Autoban undertook the exhibition design for Turkish hyperrealist painter and artist Taner Ceylan’s newest solo exhibition in Istanbul.

Titled “Row Gently, Let Not The Moonlight Awaken”, Ceylan’s exhibition takes place in the historical Mehmet Emin Aga Mansion in Kanlica, Istanbul - combining the era’s spirit with the artist's contemporary interpretation. The show brings together paintings, sculpture and video work through which Taner Ceylan narrates the relationship he establishes with Istanbul’s past and present, drawing inspiration from the city’s hidden gems while re-exploring its historic structures, various neighborhoods, and stories.

Autoban’s exhibition design arose from the spirit and character of the artist's works as well as the iconic location, treating the venue as a space for gathering as well as a meeting point of past and future. A significant departure point for the design of the space was that no actual intervention could be made to the protected historical structure. Furthermore, the narrative built within the space aimed to provide the visitor with a sensory experience imbued with the fragility and softness of the artist's specific school of emotional realism. Autoban’s solution was to evoke a feeling of the absence of gravity and weightlessness throughout all areas. Floors were covered in soft and lightly colored carpeted walkways which rise gently to meet the artworks. Other surfaces flow and fold lightly like paper, seemingly floating effortlessly above the ground. Artworks hover in place on a backdrop of ghostly white curtains, concealing the necessary hanging apparatuses, and creating an ethereal, silent and serene atmosphere. A contemporary but subtle composition brings each of the artworks to the forefront, removing all historical and physical references entirely, allowing the work to speak for itself.