Digital Memory Museum and Depo Gallery Exhibition Confront Turkey's 1980 Coup Legacy

Istanbul's Depo gallery is hosting The Past is Present exhibition alongside a digital Memory Museum for Historical Justice, both showcasing artifacts and testimonies from Turkey's military coup on September 12, 1980. During this coup, the military suspended the constitution, resulting in the detention of 650,000 individuals, the execution of 50 by hanging, and the exile of 30,000. The digital Memory Museum features 40,000 items and 120 oral history interviews. Curated by Aylin Tekiner, Eylem Delikanlı, and Sevim Sancaktar, the exhibition runs until November 8 and includes an interactive torture map detailing over 5,000 cases, 45 methods, and 500 perpetrators. Works by Doğa Yirik and Gülsün Karamustafa highlight personal stories of suffering. The Depo gallery, repurposed by Osman Kavala in 2008, also hosts dissident radio station Açık Radyo and faces pressure under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's regime, with Kavala currently serving a life sentence. The exhibition creatively uses chalk lines to depict prison cells and interactive screens to delve into historical sites, aiming to present a 'history from below' and advocate for justice against state narratives.