It was Paradise, Unfortunately (No such thing as theatre)

Performance

March 2, 2024 / 18:00

Pera Museum presents a performance titled It was Paradise, Unfortunately (No such thing as theatre) as part of the public programming of the exhibition Souvenirs of the Future, explores the connections between memory and future imaginings through contemporary works, based on the Suna and Inan Kirac Foundation's Kütahya Tiles and Ceramics Collection.

This research performance looks at the exciting and futuristic potential of the "past" to heal the world today. It reframes our concept of theater, focusing on why and how we originally practised it and asks if it can change the world.As we enter the Anthropocene, it reimagines a queer intersectional utopia that might give us answers for what is to come. 

The work in progress performance written by the Jordanian trans playwright and theater maker Raphael Amahl Khouri and performed with the artist Myrto Stampoulou, was commissioned for the Outburst Festival held in Belfast November 2023 is being staged in Istanbul for the first time.

The free performance will take place at Pera Museum Auditorium and the language is English. No reservations are taken. Suitable for audiences aged 18+.

Temporary Exhibition

Souvenirs of the Future

The exhibition focuses on the memories recalled through objects whilst exploring the connections between memory and future imaginings through a contemporary lens. The cultural and symbolic value and significance of objects taken as souvenirs, those that remind us of a certain place and time, or those that are collected, weave together personal journeys and the memory of the region. Instead of a nostalgic attachment to the past, it proposes contemplating how the future will be remembered and focuses on memory's future-oriented functions.

Souvenirs of the Future

Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests

Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests

Between 1963 and 1966 Andy Warhol worked at making film portraits of all sorts of characters linked to New York art circles. Famous people and anonymous people were filmed by Andy Warhol’s 16 mm camera, for almost four minutes, without any instructions other than ‘to get in front of the camera’.

Fluid Identities  Creating an Identity / Hybrid Identities

Fluid Identities Creating an Identity / Hybrid Identities

A firm believer in the idea that a collection needs to be upheld at least by four generations and comparing this continuity to a relay race, Nahit Kabakcı began creating the Huma Kabakcı Collection from the 1980s onwards. Today, the collection can be considered one of the most important and outstanding examples among the rare, consciously created, and long-lasting ones of its kind in Turkey.

Mosques in the 18th and 19th Century Paintings

Mosques in the 18th and 19th Century Paintings

In the works of western painters, we encounter mosques as the primary architectural elements that reflect the identity of the city of Istanbul. Often we can recognize the depicted landscape as Istanbul simply from the mosques.