The Sakıp Sabancı Center was invited to program a one-week shift for the Turkish Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia in October 2018. Organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts and curated by Kerem Piker under the title Vardiya (http://vardiya.iksv.org), the Sakıp Sabancı Center joined the Columbia Global Centers | Istanbul, Studio-X Istanbul (GSAPP), and Casa Muraro, Columbia’s emerging research enter in Venice to mount a treasure hunt and workshop entitled Constantinople/Istanbul in/and Venice: Bridging the Mediterranean Divide.
Under the guidance of Professor Holger A. Klein (Interim Director of the Sakıp Sabancı Center; Lisa and Bernard Selz Professor of Medieval Art History) a group of seven Turkish student participants of Vardiya#12 traced the art and architectural history of Venice and the history of its contacts with Constantinople/Istanbul through museum visits, city walks, and lectures.
The program was kicked off with a historical introduction and tour of Piazza San Marco led by Professor Klein on October 12 and continued with a lecture by Professor Deborah Howard (Professor Emerita of Architectural History, University of Cambridge) entitled Venice and the Ottomans on October 13. The third day of events included a walking tour through various city quarters of Venice, led by Professor Johanna Fassl (Associate Professor, Franklin University in Lugano, Switzerland), to explore the prolonged history of cultural contacts between Venice and the Byzantine/Ottoman world in a cultural and architectural treasure hunt.
