ANGRY NEIGHBORS THREATEN ISTANBUL GALLERY FORCING IT TO CLOSE EARLY

According to Carey Dunne of Hyperallergic, a gallery in the conservative neighborhood of Tophane, Istanbul, was forced to close an exhibition opening early after neighbors, who were angered over the consumption of alcohol (which is forbidden by the Islamic faith), started verbally assaulting people and threatening violence.

Gallery owner Melih Apaydın said, “There wasn’t any loud music. We were just talking to each other.” She added, “The attackers came from the surrounding buildings. They swore at us and threatened us. Because we knew about previous similar attacks, we didn’t want to get involved.”

The gallery called the police, but they did not come to break up the altercation. Instead, they told the staff to end the event earlier and close its doors. Among the twenty-one female artists featured in the exhibition titled “Kuytu” (Secluded), Vardal Caniş said, “A big family, including grandparents, parents, and the children who were disturbed by the crowd including both male and female guests and by the alcohol consumption came to the place and started yelling at the people. They wanted to inflict physical violence on the father of an attending artist.”

In recent years, similar incidents with gallerygoers being targeted for drinking alcohol have occurred at other venues in the city. In the fall of 2010, a group of men carrying broken bottles, pepper spray, batons, and knives raided several galleries that were having openings on the same night, which resulted in five people being hospitalized. In 2014, men armed with sticks raided an exhibition of graffiti art titled “Erör” (Error) hosted by Mixer Art Gallery, which has since relocated from Tophane to a more liberal area. In 2015, another attack transpired at the Daire Gallery.