Dialogue Between Yıldız Moran and Şahin Kaygun at Splendid Palace: “Fair Island of a Summer’s Sky
Istanbul’s summer rituals are completed by watching the foam left behind by the ferry and seeking refuge in the unique timelessness of the Princes’ Islands; however, this summer, Büyükada is not just a cool escape point, but a striking reckoning ground for two North Stars who changed the course of Turkish photographic history. Brought to life in partnership with Galerist and Galeri Nev and taking its name from a lyrical line by Lord Byron, the exhibition “Fair Island of a Summer’s Sky” echoes across the century-old walls of the island’s iconic Splendid Palace between June 18 and September 18, 2026. The exhibition confronts two different generations approaching the photographic medium with diametrically opposed philosophies within the melancholic and glittering atmosphere of Büyükada, drawing the viewer into a virtual aesthetic vortex.
Pure Moments Caught in Time: Yıldız Moran’s Discovered Archive
The purest, most pristine, and emotional turning point of this striking encounter is constructed by Yıldız Moran, Turkey’s first academically trained female photographer. The truly major surprise that makes the exhibition unique and historically priceless is the unearthing of photographs taken by Moran herself in Büyükada in the early 1950s, which had remained hidden in archives and never been exhibited until now, seeing the light of day for the first time in the enchanting atmosphere of Splendid Palace.
While capturing the island’s people, the naive simplicity of daily life, and the spirit of the place with a documentarian’s precision, Moran presses the shutter with the fingers of a poet; in her black-and-white frames, time virtually stops flowing, and each portrait turns into a lyrical eulogy written to the island’s past.
Bending Reality: Şahin Kaygun’s Avant-Garde Experiments
While Yıldız Moran remains loyal to the purity of the frame and the moment, Şahin Kaygun (1948–1992) is an avant-garde genius pursuing the sabotage of that moment, the bending of the image, and the recreation of reality in a chemical laboratory. For Kaygun, photography was never a naked recording tool; he scratched negatives, intervened on them with paint, and redesigned the image like a plastic art object through darkroom experiments.
Striking the viewer in the exhibition, iconic works from “The Fairy Horse of the Blue” (1991) and his famous “A Widower” series serve as visual manifestos proving that photography does not merely bear witness to reality, but can grind that reality to dust to give birth to a brand-new illusion.
A Holistic Summer Art Experience
On one side stands Moran’s naive, human, and pictorial approach, and on the other, Kaygun’s radical experiments blowing up boundaries; when combined with the century-old memory of Splendid Palace, what emerges is not just a generic exhibition, but a holistic summer experience extending from the ferry ride to the serenity of the island streets. This aesthetic arena, where both artists debate how far they could stretch the boundaries of photography in their respective eras, comes alive once again under the island’s summer sun.
For those wishing to escape Istanbul’s chaotic rhythm and add a refined vision to both their visual memory and soul, this route—running until September 18, 2026—is undisputedly this summer’s most exciting and unmissable art event.
