Institut français Türkiye and Çankaya Municipality invite art lovers to discover the expressive power and cultural impact of images through four exhibitions, presented as part of the 200th anniversary of the invention of photography, ranging from contemporary photographic production to historical archives. The exhibitions, which will meet audiences at the Doğan Taşdelen Contemporary Arts Center, explore photography through the lenses of artistic expression, social transformation, and intercultural dialogue.
States of the Body – ENSP Félicités 2026 brings together the works of eight young graduates of the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles. Exploring the social, cultural, and sensory dimensions of the body, the exhibition takes viewers on a journey from tangible reality to poetic and dreamlike worlds.
From Image to Page – France PhotoBook approaches the photobook as a work of art and a creative space in its own right. Highlighting the relationship between visual storytelling, design, printing, and the book as an object, the exhibition shows how photography acquires new meanings through the pages of a book.
Writing on Water, born out of a collaborative production between French visual artist Julie Chaffort and dancers Banu Açıkdeniz, Chiara Giorda, and Su Güneş Mıhladız, is an immersive video installation consisting of three simultaneous films. Shot at the Bosphorus, the Şerefiye Cistern, and the Sarıyer Büyük Bent reservoir in Istanbul, the work transforms the relationship between the body, water, and transience into a sensory experience.
Ara Güler, Jean Dieuzaide: Two Different Perspectives on Turkey in the 1950s and 1960s brings together French photographer Jean Dieuzaide and Ara Güler, one of the most important figures in Turkey’s visual culture. The photographs, extending from Istanbul to Anatolia, offer an opportunity to rediscover everyday life, people, and a society in transformation through two different perspectives. The exhibition makes visible the dialogue established between France and Türkiye through photography, as well as the shared experiences passed down from the past to the present.
Institut français Türkiye’s photography bicentenary programme, running from 2026 until the end of 2027, invites us to reconsider photography not merely as a tool for documentation, but as a universal artistic language that transforms the way we perceive, narrate, and interpret the world.
The exhibition, which opens on 6 November, can be visited until 13 December 2026.
Address: Doğan Taşdelen Contemporary Arts Center – JF. Kennedy Street, Kavaklıdere
