Karagöz, My Dear

Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat is hosting the exhibition “Karagöz, My Dear”, which features original shadow theater figures of Ragıp Tuğtekin, one of the prominent representatives of the traditional Turkish Shadow Theater, in the Yapı Kredi Museum Collection, along with the depictions of the masters and contemporary artists who give life to the art of karagöz. The exhibition can be visited between September 15, 2020, and April 25, 2021.

The Yapı Kredi Museum, located on the first floor of Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat in Beyoğlu, endeavours for the preservation of cultural heritage with the exhibitions and publications on archeology and traditional art.

In the 1950s, when there were no laws regarding the protection of historical artifacts and cultural assets, Yapı Kredi brought together a wide variety of numismatic and ethnographic objects including coins, medals, decorations, embroideries, tombacs, rosaries, clocks, and shadow theater figures, and since then Yapı Kredi has hosted many important cultural and art projects.

187 pieces of karagöz figures made by Ragıp Tuğtekin in the 1930s, which are in the collection of the Yapı Kredi Museum, were last shown in the exhibition "Torn is the Curtain, Shattered in the Screen, The Stage All In Ruins" in 2004. The figures in the collection once again meet with the audience through the exhibition "Karagöz, My Dear", curated by Cengiz Özek and coordinated by Nihat Tekdemir and Elif Erdoğan, but this time juxtaposed to the works of the artists that Ragıp Tuğtekin influenced by and influenced.

In the exhibition, designed by Karşılaşmalar, 350 depictions of more than 20 karagöz artists treated under thematic headings such as the place of karagöz in the world shadow theater, the countries in which karagöz plays performed, the reflections of surrealistic stories and folk legends on karagöz figures, contemporary karagöz artists.

Various online events will accompany the exhibition “Karagöz, My Dear” which can be visited between September 15, 2020, and April 25, 2021. Yapı Kredi Publications also publishes a bilingual (Turkish-English) exhibition catalogue.