’The Room Project’ on view at Istanbul Modern

"Do you want to get to know the world? Then start with your neighbor," said Danish artist Annette Merrild, who has invited everyone to take part in her own discovery through art. Her intriguing photos, which were shot in nine large cities of nine different countries, are on display in "The Room Project" exhibition, currently running at the Istanbul Modern.

The exposition, presented in the museum’s photography gallery, aims to highlight both the differences and similarities between nations, regions and people, captured in the space of their living rooms.

Curated by Engin Özendes, "The Room Project" consists of 118 photographs, among which Istanbul takes a special place. The exhibition will remain on display until Aug. 30.

Confronting stereotypes

Annette Merrild composes unique portraits by taking images from the interiors of houses, what she described as a "sort of anthropological journey from one end of Europe to the other." Furniture and other household objects take their places in the portrait series, which follows the still life captions of old painting masters.

"The Room Project" shows its visitors special rooms belonging to people from different cultures and enables them to gain insight on other cultures that normally wouldn’t be open to them. The presentation gives also sets a stage to confront stereotypes about different cultures through finding similarities in details of their daily lives.

Within the context of the project, which took four years to create, Annette Merrild photographed the sitting rooms of her neighbors first in Hamburg in 2001, and later in New York and Copenhagen. Inspired by the impact of her photography on people, within two years she had also visited Warsaw, Barcelona, Tallinn, Lyon, Manchester and Istanbul to create the first ever "archive of European living rooms."

For her project, Merrild searched for "typical representatives" of the countries she visited, usually middle class members who occupied homes with similar layouts. Windows, being the center elements of all photos, are also the joint elements within one country.

"Am I so different as a Dane?" Merrild asked herself during her stay in Hamburg. And anyone visiting the exhibition at Istanbul Modern can ask themselves: "Am I so different than a Turk, Brit, Spaniard, Frenchman or a Pole É?"



For details visit www.theroomproject.com. Istanbul Modern is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
It is open Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the museum is closed Mondays. Meclis-i Mebusan Cad. Liman İşletmeleri Sahası Antrepo No: 4 Karaköy, Istanbul

www.istanbulmodern.org.