The Baksi Museum is located in the heart of Anatolian steppe: a mostly uninhabited area that extends in the eastern part of the country, away from the big cities and on the borders with Georgia, Armenia, Iraq and Syria, while in the north it plunges into the Black Sea.
Vuslat Dogan Sabanci, Turkish artist and philanthropist, arrives in Istanbul from these arid and infinite territories and, for her, creating a personal exhibition here is a challenge won. “Come and visit this museum to see works by contemporary art it means choose to experience an artistic pilgrimage», he explains. And in fact, to reach the site, about forty kilometers from the last urban settlement, that is Bayburt, you really have to prepare for a trip. “A journey – underlines Vuslat Dogan Sabanci – that begins when you cut ties with everyday life, chaos and commitments”.
Arrive in Anatolia
To get to the Baksi Museum, among other things awarded by the European Council in 2014 as best museum in Europeyou land at Trabzon. From here begins a 220 km journey through history and space along the road that retraces the Marco Polo’s Silk Road.
From the coast on Black Sea you climb up hills that rise giving then mountainous expanses rich in hazelnut trees and where jewels such as the Sumela Monastery. The mountain pastures made of silence and slowness are the ideal habitat for the grazing of the dairy cows that have made the region famous for its butter and cheeses.
2. The steppe
Anatolia it is barren, in summer it is scorched by the sun. The road downhill cuts through hills with very few houses and palaces clinging to the rocks. The final goal, the Baksi Museumis one of those because the ultra-modern structure was built on top of a hill, in the middle of nowhere.
The most important town you pass through before Bayburt is Gumushanewhat does it mean silver house. The mines, closed in the 18th century, gave the area a place of honor on the Silk Road, a crossroads of peoples and cultures, today of jackals, wolves, large foxes, wild boars and bears.
Here, the brown ones find their favorite treat: the Chestnut honey and Millefiori widespread together with Turkish tea, loved as much if not even more than coffee and together with Komethe dessert made with mulberry jam and walnuts.
3. Emanet
Left Gumushane, silence and infinite space become endless expanses. Vuslat Dogan Sabanci is absolutely right when he speaks of a pilgrimage through the history of many cultures that have intertwined leaving something of themselves. And leaving it to us Emanet.
«The Soul of Emanet» is the title of the Turkish artist’s one-man show, set up until 20 October, who manages to bring together all the emotions experienced along the way. Although pronounced differently, the meaning of this term is shared by all: Arabs, Persians, Greeks and Jews who perfectly know its meaning and the ancient notion of «taking care»: Emanet, indeed.
The Vuslat exhibition, curated by Chus Martinez, is inspired by this place and this concept with the aim of reopen the dialogue between history and the future, contemporaneity and deep roots. His works are the fruit of the relationship between what has been left to us and the care we have been able to show towards what, in fact, we do not possess but which has only been entrusted to us.
«This – the artist tells us – is the place of emotions, here it is possible understand and receive the secret of life. Emanet urges us to live and share together what we have received: our life, nature, our history and our future. Emanet is a notion shared by the whole world, perhaps forgotten, just like the area in which this museum stands».
«It would have been foreseeable to put an exhibition of ancient art in this museum – reflects Vuslat – but bring contemporary works made using color pigments obtained from these rocks is extraordinary». Vuslat is also one philanthropist through its foundation (Vuslat Foundation).
Care is the leitmotif of his life, art is the spark and the place where emotions can be released and questions can be created. The philanthropic foundation, he explains as he greets us, is the space in which to formulate answers. Finally, listening is the keystone and the tool to close the circle of life in eternity.
Source: Vanity Fair
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