The Cloth Peddler

  • January 25, 2014 / 16:00
  • February 2, 2014 / 16:00

Director: Nikolai Leshenko, Reza Tahmasib
Cast: Rashid Behbudov, Leila Bedirbeili, Lutfali Abdullayev
Azerbaijan; 95’, 1945, color
Azerbaijani with Turkish subtitles

The operetta “The Cloth Peddler/Arşın Mal Alan” a world-famous musical comedy from Azerbaijan was composed by legendary Azerbaijani composer Üzeyir Hacıbeyli. This comic and romantic operetta, which was ahead of its time and rich in national characteristics and realism, is about pure love, women’s rights, fight against outdated traditions, and aspiration for modern way of life free of damaging customs. Young Asgar wants to get married. He is a rich, successful businessman and has everything he could wish for except for one thing – a wife. Tradition does not allow him to choose his own bride. Marriages are customarily arranged and, in fact, it’s impossible for young men to even catch a glimpse of potential brides as they are secluded in their homes and never come out unveiled or unaccompanied. So Asker wanders from house to house as a poor peddler selling fabric. Eventually, he meets Gülçehre, the beautiful daughter of Sultan bey, a wealthy merchant. Asgar decides Gülçehre is the one he wants to marry. She, too, falls in love with him, although she knows him only as a peddler.

The Cloth Peddler

The Cloth Peddler

The Bat

The Bat

Buta

Buta

Fortress

Fortress

Holy Animal

Holy Animal

40th Door

40th Door

Chovkan

Chovkan

Steppe Man

Steppe Man

The First Nudes

The First Nudes

Men were the first nudes in Turkish painting. The majority of these paintings were academic studies executed in oil paint; they were part of the education of artists that had finally attained the opportunity to work from the live model. The gender of the models constituted an obstacle in the way of characterizing these paintings as ‘nudes’. 

Good News from the Skies

Good News from the Skies

Inspired by the exhibition And Now the Good News, which focusing on the relationship between mass media and art, we prepared horoscope readings based on the chapters of the exhibition. Using the popular astrological language inspired by the effects of the movements of celestial bodies on people, these readings with references to the works in the exhibition make fictional future predictions inspired by the horoscope columns that we read in the newspapers with the desire to receive good news about our day. 

Seaside Leisure

Seaside Leisure

Istanbul’s Seaside Leisure: Nostalgia from Sea Baths to Beaches exhibition brought together photographs, magazines, comics, objects, and books from various private and institutional collections, and told a nostalgic story while also addressing the change and socialization of the norms of how Istanbulites used their free time. Istanbul’s Seaside Leisure was a documentary testament of the radical transformations in the Republic’s lifestyle.