People of the Po Valley

1943, Italy, 9’, black & white, Italian with Turkish subtitles
A quiet ode to the arduous lives of fisherman along the River Po, Antonioni’s first film is a poetic inquiry into the uncanny dialectic between environment and inhabitants. Although completed in 1943, the temporary loss of crucial footage during post-production delayed the film’s release until 1947.

Sanitation Department

1948, Italy, 8’, black & white, Italian with Turkish subtitles
Antonioni’s second film documents a day in the life of Rome’s sanitation workers, highlighting a marginal culture so taken for granted they are virtually invisible. Both somber and charming, his lyrical investigation into their gritty existences revels in quotidian moments of mystery and humor.

Lies of Love

1949, Italy, 10’, black & white, Italian with Turkish subtitles
Considered the inspiration for Fellini’s The White Sheik (1952), Delightfully exploring the vernacular fantastic of the fotoromanzi, the bawdy photographic comic-strip novels that were a staple of post-WW2 Italian popular culture, Antonioni tracks a day in the life of the stars of this new genre.

Superstition

1948, Italy, 9’, black & white, Italian with Turkish subtitles
A poetic ethnography of anarchic rites and beliefs, Superstition reveals the stubborn presence of a pre-modern folk imagination in the twentieth century Italian peasant class.

India Kumbh Mela

1983, Italy, India 9’, color

Like Rossellini, Antonioni had a long fascination with India which gave way to this 1977 short capturing the country’s most important Hindu festival, Kumbh Mela, during which millions of worshippers gather to pray where the Ganges, Jamuna and Saraswati rivers converge.

Roma 90

1989, Italy, 9’, color

The cinematic portrait of the Italian capital Rome, this short was part of a series of films that on the occasion of the 1990 Soccer World Cup in Italy were meant to present the different venues.

Sicillia

1997, Italy, 11’, color, Italian with Turkish subtitles
Antonioni's short film is a silent meditation on five Sicilian landscapes.

Lo sguardo di Michelangelo

2004, Italy, 15’, color, Italian with Turkish subtitles
Michelangelo Antonioni’s true final film and, for a master film-maker who has peerlessly studied the inability of people to communicate between one another, it is appropriate that his last characters are himself – who has been debilitated by a stroke and deprived of speech and most bodily movement for practically 20 years – and the “inanimate” statues found in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The camera gazes pans or tracks incessantly over every detail of the statues and occasionally shows us the interaction between the two ‘entities.’

Antonioni By Antonioni

1978, Italy, 22’, color, Italian with Turkish subtitles
This a rare interview with Antonioni from 1978, made on the occasion of a TV retrospective of his films.

Story of a Love Affair

Story of a Love Affair

Red Desert

Red Desert

Zabriskie Point

Zabriskie Point

Identification of a Woman

Identification of a Woman

L’Avventura

L’Avventura

Blow-Up

Blow-Up

The Mystery of Oberwald

The Mystery of Oberwald

Shorts

Shorts

Family and Shared Cultural Histories  <br>Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Family and Shared Cultural Histories
Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Pera Museum, in collaboration with Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), is one of the main venues for this year’s 15th Istanbul Biennial from 16 September to 12 November 2017.

Giacometti’s Final Works

Giacometti’s Final Works

Giacometti was selected for three important retrospectives at the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Gallery in London and the Louisiana Museum of Art in Denmark, all of which were a great success. 

Soothsayer Serenades I Two-handed by Kübra Uzun

Soothsayer Serenades I Two-handed by Kübra Uzun

Today we are thrilled to present the first playlist of Amrita Hepi’s Soothsayer Serenades series as part of the Notes for Tomorrow exhibition. The playlist titled Two-handed is presented by Kübra Uzun on Pera Museum’s Spotify account.