“Plural Istanbul Media” exhibition, where examples from the community medias representing different languages, beliefs and cultures of Istanbul can be seen, opened its doors at the Depo Istanbul in Tophane on Friday, February 23rd.
Plural Istanbul Media aims to explore, bring together and link up journals and other media which are not visible in the public sphere but which are continuing on their own course, weaving together different cultural communities through their own languages and agendas. Organized in the context of an Istanbul Bilgi University project aiming to research and make visible Istanbul’s cultural pluralism, the exhibition includes the newspapers and journals of various cultural groups in Istanbul from 1990 till today and videos revealing their background and preparation.
From Istanbul’s oldest newspaper Jamanak set up in 1908, to El Emaneser, the world’s only weekly publication in Ladino, from the Hemshin people’s journal Gor to Jineps, the voice of the Circassians, from the Kurds’ 25-year-old literature journal Nubihar, to Istanbul’s oldest Greek (Rum) newspaper Apoyevmatini, the exhibition immerses viewers in a wide spectrum of periodicals, contributes to communication between different cultural groups, and presents a wide view of Istanbul’s cultural plurality.
The exhibition has been organized by a large team as part of a project coordinated by Bulent Bilmez from the History Department of Istanbul Bilgi University. It aims to offer a wide historical and social perspective on the content of the plural media, the publishing activities of communities, and the more general impact of the politics of the media in Turkey on community media.
