Tortoise Trainer 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...

Reading or making music. whats really attractive is this idea that here is someone from turkey whos engaging with this quite problematic tradition of orientalism and somehow, what? hes subtly transforming it, hes — hes reclaiming it? yes, we can say that. he was painting the orient within the orient. whether you think that hamdi in the tortoise trainer was not so covertly criticising ottoman power, he was, at least, i believe, still operating within the parameters of western orientalism, while...

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...

But he painted people reading or making music. whats really attractive is this idea that here is someone from turkey whos engaging with this quite problematic tradition of orientalism and somehow, what? hes subtly transforming it, hes — hes reclaiming it? yes, we can say that. he was painting the orient within the orient. whether you think that hamdi in the tortoise trainer was not so covertly criticising ottoman power, he was, at least, i believe, still operating within the parameters of west...

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 ...

The interior of the arch, and lots of people have thought "ah, painted 1906 — the very final years "of the ottoman empire". and theyve put all of these things together and given a sort of subversive political reading to this painting. but im sensing its not one that you buy. chuckles. no, i dont buy that. but i buy this. he wasnt a typical orientalist. i mean, orientalism liked idle figures doing nothing. but he painted people reading or making music. whats really attractive is this idea that ...