Murmurs and myth: Inside Istanbul’s reimagined hammams

Welcome to Al-Monitor Istanbul.

This week, we follow the steam. From Anousha Payne’s spectral works at Zeyrek Cinili Hamam to the goose dumpling plates of Lokanta 1741, the Turkish bathhouse returns not just as a ritual but as a stage. Hammams, once spaces of cleansing and gossip, now carry stories in brass, sound and algorithmic echoes.

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Thanks for reading,

Nazlan

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1. Leading the week: “Murmurations” at Zeyrek Cinili Hamam

Left: “an echo of a body,” 2025. Center: “in awe of the fallen sun,” 2025, Right: “rising to the surface (through the sounds of your voice) I,” 2025. (Courtesy of Anousha Payne and Zeyrek Cinili Hamam)

As seasoned Al-Monitor readers well know, the inception of Zeyrek Cinili Hamam was unmistakably masculine: It was built in the 16th century by Ottoman naval hero Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha as a tribute to his amateur potter father and his brothers. Designed by Mimar Sinan in the early days of his storied career, the hammam served dock workers and sailors, the so-called levends of Barbarossa’s fleet. Its hot rooms gleamed with Iznik tiles; its back rooms, graffitied by war captives forced into labor, told a rougher tale.

Today, it feels like a feminine reverie. Credit goes to Koza Gureli Yazgan, the driving force behind the restoration; to Anlam de Coster, its artistic director and curator; and now to Anousha Payne, the London-based artist whose exhibition, “Murmurations,” fills the hammam’s Byzantine cistern with floating textiles, gold-toned limbs, disembodied faces, whispers and quiet repetitions.

In Payne’s Istanbul debut, the hammam’s architecture, likened by de Coster to a vessel, becomes an accomplice. “It is a building so rich with history, with marks of previous dwellers, both humans and the body of water that occupied the cistern — there is much to absorb,” Payne said at the opening, dressed like a wayward pixie in an off-white, off-shoulder top and a scarlet tutu.

Her materials — hammered brass, ceramic, waxed thread, found objects and cloth — conjure figures imagined as mythic beings shaped by water and time. In "leaning (flowers like a veil)," a brass and ceramic form appears to droop under unseen weight. The sound installation "Murmurations," created with composer Suren Seneviratne and featuring recordings from Payne’s mother and sisters, guides visitors through the cistern with spectral voices of past, present and imagined future.

“Murmurations” opens the first chapter of a new artist residency program at Zeyrek Cinili Hamam. And who are the next artists in residence? The future, it seems, is also female.

Murmurations (study) 4. (Courtesy of Anousha Payne and Zeyrek Cinili Hamam)

Dates: Through Aug. 15

Location: Itfaiye Cd. No:44, 34083 Fatih

2. Word on the street: Lokanta 1741

Michelin-recommended Lokanta 1741. (Restaurant website)

Right next to the historic Cagaloglu Hamami, Lokanta 1741 is a sleek spot for lunch or raki with mezze by day and fine dining with a polished tasting menu by night. Try out the punchy reinterpretations of classics: gurnard stew with verjuice or goose dumplings. Don’t skip the baby zucchini with sour cherry and the smoky and sharp aubergine caviar. The wine cellar is definitely worth exploring, and the terrace offers just the right dose of rooftop romance.

Location: Profesor Kazim Ismail Gurkan Cad. No: 34 Cagaloglu Hamami.

3. Istanbul diary

Ece Haskan’s “Hit Me” (courtesy of the gallery) 

• Offgrid Art Project's "Invitation to Play" brings Ece Haskan and Nathalie Rey together in a show with childhood flashbacks, soft toys, fractured dolls and eerie pinatas. Why do I keep thinking of Margaret Atwood’s “Cat’s Eye,” on the cruelty of little girls? Until June 28.
• More play: Istanbul Modern's "Play It Loud" program, between May 22 and June 1, blends music and film, with a sharp ear for subculture. More info and tickets here.
• Free concert alert: Europe's rising music voices gather at Kalamis Ataturk Park for the fourth edition of "Sound of Europe" on July 5-6. Program here, concerts free.