Impressions of Istanbul

By Leonid Lerman (Academy Faculty)

Leonid Lerman serves as adjunct faculty at the New York Academy of Art and participated as the visiting critic for the Academy's Istanbul residency this summer.

Image courtesy of Austin Lopez

I'm not much of a blogger, but feel like briefly sharing with you some of the impressions of the last few days. I'm slowly falling under the spell of Istanbul - walking a lot every day through the labyrinths of the small streets - I feel myself inside of a living sculpture. The experience reminds me my youth, spent in Odessa, life in the presence of a sea, lots of sun, great food and loud, happy and generous people. Nostalgic...

Two days ago spent an afternoon at the Istanbul Modern. Walking out at the end of the day I saw a large crowd of a young people listening to a man, speaking English with a heavy accent. Coming closer I recognize Slavoy Jijeck, cultural philosopher, speaking on many subjects, including art and politics. It was great, unexpected and very entertaining.

Yesterday at breakfast bumped into two Italians on the way to India, one of them a filmmaker. We shared a meal, had a wonderful conversation and parted friends. Why, it feels so good to see such down to earth, authentic people that you connect to so easily.

I've seen a lot for the last three days and looking forward to see and experience more...

Who knows what may come out of it... Not thinking about it but keeping my eyes, ears and mind open...

Will meet Daniel and probably some other students later today, in the afternoon. Time to fulfill the duty, but I'm looking forward to that and will do it with pleasure!

Till next time,
Cheers,

Leonid