A friend of mine, Altan Adalı, once told me that the most difficult painting for an artist to do is a self- portrait. “As you paint,” he said, “you’ll know immediately when you’re lying.” Kaostantin is Şiir’s self portrait of Istanbul… You may say this is not the Istanbul I know. If there’s a lie about the city, don’t look for it in her paintings. For too long we have been deluded by our consumption of the city. Not just through our gaping at grandiose projects undertaken by megalomaniac politicians and developers who can’t see beyond their greed, but also through our artists, writers and poets who only see the city in their own image. Şiir brings together composite images of the city and its people from everyday life. Given its over 2000 year history, Istanbul having lived through empires, religions, earthquakes and destruction from within and without, is a uniquely ephemeral city. Şiir’s paintings are not only a document to the future but a merry go round look at ourselves and Istanbul. Look carefully- you may even recognize yourself. 

Gündüz Vassaf


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Le rocce formate da frammen di altre rocce di ogni po che si accumulano, si compa ano e si cementano, sono de e clastiche o detritiche. Le rocce con frammen piu‟ grandi di 2 cm sono i CONGLOMERATİ, che derivano dalla lenta cementazione della gente.... scusate, delle ghiaie. Tali ghiaie possono essere spigolose, o arrotondate, segno di intensa usura... 

Rocks formed from fragments of any kind of other rocks that have accumulated, compacted and cemented, are called clastics or detritics. Rocks with fragments bigger than 2 cm are CONGLOMERATES, which derive from the slow cementation of people... sorry, gravels. These gravels can be angular or rounded, a sign of strong abrasion... 

Marco Mascia

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Pilgrimage of Decay

Passata la prima meraviglia, i colori festosi sbiadiscono: non é piu’ una grande processione carnevalesca che ci passa dinanzi; é l’umanita’ intera che s la con tu e le sue miserie, con tu e le sue follie. Coll’in infinita dicordia delle sue credenze e delle sue leggi; é un pellegrinaggio di popoli decadu e di razze avvilite; una immensita’ di sventure da scorrere, di vergogne da lavare, di catene da rompere; un cumulo di tremendi problemi scritti a cara eri di sangue, e che non si scioglier- anno che con torrenti di sangue; e questo immenso disordine rattrista. 

After the first sensations of excitement and wonder have died down, the brilliant coloring begins to pale; it no longer wears the aspect of a gay Carnival processing, but humanity itself seems to be passing in review; humanity with all its miseries and follies, its infinite discord of clashing beliefs and irreconcilable customs, a pilgrimage of decayed races and humbled nations; a boundless de of human misery; wrongs to be set wright, stains to be washed out, chains to be broken, an accumulation of tremendous problems which blood alone, and that in torrents, is capable of solving - a sight at once overpowering and depressing. 

Edmondo De Amicis