'Becoming Istanbul' art exhibit: On the making of Beyoglu
Jenna Krajeski
ISTANBUL - Istanbul's SALT Art Institute has, according to a recent interview with Research and Programs Director Vasif Kortun, one primary goal: "to stand for innovation and change." This was apparent last week, when the art space, which has occupied its five-story location on upscale Istiklal Street since 2006, hosted a program called "Becoming Istanbul: The Making of Beyoglu." For some, the exhibition - on the circuitous, ambitious, and sometimes-questionable evolution of Istanbul's hippest neighborhood - might have begun even before passing through SALT's enormous front doors. Istiklal Street, after all, was not always so tony, and in many ways SALT's very existence - a glamorous art space between shoe shops in what was once the city's drug den - is the most telling piece in its own exhibition about urban planning, gentrification and change.
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