Stepping through the doors of the historic Minerva Han on Karaköy’s Bankalar Caddesi and descending the stairs to the basement, one encounters something far beyond a conventional gallery visit. Before you stands the massive, locked door of a former bank vault—a site where finance, capital, and power have crystallized into stone and iron from the Ottoman era to the present day. Transformed into a contemporary art space under Sabancı University, Kasa Galeri hosts the exhibition “Symbolic Vault: Entanglements of Human, Nature, Machine” from September 19 to October 24, 2026, leaning directly into the site’s historical and physical gravity.
From Matter to the Unseen: What Does a Vault Safeguard?
Conventionally, a vault secures gold, currency, title deeds, or precious documents, shielding them from the outside world. Realized under the curatorship of Tima Jam in collaboration with the Art Voyage Biennial, the exhibition converts this protective function into a conceptual inquiry: What is truly worth preserving today? In which vault can digital memory, ecological intelligence, machine logic, and the experiences of non-human entities be safeguarded?
“Symbolic Vault” stretches the physical boundaries of the vault through mythology, ritual, and the politics of knowledge. By interrogating whose knowledge has historically been deemed worthy of protection—and whose lived experience has been excluded from these fortified systems—the exhibition reopens the doors of this symbolic vault.
Three Distinct Geographies, One Shared Entanglement
The exhibition brings together three distinct perspectives from three different geographies: Ecem Dilan Köse, Rebecca Najdowski, and Paulo Arraiano. Moving beyond a singular discourse on technology, the artists challenge the artificial boundaries separating humans, nature, and tech. Informed by the quantum physics concept of “entanglement,” the works illuminate the unbreakable bonds connecting entities through moving image, sound, sculpture, and site-specific installations.
Enclosed by low ceilings, thick stone walls, and metallic doors, Kasa Galeri’s claustrophobic atmosphere lends a corporeal dimension to this inquiry. The moment visitors step inside the vault, they are confronted with the uncanny clarity born of total isolation from the outside world.
Parallel Event and Visitor Notes
That digital memory and ecological realities are debated today within a space built at the turn of the 20th century to stockpile wealth forms one of the exhibition’s most compelling layers. As part of the programming, a special exhibition tour and panel discussion led by the artists and curator will take place on Saturday, September 26 at 17:00.
