily life and production were intertwined. Designed by Future Anecdotes İstanbul (FAI), and produced and installed by BARN Architects, “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory” can be visited free of charge at Beykoz Kundura by reservation.

A factory of culture, thought and art: Beykoz Kundura

With a history dating back to the early 1800s and having become one of Istanbul’s important arts and culture centers since 2018, Beykoz Kundura has a rich past spanning the Ottoman Empire and the Republic. Home to leather and paper workshops in the Ottoman period, the site continued its activity after the founding of the Republic as the Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası. Ceasing production in 1999 in line with Türkiye’s changing economy and political stance, the factory became one of the centers of the film and culture sector after joining Yıldırım Holding in 2004. Known today for its film and television studios, and offering new meeting grounds and opportunities for production in culture, thought and the arts through the platforms it has created under its roof, Kundura Hafıza, Kundura Sahne, Kundura Sinema, PerformLab and FelsefeLab, Beykoz Kundura will also continue to host open-air film screenings and concerts during the summer months.

Children’s workshops organized by the Kundura Hafıza Association, which looks at the past of Beykoz Kundura, one of Istanbul’s most important industrial heritage sites, from today’s perspective, begin this week. Two workshops, titled “Kundura Detectives on the Trail” and “A Day at the Kundura Factory,” will welcome children to Beykoz Kundura every weekend throughout August. Aiming to nurture, from an early age, a growing child’s understanding of the importance and value of preserving cultural heritage, the workshops will be open to the 8–10 and 10–12 age groups. Designed to help children learn about, question and imagine concepts such as oral history, industrial heritage and the transformation of heritage, the workshops were developed by children’s book author and educator İdil Bilgin and will be led by psychologist, sociologist and educator Hatice Gamze Çevik. Prepared in parallel with the exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory,” which opened in June and tells the production history of the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory, the workshops promise fun and creative moments, including an exhibition tour, surprising experiments and dioramas. Tickets for the workshops, held on Saturdays and Sundays at Beykoz Kundura, can be purchased at beykozkundura.com.

Children’s workshops organized by the Kundura Hafıza Association, which looks at the past of Beykoz Kundura, one of Istanbul’s most important industrial heritage sites, from today’s perspective, begin on Saturday, August 7, at Beykoz Kundura. Titled “Kundura Detectives on the Trail” and “A Day at the Kundura Factory” and held on Saturdays and Sundays throughout August, the workshops will use interdisciplinary and object-based gamification methods to enrich the experience of young visitors and help them learn while having fun.

Prepared in parallel with the exhibition

Designed in parallel with the exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory,” which opened to visitors in June and tells the production history of the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory, one of the most important buildings in the history of Türkiye’s industrialization, the workshops are intended for the 8–10 and 10–12 age groups. Developed by children’s book author and educator İdil Bilgin on the basis of the Emotion-Focused Cultural Heritage Preservation Education methodology, also known as the 4D learning model (Emotion-Focused, Experiential, Sensory, Interdisciplinary), the workshops will be led by psychologist, sociologist and educator Hatice Gamze Çevik.

The workshops will begin with a visit to the exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory.” Following the guided exhibition tour, conducted in accordance with pandemic rules, participants will move to the Yağhane building, where the workshops will continue around tables arranged in a free layout that allows for social distancing.

Little detectives on the trail of Memory

Fun experiments, digital games and videos await children at the Kundura Detectives on the Trail workshop, held from 13:00 to 15:00. In the workshop, children will encounter paper artifacts from the Kundura Hafıza archive, machines that are part of the archive, and the industrial heritage buildings that make up Beykoz Kundura, and will try out, on a small scale, the methods used to protect all of these and pass them on to future generations. While searching for answers to the questions “What do we do when cultural heritage objects get sick, and how can we heal them?”, children will also get to know the profession of conservation and take a step toward becoming the cultural heritage professionals of the future. At the end of the workshop, the “From Kundura to My Home Workshop Kit,” prepared by the Kundura Hafıza Association to help children continue their experiments at home, will also be offered free of charge.

Creating the Factory with dioramas

The workshop A Day at the Kundura Factory, held from 16:00 to 18:00, will take participants on an exciting and thoughtful journey of transformation. Listening to the guide and the educator talk about the changes the Factory has undergone and how it looked in the past and today, children will learn about and reinforce their knowledge of the site’s features with the help of the materials in the exhibition and creative drama. Then, imagining a journey through time, they will depict and stage how certain spaces in the factory looked in the past and look today by making dioramas, a three-dimensional modeling technique. In the workshop, where all materials will be provided by Beykoz Kundura, waste materials will also be used and the importance of recycling will be emphasized.

Tickets at beykozkundura.com

Tickets for the workshops, held every Saturday and Sunday throughout August at Beykoz Kundura, will be 110 TL. A 15% discount will be applied to those buying two tickets for a single workshop on the same day and time, while those who buy tickets for both workshops will receive surprise gifts. Tickets for the workshops can be purchased at beykozkundura.com.

The Türkiye screenings of the Cinema of Commoning (Müşterek Sinema) project, which brings together 8 alternative cinemas and centers from 8 countries, begin on Sunday at Beykoz Kundura. Within the scope of the project, launched under the leadership of the Berlin-based cultural project space bi’bak and bringing together Kundura Sinema from Türkiye, Sinema Transtopia from Germany, Documentary Club from Thailand, Cinema ARTA from Romania, Forum Lenteng from Indonesia, Cinema Akil from the United Arab Emirates, CCC from Chile and Cine Geração from Angola, 8 films selected by the cinemas’ curators will be screened simultaneously in Istanbul, Berlin, Dubai, Chile, Cluj, Jakarta, Bangkok and Luanda. Opening on Sunday, May 8 with screenings of Cem Kaya’s “Remake, Remix, Rip-Off: About Copy Culture & Turkish Pop Cinema” (2014) and Eva Knopf’s “Majub’s Journey” (2013), the Cinema of Commoning project will continue with free screenings on Sundays until mid-June. Reservations for the free screenings, which will be open to a limited audience, can be made at beykozkundura.com.

The Türkiye screenings of the Cinema of Commoning (Müşterek Sinema) project, which brings together 8 cinemas and centers from 8 countries that organize alternative, non-mainstream film programs, begin this weekend at Kundura Sinema.

The project, launched under the leadership of the Berlin-based cultural project space bi’bak, which focuses on transnational narratives, migration, global mobility and their aesthetic dimensions, brings together Kundura Sinema from Türkiye as well as Sinema Transtopia from Germany, Documentary Club from Thailand, Cinema ARTA from Romania, Forum Lenteng from Indonesia, Cinema Akil from the United Arab Emirates, CCC from Chile and Cine Geração from Angola. Within the scope of the Cinema of Commoning project, 8 films selected by the cinemas’ curators will be screened simultaneously in Istanbul, Berlin, Dubai, Chile, Cluj, Jakarta, Bangkok and Luanda.

8 films free of charge

The documentary film program, held free of charge on Sundays in May and June, opens on Sunday, May 8 with screenings of Cem Kaya’s “Remake, Remix, Rip-Off: About Copy Culture & Turkish Pop Cinema” (2014) and Eva Knopf’s “Majub’s Journey” (2013).

The program also includes Kazuo Hara’s “The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On” (1987), winner of the Caligari Award at the Berlinale; Alexandru Belc’s “Cinema, Mon Amour” (2015), which brings a passion for cinema to the screen; Indonesian director Hafiz Rancajale’s “Behind the Flickering Light: The Archive” (2013); Mahdi Fleifel’s “A World Not Ours” (2013), winner of the Peace Film Award at the Berlinale and the Audience Award in Sarajevo; Ignacio Agüero’s “One Hundred Children Waiting for a Train” (1988), named Best Documentary at the Cartagena and Havana film festivals; and Kamy Lara’s “Beyond My Steps” (2019), in which she questions identity, memory and cultural politics alongside five dancers.

To attend the screenings, which will be free of charge and open to a limited audience, you can make a reservation at beykozkundura.com.

Continuing with a symposium in Berlin in June

A project by bi’bak and various international partners, Cinema of Commoning aims to build a network and gather knowledge about cinemas and cinema initiatives around the world. Through mixed conversations, it hopes to create a statement that puts forward a future model for an alternative, “public-facing” cinema in terms of accessibility, artistic freedom and financial sustainability. In the first step of the project, the collectively curated film program is being screened at partner cinemas in Bangkok, Jakarta, Istanbul, Dubai, Santiago de Chile, Cluj and Luanda; the second step, a symposium to be held in Berlin in June, will bring together partner cinemas, film professionals and cinephiles and seek to develop further concepts and strategies for sustainable spaces dedicated to film culture.

Experience Beykoz Kundura before the screening

On event days, by presenting your ticket, you can enter Beykoz Kundura 2 hours before the screening; you can spend time in our food and drink areas or visit the Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory exhibition free of charge. Inviting visitors to look from a different perspective at the production history of the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory, whose rich past spans the Ottoman Empire and the Republic, the exhibition keeps the memory of these fascinating buildings alive by bringing together machines left from the factory, documents, objects donated by former employees and their families, and oral history interviews conducted since 2015.

You can reach Beykoz Kundura by sea on the boats departing from Yeniköy every 20 minutes and on Şehir Hatları ferries. Audience members who prefer a water taxi can arrive at Beykoz Kundura’s private pier, while those coming by car can use the parking service free of charge.

Tickets are now on sale for the music program of A Summer Night Festival, which offers film and music by the shores of the Bosphorus. Organized for the fifth time by Kundura Sinema and Sahne and held outdoors at Beykoz Kundura, the festival awaits music lovers with a colorful stage that ranges from electronic music to Anatolian rock and jazz. While master musician Taner Öngür will take the audience back to the roots of Anatolian pop and rock together with the band 43,75 and Serap Yağız, one of the young talents of Anatolian rock, Islandman, a one-of-a-kind band on the local scene, will accompany the full moon night in August with their magical music, which stretches from electronic structures to dance sounds and from space-evoking guitar melodies to shamanic rhythms. Also offering a program jazz lovers won’t want to miss, the festival will host masters such as Elif Çağlar, Çağrı Sertel, Volkan Hürsever, Ediz Hafızoğlu, Sarp Maden, Volkan Öktem, Alp Ersönmez, Tamer Temel, Ercüment Orkut and Cem Aksel on its stage. Details and tickets for A Summer Night Festival are at beykozkundura.com​!

Tickets are now on sale for the music program of A Summer Night Festival, organized by Kundura Sinema and Sahne. Launched on July 16 and held this year for the fifth time, the festival awaits music lovers by the shores of the Bosphorus with a colorful stage that ranges from electronic music to Anatolian rock and jazz.

Islandman’s music on a full moon night

The festival’s music program will open with Islandman, a band that has built a devoted following with its rich musical world and energetic performances. Launched in 2010 with independent recordings by Istanbul-based musician and producer Tolga Böyük, who describes it as “a dreamer composing stories of a place that does not exist,” Islandman built on the great interest in their 2016 single “Ağıt” with their debut album “Rest in Space” (2017), and last year’s “KAYBOLA” earned praise from music writers. Made up of Tolga Böyük, Eralp Güven and Erdem Başer, the band will make the night of Sunday, August 22, which coincides with the full moon, even more unforgettable with their unique music, which stretches from soft electronic structures to dance sounds and from space-evoking guitar melodies to shamanic rhythms.

Back to the roots of Anatolian pop and rock

Bass guitarist and musician Taner Öngür​, whom we know as much from his work with cult Anatolian pop-rock bands such as Moğollar, Dervişan and Ersen & Dadaşlar as from the solo projects he has released since the 1990s, will take the audience back to the roots of Anatolian pop and rock on the evening of Saturday, September 11. Taking the stage with the band 43,75, founded in 2017 and widely acclaimed for the albums “Elektrik Gramofon” (2017), “Sayko Ana” (2018), “Asri Sada” (2019) and “Water Cycle” (2020), the master musician will interpret lost Istanbul songs, forgotten Anatolian folk songs and pieces gathered from the farthest corners of popular culture in his own distinctive style, in a unique performance that drifts through the waters of swing, surf rock and progressive music. Öngür will also be joined that night by Serap Yağız, one of the young and powerful voices of Anatolian rock. Having most recently worked together on the album “3 Derdim Var,” released in March 2021, on which they reinterpreted Anatolian rock classics, the duo will play and sing unforgettable pieces such as “Alageyik Destanı,” “Bir Ayrılık, Bir Yoksulluk, Bir Ölüm,” “İşçi Marşı” and “Obur Dünya” live.

Special concerts for jazz lovers

The festival’s music program will also feature names that jazz lovers won’t want to miss. Elif Çağlar​, who enchants as much with her stage presence as with her voice, will be on stage on the evening of Sunday, August 29, with her quartet made up of some of Türkiye’s leading jazz musicians. Having won praise and awards for her albums “M-U-S-I-C” (2010), “Misfit” (2015), “The Art of Time” (2018) and last year’s “Come Me Come To,” the artist will take the audience on a journey through the many forms of jazz, from soul to reggae and from the traditional to the modern, that listeners will wish would never end. Çağlar will be accompanied that night by Çağrı Sertel on keyboards, Volkan Hürsever on acoustic bass and Ediz Hafızoğlu on drums.

Taking the stage on the evening of Sunday, September 5, the modern jazz trio MadenÖktemErsönmez​ will give a concert that evokes the feeling of “being together at home.” Featuring Sarp Maden on guitar, Volkan Öktem on drums and Alp Ersönmez on bass, the trio will improvise a rich program ranging from jazz to rock, drum’n’bass, punk, noise, electronic and ambient, sometimes deciding among themselves and sometimes asking the audience.

The festival’s closing concert will come from TÖZ Trio​. Featuring Ercüment Orkut, also known for his music for many TV series filmed at Beykoz Kundura, on piano, along with Tamer Temel on saxophone and Cem Aksel on drums, the group will invite the audience to witness processes of musical discovery with performances at the intersection of jazz and contemporary classical music. Including in their program new songs from their second album, to be released very soon, as well as earlier recordings, TÖZ Trio will close Kundura Sahne’s summer program on the evening of Sunday, September 12.

Reaching the festival with a view of the Bosphorus

At the festival, where screenings start at 21:00 and doors open at 17:00, you can spend time before the show in Beykoz Kundura’s food and drink areas, or visit the exhibition “Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory,” which opened in June, free of charge. Inviting visitors to look from a different perspective at the production history of the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory, whose rich past spans the Ottoman Empire and the Republic, the exhibition keeps the memory of these fascinating buildings alive by bringing together machines left from the factory, documents, objects donated by former employees and their families, and oral history interviews conducted since 2015.

Parking will be provided free of charge for audience members coming by car to the festival, whose screenings and concerts take place at Beykoz Kundura. Free transportation options will also be offered to audience members on festival days. You can use the free shuttle service departing from Beykoz Pier, or reach the festival grounds via the appointment system on the boat that departs from the quay in front of Bahçeşehir University in Beşiktaş and treats its guests to a Bosphorus cruise.

Tickets at beykozkundura.com

Welcoming summer in Istanbul by inviting art lovers to enjoy film and music in the open air by the shores of the Bosphorus, A Summer Night Festival, which began on July 16 at Beykoz Kundura, will continue until September 12. Concert tickets for the festival, on sale at 65 TL for students and 80 TL full price, can be purchased at beykozkundura.com​.

Details of the 2022 program of A Summer Night Festival, which, with its program bringing together film and music, has become one of the summer’s unmissable events over the past six years, have begun to emerge. This year, the famous Icelandic band Múm will also take the stage in the festival’s program of silent films with live music, which invites audiences to unforgettable moments in the historic atmosphere of Beykoz Kundura by the shores of the Bosphorus. Having achieved international success with the albums and remixes they have released since the 2000s, the band will be on the festival stage with music specially composed for the 1930 German silent film classic “People on Sunday,” meeting their fans in Türkiye for the first time after a very long break. To be screened on the evening of Friday, August 5, “People on Sunday” is a unique experiment that brings together documentary and fiction cinema, the anonymous and the personal. Shot before the Great Depression and the Nazis’ rise to power, and documenting the city of Berlin in 1929 with masterful, harmonious images, the film is a timeless masterpiece that retains its freshness even today thanks to its joyful, youthful outlook that invites us to celebrate life. Held this year for the sixth time in partnership between Kundura Sinema and Kundura Sahne, A Summer Night Festival will offer Istanbulites the pleasure of film and music from Friday to Sunday between July 29 and August 14. While the festival program will be announced in the coming days, tickets for “People on Sunday,” which will be screened with Múm’s original compositions and live performance, are on sale as of today at beykozkundura.com​.

Organized in partnership between Kundura Sinema and Kundura Sahne and inviting audiences to enjoy film and music by the shores of the Bosphorus, A Summer Night Festival has been one of the unmissable events of summer evenings for six years, and details of its 2022 program have begun to emerge.

This year, the famous Icelandic electronic and experimental pop band Múm will also take the stage in the festival’s program of silent films with live music, held from Friday to Sunday between July 29 and August 14 at Beykoz Kundura. Taking the stage with music specially composed for the 1930 German silent film classic “People on Sunday,” the band will meet their fans in Türkiye for the first time after a very long break.

A Sunday in a ‘lost’ Berlin

To be screened on the evening of Friday, August 5, with Múm’s original compositions and live performance, “People on Sunday” follows five young people whose paths cross on a Sunday as they set off together for the countryside. Co-directed by Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer, with a screenplay that also bears the signature of Oscar-winning director Billy Wilder, the film was shot with non-professional actors on an extremely limited budget and achieved surprising success when it was released in 1930. Turning into a unique experiment by bringing together documentary and fiction cinema, the anonymous and the personal, the film has been compared to Walter Ruttmann’s “Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis” (1927) and Dziga Vertov’s “Man with a Movie Camera” (1929). “People on Sunday,” which Berliners in particular know by heart visually and identify with, is also an important classic for documenting a lost Berlin not yet destroyed by the Nazis.

Tickets on sale today at beykozkundura.com

Tickets for “People on Sunday,” to be screened as part of A Summer Night Festival with live music by Múm, are on sale in limited numbers for 150 TL at beykozkundura.com​; you can benefit from a 20% discount when purchasing two or more tickets.

The festival program, curated by Beykoz Kundura’s Culture and Arts Director S. Buse Yıldırım, will bring to the screen classic films in which cinema and music become an inseparable whole. The films and musicians in the silent film program, prepared with the advice of Elif Rongen-Kaynakçı, Silent Film Curator at Eye Filmmuseum, will be announced in the coming days.

For more information: beykozkundura.com

From July 29 to August 14, Beykoz Kundura will host the sixth edition of A Summer Night Festival, whose film program has now been announced. Inspired by the harmonious union of film and music, this year’s festival program focuses on Henry Mancini, the American composer and music producer behind unforgettable film scores and winner of 4 Oscars and 9 Grammys. Four Blake Edwards classics scored by the master musician, whom we lost in 1994, will meet audiences for the first time in Türkiye in restored prints at A Summer Night Festival. The first two films of the famous “Pink Panther” series, which follows the adventures of the clumsy and bewildered French police inspector Jacques Clouseau, “The Pink Panther” (1963) and “A Shot in the Dark” (1964), will be screened in the festival’s first week, while Audrey Hepburn’s 1961 romantic masterpiece “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, etched into memory by her iconic performance, and the 1968 madcap comedy “The Party” can be seen in the festival’s final week. Held for the sixth time under the leadership of Kundura Sinema and Kundura Sahne, A Summer Night Festival will take place from July 29 to August 14 at Beykoz Kundura. Tickets, on sale in limited numbers, are available as of today at beykozkundura.com​.

The film program has been announced for A Summer Night Festival, which for six years has invited Istanbul’s art lovers to enjoy pleasant summer evenings in the open air by the shores of the Bosphorus. Inspired by the harmonious union of film and music, this year’s festival program focuses on Henry Mancini, the American composer and music producer behind many unforgettable film scores and winner of 4 Oscars and 9 Grammys. Four classic films scored by Mancini and directed by Blake Edwards will meet audiences for the first time in Türkiye in restored prints as part of A Summer Night Festival at Beykoz Kundura.

Shining for 61 years

The 1961 film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, which was also the first major success of the Henry Mancini and Blake Edwards partnership, is one of the masterpieces of the romantic comedy genre. Adapted from Truman Capote’s novella of the same name, the film tells the story of Holly, who tries to climb the social ladder as a “party girl” in New York high society, and whose life changes when she falls in love with the young writer who moves into the apartment next door. Etched into memory by Audrey Hepburn’s iconic character and performance, the film is a true classic that has not lost its shine in 61 years, thanks also to Henry Mancini’s Oscar- and Grammy-winning score and the legendary Oscar-winning song “Moon River,” with lyrics by Johnny Mercer.

Madcap fun with the first two ‘Pink Panther’ films

The first two films of the “Pink Panther” series, the best known of the duo’s fruitful collaborations, “The Pink Panther” (1963) and “A Shot in the Dark” (1964), are also among the films you can see at the festival.

“The Pink Panther,” which tells of the comic mishaps of the clumsy Inspector Jacques Clouseau, brilliantly played by Peter Sellers, as he tries to catch the famous thief the Phantom, who is out to steal the Pink Panther diamond, is also unforgettable for Mancini’s famous theme music and for the Pink Panther cartoon character who first appears in its opening credits. In “A Shot in the Dark,” the second film in the series and the one most loved by fans, we follow the absurd events that befall Clouseau as he investigates the murder of a prominent member of Paris high society. Featuring many classic scenes, above all its opening sequence, the film offers madcap fun with a nonstop stream of jokes, supported by Henry Mancini’s playful score.

One of the best comedies of all time

“The Party” (1968), the first and only film to bring together the trio of Edwards, Mancini and Sellers without the ‘Pink Panther,’ introduces the audience to Bollywood actor Hrundi V. Bakshi, who is as clumsy as Clouseau. Having finally landed a role in a film in Hollywood, where he came to try his luck, Hrundi is fired for blowing up the set, then mistakenly invited to the party of the film’s producer, which he proceeds to turn upside down. Edwards’s homage to the silent film era and considered one of the peaks of slapstick comedy, the film is listed among the best comedies of all time.

Tickets on sale at beykozkundura.com

Held for the sixth time under the leadership of Kundura Sinema and Kundura Sahne from July 29 to August 14 at Beykoz Kundura, A Summer Night Festival has film tickets on sale in limited numbers for 100 TL at beykozkundura.com​; you can benefit from a 20% discount when purchasing two or more tickets.

For more information: beykozkundura.com

This week, the program of Kundura Sinema, which offers an extraordinary viewing experience thanks to its original industrial architecture, features the romantic film noir classic “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman”, starring Ava Gardner and James Mason. A gothic fusion of Pandora, who opened the forbidden box in which only hope remained, and the legend of the Flying Dutchman, regarded by sailors as a harbinger of doom, the 1951 film will meet audiences in Türkiye for the first time in its 4K restored print, whose restoration took 12 years. A strange and captivating example of romantic mysticism and modern art, with muses ranging from Omar Khayyam to Man Ray, the film tells the sorrowful love story of Pandora, an American singer whose otherworldly beauty drives men to the edge of the abyss, and the mysterious Dutch sailor Hendrick van der Zee. Ava Gardner, who rose to stardom in the role of the siren-like femme fatale Pandora, said of it, “No film I made ever affected me as much as this one”; and one of its greatest admirers, Martin Scorsese, has said that watching “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman” “is like having a strange and wonderful dream.” Limited tickets for the film, to be screened at Kundura Sinema on Saturday, March 5, at 17:00, are on sale at beykozkundura.com!

This weekend, Kundura Sinema, converted from the boiler room of the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory and offering an extraordinary viewing experience thanks to its original industrial architecture, is screening the 1951 romantic film noir classic “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman” (1951). Starring Ava Gardner and James Mason, this unique film will meet audiences in Türkiye for the first time in its 4K restored print, to whose color palette Martin Scorsese also contributed. Limited tickets for the film are on sale at beykozkundura.com.

A gothic union of legends

Written and directed by American filmmaker Albert Lewin, known for his Oscar Wilde adaptation “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman” is a gothic union of Pandora, who opened the forbidden box in which only hope remained, and the legend of the Flying Dutchman, whose ghost ship is regarded as a harbinger of doom. Set in the early 1930s in a fictional Spanish fishing village called Esperanza (Hope), the film tells the sorrowful love story of Pandora, an American singer whose otherworldly beauty drives men to the edge of the abyss, as heartless and reckless as she is alluring, and Hendrick van der Zee, a mysterious and aloof Dutch sailor who has briefly dropped anchor in the village.

“The film that portrays Ava at her most beautiful on screen”

Notable for its literary references, ranging from Apollinaire to Omar Khayyam, as much as for its mythological ones, the film is also a strange and captivating example of romantic mysticism and modern art, with designs and paintings by the famous artist Man Ray, who created a surrealist world in the style of De Chirico.

“Pandora and the Flying Dutchman”, which made a star of its lead actress Ava Gardner, who said, “No film I made before or since ever affected me as much as this one,” is remembered by critics and classic film fans as “the film that portrays Ava at her most beautiful on screen.” Much of the credit, of course, goes to the cinematography of Oscar winner Jack Cardiff, also known for his meticulous craftsmanship in “Black Narcissus” (1947) and “The Red Shoes” (1948), and to the costumes by British designer Beatrice Dawson.

With contributions from Scorsese

The 4K restored print of this Technicolor marvel, which took 12 years to complete and to whose color palette master director Martin Scorsese contributed, having expressed his admiration for the film with the words “Watching it is like having a strange and wonderful dream,” will meet audiences in Türkiye for the first time at Kundura Sinema.

Following its first screening at Kundura Sinema on Saturday, March 5, at 17:00, “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman” will be screened again on March 26 and April 9. Limited tickets for the screenings, on sale for 85 TL full price and 65 TL discounted, can be purchased at beykozkundura.com; you can benefit from a 20% discount when purchasing two or more tickets.

Experience Beykoz Kundura before the film

Before the screening, with doors opening at 15.00, you can spend time in Beykoz Kundura’s food and drink areas or visit the Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory exhibition free of charge. Inviting visitors to look from a different perspective at the production history of the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory, whose rich past spans the Ottoman Empire and the Republic, the exhibition keeps the memory of these fascinating buildings alive by bringing together machines left from the factory, documents, objects donated by former employees and their families, and oral history interviews conducted since 2015.

You can reach Beykoz Kundura by sea on the boats departing from Yeniköy every 20 minutes and on Şehir Hatları ferries, and after the event you can take the free shuttles to Taksim and to Kadıköy via Üsküdar. Audience members who prefer a water taxi can arrive at Beykoz Kundura’s private pier, while those coming by car can use the parking service free of charge.

Two films from Jordan and Indonesia await documentary lovers at Kundura Sinema this weekend. “Waterproof”, which offers a humorous look at the world of Jordan’s first female plumbers, will be screened on Saturday, May 28. Directed by German artist and filmmaker Daniela König, the film focuses on three female plumbers, Khawla, Aisha and Rehab, in Jordan, where women are forbidden from calling a male plumber when there is no man at home. Hafiz Rancajale’s 2013 documentary “Behind the Flickering Light: The Archive” (2013) can be seen on Sunday, May 29. Tracing the personal life of Misbach Yusa Biran, founder of Sinematek Indonesia, the first and largest film archive in Southeast Asia, the film holds up a mirror to the state and conditions of contemporary Indonesian cinema. Reservations for the films, which will be open to a limited number of viewers and screened free of charge, can be made at beykozkundura.com.

This weekend, Kundura Sinema, one of Türkiye’s most distinctive movie theaters thanks to its architecture, continues its screenings of the documentary selection Woman Power and of the Cinema of Commoning project, developed in partnership with cinemas from 8 countries. The screenings, starting at 17:00 and open to a limited audience, can be watched free of charge by making a reservation at beykozkundura.com.

Jordan’s first female plumbers

On Saturday, May 28, as part of the documentary selection Woman Power, curated by Buse Yıldırım, “Waterproof” (2019) will be screened, offering a humorous look at the world of the first female plumbers in Jordan, one of the driest countries in the world. Directed by German artist and filmmaker Daniela König, the film focuses on three female plumbers, Khawla, Aisha and Rehab, in Jordan, where women are forbidden from calling a male plumber when there is no man at home. These women enter homes, repair leaks and clean water tanks. Even more importantly, they teach women how to use water, every drop of which is precious, responsibly and sparingly. Taking on such an important mission and achieving success that reaches beyond the country’s borders, these women eventually come to be seen as a threat by the morality police, and Khawla, the head of their association, is accused of corruption. What follows turns into another struggle, one in which the women’s friendship is also put to the test.

The memory of Indonesian cinema

On Sunday, May 29, Indonesian director Hafiz Rancajale’s documentary “Behind the Flickering Light: The Archive” (2013) will be at Kundura Sinema. Tracing the personal life of Misbach Yusa Biran, founder of Sinematek Indonesia, the first and largest film archive in Southeast Asia, the film looks at its nearly forgotten history and holds up a mirror to the state and conditions of contemporary Indonesian cinema.

The film meets audiences as part of a project launched in May under the leadership of the Berlin-based cultural project space bi’bak and developed in partnership with Kundura Sinema from Türkiye as well as Sinema Transtopia from Germany, Documentary Club from Thailand, Cinema ARTA from Romania, Forum Lenteng from Indonesia, Cinema Akil from the United Arab Emirates, CCC from Chile and Cine Geração from Angola: the Cinema of Commoning (Müşterek Sinema) project.

Experience Beykoz Kundura before the screening

On event days, by presenting your ticket, you can enter Beykoz Kundura 2 hours before the screening; you can spend time in our food and drink areas or visit the Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory exhibition free of charge. Inviting visitors to look from a different perspective at the production history of the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory, whose rich past spans the Ottoman Empire and the Republic, the exhibition keeps the memory of these fascinating buildings alive by bringing together machines left from the factory, documents, objects donated by former employees and their families, and oral history interviews conducted since 2015.

You can reach Beykoz Kundura by sea on the boats departing from Yeniköy every 20 minutes and on Şehir Hatları ferries. Audience members who prefer a water taxi can arrive at Beykoz Kundura’s private pier, while those coming by car can use the parking service free of charge.

The Kundura Sinema Documentary Series screenings, which will bring together original and contemporary works of creative documentary cinema, begin this weekend at Beykoz Kundura. The first selection of the program, which will run through April and June, is titled “Woman Power.” The 5 films in the selection, which brings together the stories of brave and resilient women from four continents, will meet audiences in Türkiye for the first time. Opening with a screening of “Housemaids,” a documentary in which leading Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro closely follows seven different housemaids, the selection will also include “Waterproof,” which offers a humorous look at the world of Jordan’s first female plumbers; “Discount Workers,” which tells how a mother in Pakistan who lost her son in a factory fire becomes the voice of thousands of workers in her quest for justice; “Luchadoras,” which, following three female wrestlers, paints a striking portrait of violence against women in Mexico; and “Once Upon a Time in Venezuela,” about peasant women waging a fierce struggle against the dirty games of politicians in Venezuela. Reservations for the films, which will be open to a limited audience and screened free of charge, can be made at beykozkundura.com.

The Documentary Series begins this weekend at Kundura Sinema, one of Türkiye’s most distinctive movie theaters thanks to its architecture, which offers a safe viewing environment with certified ventilation systems that operate with 100% fresh air and contain no mixing chamber. The first selection of the program, curated by S. Buse Yıldırım, which will bring original examples of creative documentary cinema to audiences throughout the year, is titled Woman Power. With screenings continuing through May and June, the selection will bring to audiences in Türkiye, for the first time, 5 films telling the stories of brave and resilient women from four continents.

Insider witnesses to domestic labor

The first film in the selection, which can be watched free of charge at Kundura Sinema, will be “Housemaids” (2012), the award-winning documentary by Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro, known for films such as “August Winds” (2014) and “Neon Bull” (2015). To be screened on April 30 and May 7, the film follows, “from the inside,” life in seven different homes in Brazil, one of the countries that employ the most domestic workers in the world. Made up of “home videos” in which seven young people from different classes, religions and regions recorded the housemaids who work in their homes and also live with them, “Housemaids” opens up for discussion, from a creative perspective, domestic labor as one of the remnants of Brazil’s colonial past.

From Jordan to Pakistan, from Mexico to Venezuela

The selection also includes “Waterproof” (2019) by German artist and filmmaker Daniela König, which offers a humorous look at the world of the first female plumbers in Jordan, one of the driest countries in the world; “Discount Workers” (2020), directed by Ammar Aziz and Christopher Patz, which tells the story of Saeeda, who, while seeking justice for the son she lost in a factory fire in Pakistan, also becomes the voice of thousands of workers; “Luchadoras” (2021) by Paola Calvo and Patrick Jasim, a documentary that paints a striking portrait of violence against women in Mexico by following female wrestlers in the ring and on the streets, and that won all three of the Special Jury Award, the FIPRESCI Award and the Audience Award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival; and “Once Upon a Time in Venezuela” (2020) by Anabel Rodríguez Ríos, which won the Grand Prize at the Hot Springs and Watch Docs film festivals and follows peasant women waging a fierce struggle against the dirty games of politicians in Venezuela.

To attend the screenings, which will be free of charge and open to a limited audience, you can make a reservation at beykozkundura.com.

Experience Beykoz Kundura before the screening

On event days, by presenting your ticket, you can enter Beykoz Kundura 2 hours before the screening; you can spend time in our food and drink areas or visit the Kundura’s Memory: A World Fit into a Factory exhibition free of charge. Inviting visitors to look from a different perspective at the production history of the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory, whose rich past spans the Ottoman Empire and the Republic, the exhibition keeps the memory of these fascinating buildings alive by bringing together machines left from the factory, documents, objects donated by former employees and their families, and oral history interviews conducted since 2015.

You can reach Beykoz Kundura by sea on the boats departing from Yeniköy every 20 minutes and on Şehir Hatları ferries. Audience members who prefer a water taxi can arrive at Beykoz Kundura’s private pier, while those coming by car can use the parking service free of charge.

Beykoz Kundura, one of Türkiye’s most important sites of industrial cultural heritage, is celebrating the UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage on October 27 with a screening of the 2021 French documentary The Méliès Mystery. Presented through a collaboration between Beykoz Kundura and ARTE and released online today on Kundurama, the film tells the extraordinary life story of French filmmaker Georges Méliès and the incredible events surrounding the rescue of his lost films, while inviting us to remember and understand the legacy of this legendary filmmaker, the creator of many firsts in film history, above all “A Trip to the Moon” (1902), the first science fiction film. Opening a window onto the astonishing career of Méliès, who burned the negatives of more than 500 films he had made between 1896 and 1913 one by one following his bankruptcy in 1923, the film draws the audience into a breathtaking adventure in pursuit of more than 200 prints found years later in cellars and attics. Directed by Éric Lange and featuring the views of film historians as well as French directors Costa-Gavras and Michel Gondry, the film also offers the chance to see 13 rescued and restored films by Georges Méliès. You can watch The Méliès Mystery with Turkish subtitles free of charge on Kundurama until December 27.

Beykoz Kundura, one of Türkiye’s important industrial heritage sites with a history dating back to the early 1800s, is celebrating the UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage on October 27 with a screening of the documentary “The Méliès Mystery” (2021). Presented through a collaboration between Beykoz Kundura and the television channel ARTE and released online on Kundurama, the film calls on us to understand and remember the legacy left behind by Georges Méliès, one of cinema’s first creators and the inventor of magic on the silver screen.

Directed by Éric Lange, the 2021 French production The Méliès Mystery tells the extraordinary life story of French director Georges Méliès, who became cinema’s first storyteller by creating dimensions of time and space, made the first examples of science fiction and political cinema, founded Europe’s first film studio and is even regarded as the creator of the first film to be copied and duplicated, as well as the incredible events surrounding the rescue of his lost films.

Thirteen Méliès films in the documentary

Opening a window onto the career of Georges Méliès, who made more than 500 films between 1896 and 1913, burned the original negatives of his films one by one in the despair that followed his bankruptcy in 1923, and left only 8 films behind when he died, the film draws us into a breathtaking adventure that began years later with 80 original negatives found on the shelves of the Library of Congress in the United States and extends to the story of the rescue and restoration of more than 200 Méliès films, among them “A Trip to the Moon.”

Written by Éric Lange together with Serge Bromberg and featuring the views of film historians as well as French directors Costa-Gavras and Michel Gondry, The Méliès Mystery also offers the chance to watch thirteen restored Georges Méliès films. You can watch the documentary, presented through the partnership of Beykoz Kundura and ARTE, with Turkish subtitles free of charge on Kundurama until December 27.

Also on Kundurama

On Beykoz Kundura’s online viewing platform Kundurama, the selection Human Landscapes from the Edge of Life, made up of award-winning shorts by Thai filmmaker Sorayos Prapapan, continues, while the music film Parasol Peak, about the performance that Manu Delago, who will come to Türkiye for a concert at Kundura Sahne on November 13, recorded in the Alps with six musicians, and the documentary On Rock and Ice, about its making, await music and mountaineering enthusiasts in particular.

Kundura Hafıza, the Factory’s window

Looking at the past of Beykoz Kundura from today’s perspective, Kundura Hafıza also published a special statement for October 27 and, taking UNESCO’s theme “Your Window to the World” as its starting point, described the value of becoming “a window opening from the factory’s past memory onto the present” as one of the important actors in the process of preserving and passing on audiovisual cultural heritage. You can read the statement here.

The new season of screenings on the online viewing platform of Kundura Sinema, Kundurama, begins today with the selection “Human Landscapes from the Edge of Life,” made up of award-winning shorts by Thai filmmaker Sorayos Prapapan, who is regarded as one of the directors of the future. Sorayos Prapapan, who has won praise from critics for an exciting and rich film language that never lets go of humor despite the weight and sadness of the stories he tells, will meet audiences, with Turkish and English subtitle options, through his 2014 tragicomic documentary “Auntie Maam Has Never Had a Passport,” selected for the Rotterdam Film Festival and named Best Short Film at the Valladolid Film Festival; his hybrid documentary “A Souvenir from Switzerland,” which tells the story of a director who fled Afghanistan and sought refuge in Switzerland; and his comedy “Fat Boy Never Slim,” about two boys trying to evade compulsory military service in Thailand, ruled by a junta regime since 2014. Presented in partnership with the New York-based independent and experimental film platform Kinoscope, the screenings can be watched free of charge on Kundurama until the end of December.

The new season on Kundura Sinema’s online viewing platform Kundurama opens today (September 24) with the selection “Human Landscapes from the Edge of Life,” made up of films by Thai director Sorayos Prapapan. The director, who has won praise from critics for an exciting and rich film language that never lets go of humor despite the weight and sadness of the stories he tells, has 3 heartwarming short films that can be watched with Turkish subtitles free of charge on Kundurama until the end of the year.

Sorayos Prapapan’s 2014 short documentary “Auntie Maam Has Never Had a Passport,” shown in the Official Selection of the Rotterdam Film Festival, tells the story of Auntie Maam, a foot masseuse who also acts in independent films in Thailand. Also familiar from Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Palme d’Or-winning film “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” (2010), Auntie Maam is the subject of this tragicomic story about how, when a film she acted in was selected for a festival in Europe, she was unable to accept the invitation simply because she had no passport. The film received a Special Mention at the Valladolid Film Festival and the Winterthur Short Film Festival, and was named Best Short Film at the Ekadeshma Short Film Festival.

Humor and sound take the lead

While the other two films in the selection swim in political waters, they draw their real strength from humor, and they also convey to the audience, in original and creative ways, the relationship with sound of the director, who is also a sound technician and Foley artist. His 2015 hybrid documentary “A Souvenir from Switzerland” tells the story of a director forced to leave his country for opposing political oppression in Afghanistan and to seek refuge in Switzerland, while the 2016 fiction short “Fat Boy Never Slim” is set in Bangkok under the military junta in 2015 and tells the story of two boys whose dreams lie far from the army, in a country where men are forced into military service when they turn 21.

Prepared in partnership between Kundura Sinema and the New York-based independent and experimental film platform Kinoscope, the program can be watched with Turkish subtitles free of charge on Kundurama from September 24 to December 31, 2021.

This month, the online program of Kundura Sahne, the performance and theater stage of Beykoz Kundura, welcomes Swiss director and artist Stefan Kaegi, known for his unconventional projects. Stefan Kaegi, who has sparked debate and won awards with the plays he has created under the umbrella of Rimini Protokoll, one of Europe’s most important art collectives, working with “non-professional” performers from different fields such as Formula 1 drivers, pet owners and politicians, will share his artistic practice with audiences in Türkiye at an Artist Talk on January 14. Another surprise from Kundura Sahne will be the online screening of “Uncanny Valley”, Kaegi’s 2018 performance in which he created and staged a humanoid robot, taking the use of artificial intelligence in theater to a new turning point. The screening on kultur.beykozkundura.com can be watched free of charge with a Turkish subtitle option.

This month, the online program of Kundura Sahne, the stage of Beykoz Kundura that will open its doors in spring 2021 and aims to create an innovative and interdisciplinary space for the performing arts, dance above all, welcomes Stefan Kaegi, the provocative name of European theater. Known for interactive, entertaining and striking projects created in different forms, the artist will share his award-winning artistic practice with audiences in Türkiye at an Artist Talk on Thursday, January 14. With free registration at beykozkundura.com, the talk will take place live at 20.00 on Zoom with simultaneous Turkish interpretation.

One of the founders of Rimini Protokoll​, one of the most important art collectives in European theater, Kaegi has raised new questions about the sense of reality in theater with projects designed in different formats, from documentary theater to audio projects, and will share his experiences in a talk titled “On Transplanted Acting and Remote-Controlled Audiences.” Working with performers from different groups, including Formula 1 drivers, pet owners and politicians, who are “experts in their fields but not professional actors,” the artist is known for interactive, entertaining and surprising projects that bring together different understandings of form and media possibilities, such as GPS navigators, radio waves, telephone recordings and video games.

A humanoid robot on stage

Another surprise from Kundura Sahne will be the screening of “Uncanny Valley”, Kaegi’s performance with a humanoid robot, which was much talked about when it was staged in 2018 and took the use of artificial intelligence in theater to a new threshold. In the play, in which we watch, alone on stage, a humanoid robot copied and produced with reference to Thomas Melle, an unconventional writer of German literature, the robot also recounts the author’s literary journey starting from his childhood, as well as his experiences of manic depression. Taking as its starting point the concept of the “Uncanny Valley,” first used in the 1970s by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori to describe the uncanny zone of existential uncertainty people experience when they encounter humanoid machines, the play will offer audiences a viewing experience as unsettling as it is intriguing, in this uncanny zone where the questions “what is a human” and “what is a machine” become entangled. Published from January 15 on kultur.beykozkundura.com, the play can be watched online free of charge, with a Turkish subtitle option, until February 15.

‘Remote X’ in Istanbul this summer

Kundura Sahne’s collaboration with Stefan Kaegi and Rimini Protokoll will continue in summer 2021. “Remote Istanbul”, the Istanbul adaptation of Kaegi’s “Remote X” series, designed specifically for developing cities from Moscow to Taipei, will meet Istanbulites again in summer 2021. Brought to Istanbul by Kundura Sahne last September and October but postponed due to pandemic conditions, the play, with a structure that turns the audience into performers, will invite us to question our relationship with the city and to observe our behavior alongside artificial intelligence.

Beykoz Kundura’s Kundura Sinema screenings continue online. The “Timeless Tales” selection, presented by Kundura Sinema in partnership with Kinescope, brings together 3 award-winning short films by Indian filmmaker Prantik Narayan Basu, who has become one of the discoveries of major festivals such as Berlin and Rotterdam with his experimental documentaries. Carrying references to many fields such as shamanism, Indian philosophy and feminism, Basu’s films draw on folk tales and myths to create lyrical meditations on the fragile relationship between nature and humans. The “Timeless Tales” selection, presented by Kundura Sinema in partnership with Kinescope, can be watched free of charge with a Turkish subtitle option until February 1, 2021 at kultur.beykozkundura.com.

Beykoz Kundura’s Kundura Sinema screenings continue online on its culture blog kultur.beykozkundura.com. Prepared in partnership between Kundura Sinema and the online film platform Kinescope, the “Timeless Tales” selection brings together award-winning shorts by Indian filmmaker Prantik Narayan Basu, whose experimental documentaries are closely followed by major festivals such as Berlin and Rotterdam. Selected this year for Berlinale Talents, the talent program in which the Berlin Film Festival brings together emerging filmmakers, the director has 3 films, all received with awards, that draw on the folk tales and myths of a world without writing, where only legends exist, to create lyrical meditations on the fragile relationship between nature and humans.

A crocodile brings people together

Screened free of charge until February 1, 2021 at kultur.beykozkundura.com, the “Timeless Tales” selection features Prantik Narayan Basu’s films “Makara” (2013), “Sakhisona” (2017) and “Palace of Colours”.

“Makara”, the director’s second film, which had its world premiere at the Rome Film Festival, is inspired by the folk tale “A Crocodile Named Rain Cloud,” told in the cultures of Myanmar and India. The film, about a crocodile pulled out of an artificial lake in Mumbai that brings together, if only for a moment, people from different walks of society, received the Best Sound Design Award from the Film and Television Institute of India for its striking sound work, which practically turns the voices of nature and of the narrator into a single actor.

“A love story to the vitality of nature”

The 2017 film “Sakhisona” is set in the mountainous region of southern India that the local Indigenous people call “Sakhisona,” and mystically traces the remains of a 6th-century monastery found in recent excavations. Telling the story of Sakhisona, who, while searching for a house in which to take refuge in the forest where she has eloped with her lover, discovers the mysteries of the forest and awakens the shamanic power within her, the film draws on fields such as folk tales, history and shamanism and also carries feminist references through its heroine, quite progressive for her time. Named one of the year’s best by renowned film critic Nicole Brenez and selected Best Short Film at the Mumbai and FICSUR festivals, “Sakhisona” was praised in 2017 at the Rotterdam Film Festival by the short film jury as “a surreal, poetic approach to the myths hidden in the archaeological layers of the world; a love story to the vitality of nature,” and was awarded the Tiger Award, making Prantik Narayan Basu the second Indian director in the festival’s history to win this award.

“Palace of Colours”, Basu’s latest film to date, competed for the Golden Bear in the short film competition of the Berlin Film Festival, where it had its world premiere last year. Also screened at major documentary and short film festivals such as IDFA, DMZ and Bilbao, the film draws on the creation myth of the Santal Indigenous people living in northern India. Taking the audience to chalk-stone hills formed by erosion and subsidence in the region and striking for their dazzling colors, and inviting us into the homes that villagers decorate or repair with these stones, the film allows us to hear this myth, which exists in thousands of different versions, from the mouth of a Santal woman.

The second Indian director to win the Tiger Award

Indian filmmaker Prantik Narayan Basu was born in 1986. He studied English Arts at the University of Calcutta. He trained in film directing at the Film and Television Institute of India, which since 1960 has become the country’s most important film school. In 2011, he won the Jury Award at the Mumbai International Film Festival with his graduation film “Ek, Do.” His 2013 film “Makara” had its world premiere at the Rome Film Festival. Following his short documentary “Hata Mahal” (2015), named Best Short Film at Toto Funds the Arts, his film “Sakhisona” (2017) was screened at major festivals such as BFI and Mumbai, and by winning the Tiger Award for Best Short Film in Rotterdam, he became the second Indian director to receive this award. His 2019 film “Rang Mahal” competed for the Golden Bear in the Short Film Competition of the Berlin Film Festival and was screened at leading documentary film festivals such as IDFA and ZINEBI. Selected this year for Berlinale Talents, the talent program in which the Berlin Film Festival brings together emerging filmmakers, Prantik Narayan Basu is working on “Bela,” a feature-length documentary about a group of dancers.

Screened online via Kundura Sinema’s culture blog kultur.beykozkundura.com, “Timeless Tales” can be watched free of charge with a Turkish subtitle option until February 1, 2021. Presented in partnership with the online film platform Kinescope, the screenings will continue with new selections in 2021.