MODERN ESSAYS 4: SALON

"SALON" is an object and spatial environment-based program in the framework of SALT’s "Modern Essays" series, which investigates different aspects of modernization in Turkey. Displayed on April 13 - June 24 2012 at SALT Galata, "SALON" presents a three-dimensional moment/section of diligence and simplicity from the Ankara of 1960s, a period overlooked in historical research, a discourse still dominated by the early years of the Republic.

Installation view from "Modern Essays 4: Salon", SALT Galata, 2012Salt

Installation view from "Modern Essays 4: Salon", SALT Galata, 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Installation view from "Modern Essays 4: Salon", SALT Galata, 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Installation view from "Modern Essays 4: Salon", SALT Galata, 2012Salt

Works on Modern Design History in Turkey, Pelin Derviş & Gökhan Karakuş, 2012
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Installation view from "Modern Essays 4: Salon", SALT Galata, 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Installation view from "Modern Essays 4: Salon", SALT Galata, 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Installation view from "Modern Essays 4: Salon", SALT Galata, 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Installation view from "Modern Essays 4: Salon", SALT Galata, 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012Salt

The main display is the original furniture from Butik-A by designers Bediz and Azmi Koz. Butik-A, which opened in Ankara in 1958, is an exceptional attempt to provide and produce designs that are far from the mainstream appetite of the period, yet offer a promise from within that particular time. The set of furniture including a sideboard, dining table, chairs, armchairs, sofas, desk, serving cart, tables is not an arbitrary selection but the relocation of a real living room (salon). Borrowed from the apartment of composer Ulvi Cemal Erkin and pianist Ferhunde Erkin, both key figures in Turkish music also as educators, this set of Butik-A items points to a placid sensitivity in furniture design and production of the time.

Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012Salt

Butik-A by Azmi-Bediz Koz, 2012 (Voice: Duygu Deniz)
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012Salt

Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Erkin Apartment (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Installation view from "Modern Essays 4: Salon", SALT Galata, 2012Salt

Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), "Arkitekt" journal, no: 330, 1969Salt

The two-dimensional architecture built in the exhibition space is the key to linking the materiality of the object to where it belongs. Projections of walls, doors, windows drawn on the ground is a footpath to the salon’s relations with the inside and outside. The architecture design project of the building in which the apartment was located was commissioned to the Bediz-Kamçıl office in 1956 by Yeşiltepe Cooperative. The cooperative sought to develop eight apartment blocks in Emek, which was considered to be the outskirts of the city at the time. Rahmi Bediz and Demirtaş Kamçıl − another design duo not well researched and documented as of yet − are architects who were actively involved in the expansion of the built environment in Ankara between 1952 and 1980, covering residential, public, commercial and cultural domains.

Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), "Arkitekt" journal, no: 330, 1969Salt

Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks, Nazan Çapoğlu, 2012 (Voice: Duygu Demir)
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012Salt

Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012Salt

Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012Salt

Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012, From the collection of: Salt
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Yeşiltepe Cooperative Blocks (Ankara), 2012Salt

Credits: Story

Project: Meriç Öner
Photograph: Metehan Özcan
Sound: Mustafa Hazneci
Research assistance: Merve Elveren and Derya Uzal

Thanks to firstly Bediz Koz and İçten Erkin; Sevin Akçer, Müge Cengizkan, Nazan Çapoğlu, Pelin Derviş, Elvan Altan Ergut, Atıf Kamçıl, Gökhan Karakuş, Defne Koz, HG Masters, Ahmet Sezen Özsayın, Bediz Tuncay, Sema Tuncay and Chamber of Architects of Turkey, Istanbul Metropolitan Branch.

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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