Revisiting the hospital

The video “Revisiting the hospital” was commissioned for the exhibit “Finding a Cure in Istanbul” (2021) by Karşı Sanat and İstanbul Metro, where Naomi and her colleagues Gabriel Doyle and Cemre Gürbüz also prepared two multimedia installations about five hospitals in Istanbul run by non-Muslim foundations. The exhibit was also shown in Vienna and was followed by the webinar “Healing in the City” held by Columbia Global Centers in Istanbul and organized by Naomi and Gabriel.

The article “Birlikte Sağlıklı Olmak” also came out of this research project, as well as two other articles on the property issues of non-Muslim foundations. The project, “Turkey’s Next Great Confiscation,” was funded by a Pulitzer Center grant.

click here for the video (password: sifa_2021)

Karşı Sanat | 07/13/2021

A hospital is not just a place to receive treatment, but can in some cases be a place to seek a “cure” in its broadest sense. Its flora and fauna, its food, its fountains, its structures and its surroundings might nurture a swift recovery or a peaceful stay. A hospital is a monument to lives that have perished, a cultural heirloom, a meeting and transit point for those who come on hard times. While it may serve to isolate those deemed “unfit” for the city, it is not immune to what goes on outside its walls.

Of the five hospitals in this research project — the Balıklı Rum, Bulgarian, Or-Ahayim, Surp Agop, and Surp Pırgiç Hospitals — only three still operate: the Bulgarian Hospital was confiscated and is now the Turkey Hospital, and the Surp Agop Hospital was demolished and is awaiting renovation. All five, however, have changed face and function. Since their founding in the late Ottoman period, Istanbul’s medical landscape has adapted to the demands of the nation-state and the market. This video juxtaposes interviews with people who lived, worked and visited the hospitals with shots from today’s pandemic to capture the tension between cool distance and warm intimacy that the hospitals evoke.