Welcome to Al-Monitor Istanbul.

As we prepare for the end of the year, this issue explores memory, shattered buildings and disrupted lives — from an exhibition on stone’s recollections to the latest earthquake statistics. Then we visit a bustling cafe in Moda and revisit Istanbul’s most painful memories on screen. The city never sits still; neither do its stories.

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Nazlan (@NazlanEr on X)

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1. Leading the week: The Memory of Stone

Tansu Kirci’s marble works of imagines structures (Courtesy of the artist)

In one of the centuries-old stone houses of the Fener Evleri complex — recently revitalized by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality — sculptor Tansu Kirci lays out a field of delicate architectural forms. “The Memory of Stone” brings together 18 works carved from amorphous or discarded marble blocks he selects in quarries across the Aegean: imagined structures that recall ancient Greek and Roman temples, staircases or tombs.

Perched on white pedestals, these miniature constructions draw the viewer in through their uncanny resemblance to familiar architectural heritage. With their veins, fractures and worn surfaces, the marbles carry their own histories, making them far from neutral material for Kirci: They are witnesses, vessels of memory. “I mostly use amorphous and discarded marble. I don’t work on a clean, cut block,” he told Al-Monitor as we toured the exhibition. “I go to the quarries and choose every one of those discarded stones myself.”

Unexpected pairings animate the works — an Ionian capital placed under the Anatolian “elibelinde” motif, symbolizing fertility and continuity. “Ancient Greek or Anatolia … I don’t differentiate between them. They are intertwined in the memory of this geography. I bring Turkish-Anatolian motifs together with ancient Greek elements because it’s important to see cultures in continuity, without turning any of them into ‘the other,’” Kirci explained.

The seven-month production period, shaped by Kirci’s bond with the venue, includes two pieces designed specifically for the building’s stone niches. In “Antakya,” unpolished stones fill a portrait-like frame, their rough textures pointing both to the city’s layered history and the devastation it has endured time and again. “The Staircase,” made of three white sheets knotted and pressed under glass, evokes the improvised escape ladder used during the 2025

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