The Illusion of Scale and Gazing: Olivo Barbieri and “Time Space Geometry” at Borusan Contemporary

Olivo Barbieri’s lens hovers along the fragile line between observing a landscape and reconstructing it in the mind. Renowned for optical interventions on focus and depth of field developed over a photographic practice spanning nearly four decades—particularly since the 2000s—the Italian photographer disrupts the familiar scales of the city and nature. Borusan Contemporary brings a comprehensive selection of the artist’s work comprising five distinct series to the historic setting of the Haunted Mansion (Perili Köşk) from September 19, 2026, to August 15, 2027, with the exhibition “Time Space Geometry,” curated by Fırat Arapoğlu.

Serving as the exhibition’s departure point, the Time Space Geometry (2023) series reimagines ancient Anatolian sites such as Ephesus, Aphrodisias, Hierapolis, and Laodicea through aerial frames. Uniting layers of time with today’s visual language, Barbieri combines the meticulousness of an archaeologist with the eye of a scenographer. The subsequent selection, site specific_ (1999–2013), shifts the lens to global metropolises. Massive cities like Istanbul, London, and Los Angeles transform into fragile architectural scale models when viewed from above, elevating Walter Benjamin’s flâneur into the sky to open urban artificiality and possibilities of representation to debate.

Even when turning toward nature, Barbieri’s approach treats the traditional notion of the “sublime” as a staged spectacle rather than accepting it at face value. In The Waterfall Project (2006–2007), colossal waterfalls stretching from Cambodia to Brazil enter the frame as objects of consumer culture alongside viewing platforms and illumination around them. While the Alps – Geographies and People (2012) series explores human vulnerability through climber figures reminiscent of Caspar David Friedrich paintings, the Capri (2013) series—carrying the literary memory of the Mediterranean—renders a dreamlike closing by transforming beauty into a Roland Barthes mythology through vivid colors and selective sharpness.

Barbieri’s works open a profound space of reflection for the viewer, considering how a landscape is perceived and constructed rather than its inherent reality. Exhibited in the Haunted Mansion overlooking the Bosphorus, this selection converts the very act of seeing into a captivating object of representation.