The Galata Greek School opens the new year with a conceptually resonant exhibition: TÖZ / SUBSTANCE, a joint presentation by Ali Artun and Ahmet Yiğider, on view from until 9 February 2026.
The exhibition title draws from the Turkish word töz—the essence, the substance, the core nature of a thing. In this sense, TÖZ / SUBSTANCE proposes an encounter with architecture not as a discipline of utility, but as an autonomous poetic language of form—symbolic, enchanted, and mysteriously alive.
As the exhibition frames it: “Töz / Substance” is the nature of a thing—it’s essence. It is autonomous. The substance of architecture is not rooted in function; it is poetic, enchanted, and mysterious. Its symbols and meanings are limitless celestial numbers and forms. These symbols constitute a language, a grammar unique to architecture. For thousands of years, architecture has expressed itself through this language.
Ali Artun describes TÖZ as an architectural exhibition—yet one that does not resemble the buildings surrounding us. The structures imagined here resist rational order and the functional disciplines of daily life. They are not homes, offices, or rooms intended for use. Instead, they emerge as artworks that reclaim architecture’s oldest impulses: cosmic geometry, mystical ciphers, lyrical form, and symbolic numbers.
Artun notes: “TÖZ is an architecture exhibition… but this architecture differs from that of the buildings that surround us. The architecture of TÖZ does not cling to an objective, it has no rationality, no utilitarianism; the artworks are not houses or offices. TÖZ aims to explore the roots, the essence, the töz of architecture.”
Ahmet Yiğider’s sculptural practice, rooted in interdisciplinary research, expands this search into the realm of human perception and existence itself. His works treat abstraction as a fundamental human intuition—form not as representation, but as a sensory method through which being recognizes itself.
Yiğider reflects: “There are three phenomena that nurture and feed us in art and all experiences of existence: Human, Nature and Universe… I suspect that the very thing that has sustained human creativity through millennia up until now is this search itself.”
He continues: “In TÖZ, we tried to look toward those creative traces in humanity’s ancient memory, toward a dreamlike architecture. We were drawn into its mystery and enchantment… I hope those who encounter TÖZ will find signs of this ancient memory within it.”
Hosted within the historic Galata Greek School—an institution deeply woven into Istanbul’s cultural memory—TÖZ / SUBSTANCE brings together two distinct yet interlacing practices in a shared space of inquiry: where architecture becomes thought, and sculpture becomes a language of essence.
Ali Artun
Studied architecture at Middle East Technical University. In 1984, he founded Galeri Nev, taking on a pioneering role in the development of contemporary art in Turkey. He taught art history at Yıldız Technical University, Marmara University, and Istanbul Technical University. He has published numerous books and articles on 20th-century art and on art in Turkey. He received the Contribution to Architecture award from the Association of Independent Architects in 2016 and from the Chamber of Architects in 2024. He is the founding editor of the Sanat-Hayat series published by İletişim and of the online art journal Skop. In 2023, he opened the exhibition Imaginist Architecture, followed by The Reason of Architecture in 2024, and published books under the same titles. www.aliartun.com
Ahmet Yiğider
Completed his undergraduate studies in Industrial Engineering at Yıldız Technical University and his master’s degree in the Design Program of the Faculty of Architecture at Istanbul Technical University. In 2021, his sculpture exhibition Intellect was held at FINEART Gallery in Moscow. In 2024, his work Fig, Human, Soil was exhibited at the International Çanakkale Biennial. He became the youngest artist-educator invited to Baksı Museum’s Utopia Workshops. His exhibition Ant Nest took place at Ankara CerModern in 2025, accompanied by the publication of his book Sensuality in Sculpture. He conducts science- and art-oriented research on the senses, particularly the sense of smell. He leads the project Endemics of Turkey. Yiğider approaches abstraction as an ancient intuition inherent to the human being. Here, form is not a representation but a mode through which existence senses itself. Each work is a silent record of the ontological dialogue humans establish with nature and the universe. www.ahmetyigider.com
Galata Greek School (Galata Rum Okulu), Istanbul
Founded in 1910 through a donation by Eleni Zarifis, the Galata School was an important Greek educational institution during the Ottoman modernization period. Designed in a neoclassical-eclectic style by architects Kambanakis and Christidis, the building served generations of students in Galata, Istanbul’s historic commercial center. After closing in 1988 and later being used as a kindergarten, the building was returned to the Greek community in 2012. Restored in 2019 under the coordination of architect Murat Tabanlıoğlu, with the support of Patriarch Bartholomeos and the Martinos family, the Galata Greek School continues today as a cultural and educational center honoring its heritage. www.galatarumokulu.org
Be First to Comment