Starting February 2026, Pera Museum Istanbul presents a new installation featuring photographic works by Casper Faassen alongside Yeni Camii and The Port of Istanbul, 1776 by Jean-Baptiste Hilaire – from the museum’s permanent collection – as part of the artist’s ReCollection series. In this dialogue, Faassen’s work responds to details in Hilaire’s painting depicting marble objects being loaded onto a boat in the Bosphorus, en route to France. The installation will be on view until early 2027.
Faassen succeeded in tracing the marble objects shown in the painting, now largely held in the collection of the Louvre, and has photographically reassembled them in his distinctive visual language. Veiled behind semi-transparent layers and overlaid with craquelé, the sculptures appear as fragile images marked by time, memory, and displacement. Presented as quiet witnesses rather than historical trophies, the works invite reflection on the legacy of cultural extraction and the narratives that continue to shape museum collections today.
Learn more about the exhibition and the Pera Museum here.
