Located near Galataport Istanbul and housed within the restored Veli Alemdar Han building, the hotel blends historic character with modern hospitality. This setting provides a distinctive backdrop for Sürsal’s multidisciplinary works, which span sculpture, relief, objects, and lighting design. Installed across various areas of the property, the exhibition creates an immersive artistic journey for both hotel guests and city visitors.
Sürsal’s artistic practice draws from geographies shaped by overlapping civilizations, cultures, and belief systems. Under the conceptual framework of “Timelessness” and “Urban Layers,” the exhibition presents a body of work that reinterprets the city not as a static accumulation of the past, but as a living, evolving memory space. Using materials such as stone, metal, paper, resin, copper, and wood alongside industrial elements, the artist constructs a poetic interplay between the natural and artificial, past and present, dream and reality.
Among the featured works, Distraction explores the tension between memory and time through opposing figures, while Miras reimagines cultural heritage in a contemporary column form. Totemic structures such as Lips and Eye evoke themes of cosmic axis, silent knowledge, and absolute witnessing. Mythological references also play a central role, with sculptures inspired by figures like Hermes, Mars, Zeus, and Artemis, reinterpreted through a contemporary sculptural language.
Architectural and symbolic works such as Key, Phoenixes, Atlantis, White Dreams, Cycle, Red Tower, Blue Tower, and Sator Square form the backbone of the exhibition’s narrative. These pieces intertwine motifs like towers, gateways, labyrinths, and columns with themes of rebirth, lost civilizations, subconscious exploration, and transformation. Meanwhile, Selene and Helios poetically reflect the cosmic duality of the moon and the sun, and Family Constellation highlights intergenerational bonds and collective memory.
One of the standout works, Towards You, merges wood, copper, and resin into a sculptural lighting object, symbolizing a spiritual journey from darkness to light. Selected pieces from Sürsal’s “Timeless” collection—De Dis In Terre, Deuz, Nazar, and King—further deepen the exhibition’s human-centered narrative.
This exhibition not only showcases Sürsal’s layered artistic vision but also reflects the hotel’s broader approach to integrating culture, design, gastronomy, and lifestyle into a unified experience. By embedding art into everyday spaces, JW Marriott Istanbul Bosphorus positions itself as a cultural destination within Karaköy.
Open throughout April, the exhibition offers an inspiring stop for those looking to rediscover Istanbul’s multi-layered identity through the lens of contemporary art.
