Azade Köker’s 'Sessizliğin Manzarası' at İstanbul Modern plays with distance and detail

İstanbul Modern has highlighted a new work by Azade Köker, 'Sessizliğin Manzarası', a photo-collage composition that measures about 5.5 metres wide and shifts in appearance depending on how closely it is viewed. From a distance, the work reads as a landscape; on closer inspection, concealed details emerge within the image.

The museum’s post presents the piece as an invitation to look again, beginning with a question to viewers: if the image seems to be only a forest landscape, they are urged to move closer. That framing underscores the work’s central visual strategy, in which an apparently natural scene gives way to layered information as the viewer approaches.

Köker’s title, which translates as 'The Landscape of Silence', points to the work’s emphasis on perception rather than straightforward depiction. The available source material does not provide details about the work’s date, materials beyond photo collage, or the broader exhibition context, so those aspects remain unreported here. What is clear is that the piece is currently being shown at İstanbul Modern.

The scale of the work is part of its effect. At approximately 5.5 metres wide, 'Sessizliğin Manzarası' operates as a large field of imagery rather than a single framed picture, asking viewers to navigate between the immediate impression of a wooded landscape and the hidden elements embedded within it. The museum’s description suggests that the collage reveals more as the viewer moves in, making distance an essential part of the viewing experience.

İstanbul Modern, based in Istanbul, is one of Türkiye’s major contemporary art institutions. Its social media presentation of Köker’s work places emphasis on close looking and the transformation of an image through proximity, a mode of presentation that aligns with the museum’s role in introducing contemporary practices to a wide audience.

No opening date, closing date, or exhibition title was supplied in the source material. The confirmed information is limited to the artist, the work’s title, its approximate width, its photo-collage format, and the fact that it is on view at İstanbul Modern.