Fantastical Side News Today

Voiceover this is bbc news. We will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. As an art critic and ajournalist, ifeel like a very lucky man indeed, because i get to spend tonnes of time inside museums, places ive loved ever since i was a boy. And during my working life, ive witnessed something astonishing how radically theyve changed. The days of museums as grand, intimidating treasuries for dusty objects are long gone. Theyre becoming much more d...

of cultural exchange between east and west. im starting at the pera museum, once an exclusive hotel in the heart of istanbuls diplomatic district. i cant think of anywhere else quite like it, a unique, privately run museum, with a collection exploring the relationship between east and west — a centuries—long exchange that culminated in a controversial art movement known as orientalism. im here, though, to find out how people in turkey feel about orientalism today. for art historian...

Museums, i believe, are really having a moment, and thats what i want to explore. This is amazing. So this is his studio. I can walk around, can i . He was painting the orient within the orient. When you see my work, you can easily link the concepts, lets say, or the technique, anything from them, as inspiring. I think thats rather wonderful. Im in istanbul, that great, entrancing, ancient megalopolis, once the capital of the byzantine and ottoman empires. Lying on either side of the bosporus st...

museums, i believe, are really having a moment, and thats what i want to explore. this is amazing. so this is his studio. i can walk around, can i? he was painting the orient within the orient. when you see my work, you can easily link the concepts, lets say, or the technique, anything from them, as inspiring. i think thats rather wonderful. im in istanbul, that great, entrancing, ancient megalopolis, once the capital of the byzantine and ottoman empires. lying on either side of the bo...

High, classy advertisement for what he could do. this is an image which is projecting status, fashionability — the elite taste of the time. i mean, ok, cosplay may be not quite the art—historically appropriate term, but theres a sort of sense of dressing up that clearly, his clients, they wanted that. yeah, exactly. the beginnings of all of that fantastical side, if you like, of orientalism. i feel theres glimmerings of that here. so fundamentally, orientalism is about the wests imagined vis...

The elite taste of the time. i mean, ok, cosplay may be not quite the art—historically appropriate term, but theres a sort of sense of dressing up that clearly, his clients, they wanted that. yeah, exactly. the beginnings of all of that fantastical side, if you like, of orientalism. i feel theres glimmerings of that here. so fundamentally, orientalism is about the wests imagined vision of the east, but the pera is also home to work by a fascinating artist, long considered a turkish orientalist...

He can say, "look, if you dress up in this, ive brought this "as well, ive got the dress here. "you could look as beautiful as mimica." is that sort of the idea? exactly. european people, everybody was interested in ottoman culture, and everything related with it. its interesting to sort of think that this was almost like a very high, classy advertisement for what he could do. this is an image which is projecting status, fashionability — the elite taste of the time. i mean, ok, cosplay may be ...

That this was almost like a very high, classy advertisement for what he could do. this is an image which is projecting status, fashionability — the elite taste of the time. i mean, ok, cosplay may be not quite the art—historically appropriate term, but theres a sort of sense of dressing up that clearly, his clients, they wanted that. yeah, exactly. the beginnings of all of that fantastical side, if you like, of orientalism. i feel theres glimmerings of that here. so fundamentally, orientalis...