Pera Museum will host two new exhibitions, Shared Emotions: Works from the British Council Collection and Åsa Jungnelius: A Poem Written with Earth, Fire, Water, and Air, from September 16 to January 18. The Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation’s Pera Museum welcomes autumn with these exhibitions. Shared Emotions examines the relationship between collections and social and political dynamics through works by 29 artists from the British Council Collection. Meanwhile, Swedish artist Åsa Jungnelius’s first solo exhibition in Turkey, A Poem Written with Earth, Fire, Water, and Air, explores the connection between humans and materials through glass and stone.
Shared Emotions: Works from the British Council Collection
Curated by Ulya Soley, Shared Emotions: Works from the British Council Collection presents 29 selected artists from the British Council Collection through a contemporary and interpretive lens. Established since the 1930s, the collection comprises nearly 9,000 works focusing on 20th and 21st-century British art. Most pieces, not displayed in permanent exhibitions, are often loaned to international shows, earning the collection the nickname “museum without walls.” The exhibition is organized under the themes Preserving Care, Familiar Faces, and Imagined Future, exploring how collections can engage meaningfully with today’s social and political dynamics beyond merely preserving the past.
Artists featured include 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, and Madame Yevonde.
Åsa Jungnelius: A Poem Written with Earth, Fire, Water, and Air
Curated by Elif Kamışlı, Åsa Jungnelius’s exhibition draws inspiration from the interplay between the fragility of glass and the solidity of stone. Her recent glass and marble sculptures, alongside four new large-scale works produced in collaboration with the artisans of Şişecam’s Denizli Glass Factory, invite viewers to reflect on the relationship between material and human presence. The exhibition space is designed as a landscape evoking both stillness and intensity.
Historical glass objects, archaeological finds, and hand-woven threads rooted in nomadic traditions are displayed alongside photographs by Swedish photographer Peo Olsson, documenting Jungnelius’s research at obsidian sites in Bitlis, Van, and Kars. Through blown glass works and marble sculptures, the artist establishes a direct dialogue with history, function, craftsmanship, and the unknown, offering visitors an experience grounded in existence rather than words.
