Exploring Türkiye’s Graphic Design Evolution and Socialist Identity at Salt Beyoğlu and Salt Galata

Salt Beyoğlu and Salt Galata will present a series of exhibitions this fall that explore Türkiye’s cultural and design evolution. These exhibitions delve into the intersection of design, politics, and identity across multiple decades. Running from September 2024 to February 2025, the exhibitions feature a diverse range of topics, from Türkiye’s graphic design history to Turkish-speaking communities in Yugoslavia under socialism, offering a deep dive into how creative expression evolved alongside political and social transformations.

Designer’s Note: A Journey Through Türkiye’s Graphic Design Evolution

From September 11, 2024, to February 2, 2025, Designer’s Note at Salt Beyoğlu will explore the pivotal role of graphic design in shaping Türkiye’s cultural identity in the late 20th century. This exhibition charts a transformative era, from the 1970s—when book covers were the primary design element—to the 1990s, when books became fully integrated design objects. It also showcases how designers made creative decisions based on Türkiye’s political, social, and economic landscape.

The exhibition, programmed by Eda Sezgin, offers visitors insight into the decision-making process of designers, their collaborations with publishers, and the influence they had on cultural publishing. This research-based project is the result of ongoing initiatives at Salt Research to explore and preserve Türkiye’s graphic design history. Interviews, publications, and archival documents offer a comprehensive overview of how book design reflected larger cultural shifts in the country, ultimately setting the stage for design culture in the 2000s.

Translated into Socialism: Turkish Identity in Yugoslav Socialism

At Salt Galata from October 23, 2024, to February 23, 2025, Translated into Socialism will examine the unique role that Turkish-speaking communities played in Yugoslavia under socialism, spanning from 1945 to 1991. During this time, Turkish was recognized as an official language in Macedonia and Kosovo, fostering a flourishing political and cultural environment for Turkish speakers.

This long-term research project, curated by Sezgin Boynik, Tevfik Rada, and Merve Elveren, showcases how socialist policies in Yugoslavia allowed Turkish identity to thrive, but also transformed it. The exhibition features rare historical documents, many publicly displayed for the first time, and presents them alongside contemporary works that reflect the complexities of identity in a multinational socialist context. It offers an in-depth look at how Yugoslavia’s unique brand of socialism—characterized by self-management and non-alignment—shaped the cultural and political narratives of Turkish-speaking communities.

Through both historical and contemporary works, the exhibition emphasizes the importance of national consciousness, solidarity, and the distinctive role that Turkish identity played in a socialist regime. This narrative, however, is far from linear or homogenous, reflecting the fluid and complex nature of identity during a politically charged time.

Winter Garden Soundscapes: Musical Intersections at Salt Beyoğlu

Running from June 2024 to April 2025, Winter Garden Soundscapes at Salt Beyoğlu brings a different sensory experience to the art space. Inspired by Mort Garson’s 1976 album Mother Earth’s Plantasia, which was composed specifically for plants, this exhibition features a series of sound installations designed for plants and humans alike. Currently featuring Of Soil and Water by Passepartout Duo, the program will expand to include new works by Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu, Ömer Sarıgedik, and Fulya Uçanok, each contributing to this dialogue between music and the natural world.

This program is another example of Salt’s commitment to cross-disciplinary exhibitions, combining visual and sound art to create a meditative space that blurs the boundaries between nature, technology, and art.