Exhibitions
Panorama: Dreams and imagined territories in contemporary Turkish photography
Istanbul Modern brings together 18 artists in a major exhibition about emotional landscapes, visual memory and new ways of inhabiting the image.
From February 19 to October 18, 2026, the Istanbul Modern Museum presents Panorama: Dreams and Places , an ambitious exhibition dedicated to contemporary photography and image-based art in Turkey. Installed in the galleries on the museum's first floor, the exhibition brings together works created since the 2010s by 18 artists from different generations, tracing a sensitive and poetic journey through the tensions of the present.
Far from presenting photography as a mere documentary reflection of reality, the exhibition proposes an exploration of emotional territories, dreamlike landscapes, and alternative geographies that emerge from the imagination and personal experience of the artists. Through fictional portraits, interior spaces, and abstract topographies, the works construct symbolic places to pause, breathe, and contemplate amidst the acceleration of contemporary life.
The exhibition places special emphasis on the multiple possibilities of contemporary photography. Installations, moving images, manipulated archives, and artificial intelligence applications coexist within a single curatorial discourse that expands the traditional boundaries of photography. In this context, the image ceases to be merely a record of the world and becomes a tool capable of inventing new forms of sensitivity and perception.
Panorama: Dreams and Places also serves as a cartography of the artistic explorations that have taken place in Turkey in recent years. Each participant brings a unique perspective to issues such as identity, territory, memory, and the fragility of contemporary human experience.
Artists included in the exhibition include Larissa Araz, İlgen Arzık, Emre Baykal, Silva Bingaz, Hasan Deniz, Umut Erbaş, Cem Ersavcı, Ece Gökalp, Cemre Yeşil Gönenli, Ege Kanar, Zeynep Kayan, Metehan Özcan, Yusuf Sevinçli, İrem Sözen, Selim Süme, Kerem Uzel, Begüm Yamanlar and Cansu Yıldıran.
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