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The Pera Museum, which opened its doors in early June 2005, is the
first step of a comprehensive cultural endeavor that the Suna and Inan
Kirac Foundation
has launched at this distinguished venue in the city for the purpose of
providing cultural service on a variety of levels.
An historical
structure which was originally constructed in 1893 by the architect
Achille Manoussos in Tepebaşı (İstanbul's most prestigious district in
those days) and which was, until rather recently, known as the Bristol
Hotel, was completely renovated to serve as a museum and cultural
center for the project. Transformed into a fully-equipped modern
museum, this venerable building is now serving the people of İstanbul
once again.
The first and second floors of the Pera Museum house three permanent collections belonging to the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation,
with the Sevgi and Erdoğan Gönül Gallery on the second floor. The
third, fourth, and fifth floors are devoted to multipurpose exhibition
spaces. There is an auditorium and lobby in the basement and on the
ground floor are the reception desk and Perakende - Artshop and a cafe.
A large part of the first of the two museum floors above the ground
floor displays choice examples from the foundation's collection of
Anatolian Weights and Measures for the benefit of those who are in love
with history and archaeology. Made from many different materials using
many different techniques, these objects show the development of the
devices used to weigh and measure in Anatolia since the earliest times.
In another wing on the same floor is the foundation's collection of
Kütahya Tiles and Ceramics, whose strikingly beautiful pieces seek to
shed new light on an area of creativity in our cultural history that is
not very well known.
The Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation's
collection of Orientalist art consists of more than three hundred
paintings. This rich collection brings together important works by
European artists inspired by the Ottoman world from the 17th century to
the early 19th. This collection, which presents a vast visual panorama
of the last two centuries of the Ottoman Empire, includes works by
Osman Hamdi, regarded by art historians as the genre's only "native
Orientalist" and of course his most famous painting The Tortoise
Trainer. Many paintings from the private collections of the late Sevgi
and Erdoğan Gönül have also entered the foundation's permanent
collection. It is planned to exhibit the collection in the Sevgi and
Erdoğan Gönül Gallery dedicated to their name in a series of long-term
thematic exhibitions. The first of these, which opened in early June
2005, is called "Portraits from the Empire" and consists of portraits
of sultans, princes, and other members of the Ottoman imperial family
as well as of foreign ambassadors together with other "portraits" in
the general sense, showing people from many different periods and walks
of life.
In addition to its function as a private museum in
which to display the collection of the family, the Pera Museum is also
intended to provide the people of İstanbul with a broad range of
cultural services as a modern cultural center located in a vibrant part
of the city and equipped with multipurpose exhibition spaces, an
auditorium and lobby, and activity spaces for visitors.
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