Bozlu Art Project, located in the midst of downtown Istanbul in the Sisli district, is housed in a building, the Mongeri House, designed by architect Giulio Mongeri.
His son Giulio Mongeri has “left his mark on [Turkey’s] architectural history”, the news release notes. The Mongeri Building was originally built to house the Sadikoglu family in the early years of the Republic, who would, following the trends of the era, leave the building built in the First National Architectural Movement style, for a modern apartment building in the coming years.
Curator Inay Erten writes about her initial impression in in the Preface to the book ‘A Mansion in Sisli and Architect Giulio Mongeri’ that the Mongeri House “stood there, in the midst of the densely populated and heavily concretised most central part of Sisli, like an oasis”. Her observation rings even truer today.
From 1910, Mongeri also served as the director of the department of architecture of Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi , which now functions as Mimar Sinan University. Curator Ozlem Inay Erten says that while the exhibition aims to “shed light on Giulio Mongeri’s life and the history of the Mongeri House … therefore attempting to approach the notion of a ‘Memory Palace’,” it does so “from the perspective of contemporary artistic practices'' of the three artists featured in the exhibition alongside the historical back story.
Meliha Sözeri’s light installation Sınır uçları is the first art piece on display, perhaps placed there to make a reference to Mongeri’s psychiatrist father.
Source: Entertainment Trends (entertainmenttrends.net)