Hera Büyüktaşcıyan's Phantom Quartet at Arter Confronts Istanbul's Urban Renewal

At Arter in Istanbul's Dolapdere district, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan's exhibition 'Phantom Quartet' critiques the aggressive urban renewal projects that have reshaped the neighborhood. The show, running until 30 August, uses discarded materials and installations to explore themes of memory, migration, and loss. Büyüktaşcıyan references Türkiye's Law No. 5366, which authorized the seizure and gutting of nineteenth-century properties, and incorporates spolia—salvaged remnants of demolished buildings—to examine how memory persists despite physical erasure. Key works include 'Fire Birds' (2025), porcelain bird figurines on geotextile felt; 'The Unquiet Balcony' (2025) with cast-iron leaves; 'An Archipelago Fugue' (2019–) with brass feet; 'Like an Avalanche Started by a Gentle Push' (2023) with suspended carpets; and 'Dendrologia' (2023), which uses diseased tree bark to produce a haunting sound, referencing ecological displacement from post-Second World War dam construction. The exhibition also features 'The Coat of an Early River' (2025), a fabric piece. Büyüktaşcıyan's work turns urban patterns into rhythmic scores, holding the ground's memory. The review, published by Canvas, describes the exhibition as a 'beautiful staging of a vigil' and notes the artist's reflection that 'the phantoms of the rivers' show that the memory of water persists in erased names. The show is presented by Green Art Gallery Dubai and Galerist, with photography by Murat Germen.