REVIEW: “Plurivocality: Visual Arts and Music in Turkey” @ Istanbul Modern
The full diversity of Anatolian culture is borne by its food and music. Little else in contemporary Turkey retains its links so closely with the past while reflecting the massive societal transformations of the 20th century; since the Ottoman Empire was dismantled, and the alphabet revolutionized, non-Turkic minorities were expunged, deported or assimilated en masse and the majority of the population migrated from villages to cities. Istanbul Modern’s exhibition “Plurivocality: Visual Arts and Music in Turkey” gathers together works by 17 Turkish artists that incorporate sound and music in ways that address, or redress, this collective history, in a wide range of approaches and styles.
Like many of Istanbul Modern’s recent exhibitions, “Plurivocality” contains many important contemporary artworks organized around a broadly appealing theme. Comprised of two sections, “Plurivocality” contains both a historical component about famous Turkish artists and their connections to music, and a greatest-hits selection of Turkish artworks from the last 15 years that incorporate sound and music as inspiration.
