Shared Sacred Sites (Paylaşılan Kutsal Mekânlar) Exhibition in Depo, Istanbul - 2019

Shared Sacred Sites (Paylaşılan Kutsal Mekânlar) Exhibition
Depo, Istanbul - 2019
Curators: Dionigi Albera & Manoël Pénicaud (CNRS)
Production: Anadolu Kultur, Institut Français
"As they have done for centuries, Jews, Christians and Muslims pray today in sanctuaries belonging to another religion. Shared sacred sites are a well-established phenomenon in the Mediterranean, revealing the permeability of the frontiers between religious communities.
Despite theological differences, the three religions share a number of elements in terms of beliefs, rites, holy figures and sites. These crossovers, however, are not devoid of ambiguity and can sometimes also lead to conflict. The Mediterranean world thus offers many examples of sharing, but also of partition and division.
“Shared Sacred Sites” explores this phenomenon by locating it through various examples in different contexts and by highlighting the entangled places and practices, symbols and figures that define it. Istanbul is ideally positioned to tell the story of “Shared Sacred Sites”, not only because the three monotheistic religions have historically flourished here but also cohabited for centuries through the Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
Designed as a sort of “pilgrimage” in the Mediterranean landscape, the exhibition reveals both historical and contemporary aspects of “sharing the sacred”. It provides the visitors with an experience that blends anthropological research and contemporary art, inviting them to partake in a visual journey through the diverse geographies of sacred sites in the Mediterranean…
Based on years of anthropological and historical research, the multifaceted “Shared Sacred Sites” project is characterized by a rewriting in each iteration of the exhibition - a “pilgrimage”, in and of itself. Indeed, the overall topic remains the same, but form, content, and context change from one location to another. Versions of this exhibition were first held at the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (Mucem) in Marseille (2015), then at the Bardo Museum in Tunis (2016), Paris (2017), Thessaloniki (2017), Marrakesh (2018) and New York (2018), and CerModern in Ankara (2021)."
A video by Medyascope
Depo İstanbul'un sergisi "Paylaşılan Kutsal Mekânlar" sergisi üzerine video haber