The exhibition “Memory of the Collective: IMM Collections,” which brings together IMM’s century-long artistic heritage extending from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic, opened its doors at Artİstanbul Feshane with 627 works belonging to 187 artists. The exhibition can be visited free of charge until December 13, 2026.
Organized as the ninth exhibition of Artİstanbul Feshane, Memory of the Collective: IMM Collections brings the extensive art archive of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) to the audience for the first time at such a scale. At the exhibition opening, held with the participation of IMM Deputy Mayor Nuri Aslan, IMM Deputy Secretary General Oktay Özel, IMM Director of Culture, Arts and Social Affairs T. Volkan Aslan, Lale–Cengiz Akıncı, Berna Türemen, Beral Madra, and Süleyman Saim Tekcan, certificates were also presented to donors who contributed to the collection.
187 Artists and 627 Works
Presented to the audience at Artİstanbul Feshane, Istanbul’s largest public cultural and art venue on the shores of the Golden Horn, the exhibition consists of the “Resmemaneti” works rooted in the initiative of the Reform Museum (İnkılap Müzesi) founded in 1925 at the Atatürk House in Şişli. In addition to 316 works from IMM’s Atatürk Library, Aşiyan Museum, and City Museum collections, 311 works added to the collection through donations also take their place in the selection. Thus, 627 works from different periods and techniques present a broad panorama that sheds light on Istanbul’s cultural memory.
The exhibition makes visible the IMM Art Collections—which bear the traces of the cultural institutionalization process extending from the Tanzimat period to the present—through both their historical and contemporary dimensions. The works of artists ranging from Giovanni Bellini to Tevfik Fikret, from Abdülmecid Efendi to Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, convey Istanbul’s story of modernization within a comprehensive framework. The collection’s contemporary productions reflect the city’s changing ecology, its social inequalities, the transformation of its memory spaces, and the relationship contemporary art establishes with the city.
The works in the collection, which stands out with its richness in portraiture, constitute an important visual archive regarding the representational politics of the transition period from empire to republic.
Akıncı Collection: Memory of the Collective
One of the important sections of the exhibition is the selection acquired by IMM under the consultancy of collector Cengiz Akıncı, presented in the exhibition under the title Akıncı Collection: Memory of the Collective. This section draws attention as a space where the understanding of individual collecting intersects with public artistic heritage.
The exhibition Memory of the Collective: IMM Collections can be visited free of charge at Artİstanbul Feshane between December 13, 2025 and December 13, 2026, every day except Monday, between 10:00 and 20:00.
