Istanbul’s 'age of angst': Protest, pressure & persistence

Welcome to Al-Monitor Istanbul.

This week, we dive into the age of angst, tracing artistic responses to corroded legitimacy, institutional fatigue and the slow erosion of public trust. From a toppled Marianne at Arter to a red-painted figure in the forest, we spotlight artists who frame protest and persistence alongside data that confirms Turks are feeling the pressure.

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Thanks for reading,

Nazlan (@NazlanEr on X)

P.S. Have tips on Istanbul’s culture scene? Send them my way at nertan@al-monitor.com.

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1. Leading the week: The age of angst

“Marianne” from Ugo Schiavi’s “Uprising” Series. (Photo by Kayhan Kaygusuz)

“Under Pressure, Above Water” at Arter offers a portrait of the present moment as a pressure chamber — an age where violence is ambient, authority unmoored, and justice increasingly out of reach. Curator Nilufer Sasmazer, who co-led the landmark 2017 retrospective of ceramicist Fureya, says that while assembling 33 works by 15 artists across media, she kept returning to one distinction: Fear may paralyze, but anguish proves deadlier in the end. 

The sculptures, installations and photography move between two currents: the sediment of past and present wrongs, and the improvised strategies — intimate, ironic, defiant — that let us breathe. 

Belgian painter Michael Borremans’ “Happy Missile” renders the instrument of destruction as a toy. Tunisian artist Nadia Kaabi-Linke’s “Smooth Criminal” turns a traditional Gulf fish trap into a delicate steel lattice woven with near-invisible Stars of David. The piece, titled after the Michael Jackson song, critiques the invisibility of political culpability. French artist Ugo Schiavi’s “Uprising” literalizes revolution, only to undo it: Marianne, the French Republic’s allegory of liberty, lies on the floor with the arm and leg of a faceless figure who toppled it (pictured above).

From Turkey’s southeast, Diyarbakir-born artist Fatos Irwen contributes “Cannonballs,” sculptures made of human hair — her own and that of fellow inmates in Diyarbakir Prison, where she was held between 2017 and 2020. The work confronts the patriarchal order, yet carries within it the silent power and possibility of renewal.

But the work that lingered the most with me is “Ley” by Moris, a Mexico-based artist who explores urban violence and institutional failure. Here, the Spanish word for "law" is carved into concrete — a surface where nothing grows — with tools designed to wound. Touching in a country where the legal system is weaponized to choke dissent.

“Ley” by Moris. (Photo by Kayhan Kaygusuz)

Address: Irmak Caddesi No: 13 Dolapdere Beyoglu 34435 (check website for shuttles from Pera Museum and Gezi Park)

Dates: Through Jan. 11, 2026

2. Word on the street: ROKA Galataport

Robata with a view, with the famed bone marrow teriyaki at left. (Photo courtesy of the ROKA website)

Right on the far side of the Galataport promenade, with sweeping Bosporus views, ROKA offers contemporary Japanese cuisine under the bright stewardship of executive chef Suna Hakyemez, who returned to Istanbul after honing her craft at ROKA London, the group’s original flagship. Founded in London in 2004, ROKA is known for its robatayaki-style open grill and now has sister restaurants in global city hubs, including Santorini and Majorca, just like Al-Monitor Istanbul, which also has sisters in Dubai and Riyadh.

Signature dishes include the richissime bone marrow teriyaki skewer. But my personal standout, a dish every serious potato lover must taste at least once, is the ROKA “baked” potato — golden, fluffy, and topped with silky yuzu cream and snipped chives.

3. Istanbul diary

Koray Aris’ “Masks made for friends.” (Photo courtesy of flufoto/Baris Aras & Elif Cakirlar)

It’s the final weekend to see Koray Aris’ amazing “The Skin We Live In” — a six-decade retrospective curated by Selen Ansen — at Arter. The show opens with a mirror in a dark wooden frame and moves through busts of the artist’s father and son, masks, guns, female figures and percussion-like forms that marry leather, wood and other natural materials. Until Aug. 3.

Ali Kazma’s “Landscapes of the Mind” at Istanbul Modern maps the rituals of writing and thinking, from Orhan Pamuk’s apartment archive to Alice in Wonderland (more in the next section).

Anna Laudel Istanbul’s "Where You Are Understood" continues through Aug. 31, featuring artists such as Ardan Ozmenoglu, Ozlem Yenigul, Ramazan Can and Hanefi Yeter, in an exploration of inner strength, perception and renewal.