Pera Palace, Istanbul’s most elegant memory, stands at that enchanted threshold where East whispers to West, and imagination to reality. The “Please Do Not Disturb” exhibition, bringing together nine talented artists from x-ist, transforms this historic venue not merely into an exhibition space but into a ground for encounters where history and memory intertwine. Open for visitors until 24 January 2026, this selection—spanning visions from Ansen to Murat Palta, from Merve Atılgan to Tayfun Gülnar—evolves the colossal figures who have stayed in or left traces within Pera’s corridors from biographical portraits into contemporary images.
Each work in the exhibition does not recount the life story of a specific figure; instead, it pursues the intellectual ruptures and aesthetic codes those figures left in the world. Reconsidering Agatha Christie’s quiet tension woven behind closed doors, Alfred Hitchcock’s uncanny gaze infiltrating the subconscious, or Charlie Chaplin’s silent yet universal melancholy… This journey—from Atatürk and İsmet İnönü’s ideals of modernisation to Hemingway’s stark and plain sentences—invites the viewer not through the threshold of a hotel room but into a space of thought where history’s social and political legacy is reconstructed through contemporary art. The artists do not present the past as a fixed record; rather, they reconstruct it from today’s perspective, breathing fresh life into history’s dusty shelves.
In this gathering where Pera Palace itself assumes the role of a narrator, the “Please Do Not Disturb” sign on the door slightly parts the curtain on the private and creative world behind it. As the viewer wanders through this atmosphere where memory and imagination intersect, they discover that history’s great names do not belong solely to the past—they still live and transform within the present through the language of art.
A Note from Apartment No: 26
This exhibition is an indispensable stop for those wishing to escape the city’s chaotic rhythm and lose themselves in the serene yet equally unsettling silence of history and art.
