Melis AlemdarAs it turns 20, Istanbul’s Pera Museum, housed in a beautifully restored 19th-century five-storey building in the city’s Beyoğlu district, is celebrating with international collaborations, demonstrating that art thrives across borders.
Best known for its blend of Ottoman-era collections, the museum presented two exhibitions that explicitly connect local traditions with international art networks.
One, called “A Verse, Written with Earth, Fire, Water and Air”, is Swedish artist Asa Jungnelius’s first solo exhibition in Türkiye.
The other, “Feelings in Common”, utilises the work of 29 artists from the British Council collection.
Earth, fire, water, and air
M Ozalp Birol, General Manager of Suna and Inan Kırac Foundation’s Culture and Art Enterprises, introduces Asa Jungnelius’s exhibition by saying she is one of the practitioners of glassblowing and glass art on a global scale.
Suna and Inan Kirac Foundation contributes to society in the fields of education, culture, arts, and health.
Jungnelius visited the Eastern Anatolia region of Türkiye before producing new work for the Pera Museum exhibition.
Accompanied by curator Elif Kamisli, she collected “nature’s glass” obsidian stones, deliberated on what she would produce, while photographer Peo Olsson documented this creative process.
The exhibition boasts some large-scale work produced in March 2025 in Sisecam’s Denizli factory, in the Aegean region.
Sisecam is Türkiye’s legendary glassmaker, founded in 1935, and its website states that the company operates “across four continents and 14 countries”. In Turkiye alone, it has four glass production factories staffed with talented glassblowers and the latest equipment.
When asked by TRT World if she produced the smaller pieces, relying on artisans for large-scale works that need the capacity of big companies, Jungnelius says “Yes”, adding “each exhibition and situation is different”.
She says for this exhibition, the emphasis was to produce work in Türkiye and collaborate with Turkish artisans: “That’s how the artwork with Sisecam was developed”.
Jungnelius says the location of her studio in Smaland, Sweden, allows her to collaborate with another glassmaking company when she needs to produce large-scale works.
“I’m always present,” she tells TRT World about her collaborative pieces.
“It’s like a shared improvisation where we meet and trust each other. I have a complete need for being by myself, and most of the stonework is made that way.
“I have a furnace where I blow glass at home. When I make a public commission, it may be very big in scale; then I work in teams. A lot of different skills are needed.
“I think other people’s brilliance and knowledge are part of working with materiality”.
“Asa Jungnelius” work can be viewed between September 16, 2025, and January 18, 2026.
Feelings in common
While Asa Jungnelius's exhibition occupies the 3rd floor of Pera Museum, the exhibition, hand-picked from the British Council collection, “Feelings in Common”, takes over the 4th and 5th floors.
The British Council has been collecting artworks since the 1930s, with a focus on the 20th and 21st centuries. The resulting collection, referred to as “the museum without walls”, features works made in the 20th and 21st centuries, about 9,000 in all.
The British Council would rather select from the collection to travel the world and be exhibited in different contexts, instead of being a part of a stationary exhibition, the curator's statement says.
The selection at the Pera Museum, curated by Ulya Soley, is mounted on semi-transparent materials that allow a glimpse into the individual journey of each artwork, featuring both established and emerging artists.
It is the most comprehensive selection of the British Council Collection exhibited in Türkiye to date.
““Feelings in Common” suggests that art institutions are not merely structures that preserve the past, but spaces that establish, engage with, transmit, and transform today’s emotional and political networks,” Soley says.
“Museums are imagined as spaces of encounters where feelings triggered by artworks may spread contagiously among those sharing the space and bring them together on common ground.”
The artists featured in the exhibition are: Larry Achiampong, Laura Aldridge, Ed Atkins, Sonia Boyce, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Eileen Cooper, Tony Cragg, Tracey Emin, Jane England, Cerith Wyn Evans, Graham Fagen, Lucian Freud, Anya Gallacio, Gilbert and George, Richard Hamilton, Lubaina Himid, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Michael Landy, Delaine Le Bas, Sarah Lucas, Kate Malone, Chris Ofili, Marc Quinn, Raqib Shaw, Wolfgang Tillmans, Suzanne Treister, Bedwyr Williams, Madame Yevonde.
“Feelings in Common” can be viewed between September 16, 2025, and January 18, 2026.
