Muze Gazhane —Altkat Architectural Photography is based in Paris and Istanbul

The next structure in the "Spirit of the Place" (Yerin Ruhu) series is Müze Gazhane. Before the shoot for the series, my thoughts focused on the past, and through that, memory. In parallel with these thoughts—sparked by the structure's historical background and its return to our lives with a transformed function—I also journeyed into my own past. The reason for this was that I lived in Kadıköy for about 20 years and have memories both directly in this area and its surroundings. I applied some of the ideas I had in mind for a memory-centric photography project I had been planning to realize in Kadıköy to this project.

During the photo shoot, I observed the incredible variety of living beings for which Müze Gazhane provides an environment. Children, teenagers, adults, parents, locals, event attendees, cafe regulars, picnickers, people celebrating, those simply hanging out and spending time, birds that have built their nests within the grounds, cats and dogs whose homes are scattered all around the venue, and plants bursting into life with the arrival of spring... I realized that the Hasanpaşa Gasworks—which contributed to the existence of many households with its past function—still offers a living environment for beings today with its new name and function. Because it has been in the same place with the same structures for over a century, continuing to touch lives and this time hosting them within its own space, the word that came to my mind was "host" (ev sahibi).

While contemplating this concept of hosting, I began to document the flow of daily life during the shoot, capturing the environment it provides for all the living beings I mentioned above. While doing this, I imagined I was looking through the window of a house, and added photographs taken from behind windows to the set. I recorded the moments being hosted by this space: from the ongoing Youth Biennale concerts and exhibited artworks to the permanent installations in the Climate Museum, from the industrial equipment remaining from the structure's past function to parents helping their children rollerblade, all the way to a mother cat standing side by side with her kitten. Furthermore, by photographing the neighboring buildings in the vicinity alongside the structures within the Gazhane, I visualized this idea of host and guest.

All these moments I mentioned, along with the vibrancy of the spring season during the shoot, created a stark contrast to the environmental damage of the structure's past function and the gloom of its long period of abandonment. To realize my thoughts on memory mentioned earlier, I photographed the structures in some frames as if they were the faded images of a recollected memory. In addition to all this, I completed the set by creating a collage from the facade photographs of some surrounding buildings, representing the spaces where the people—who used the coal gas it provided in the past, and who visit the social environment it creates today—live and work.

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