Founded in 2013 under the umbrella of Bozlu Holding, which operates in the field of healthcare and technology, Bozlu Art Project seeks to take a view on artworks that reaches beyond the usual cliques, aiming to develop an alternative discourse on all elements of art by way of projects such as holding panels, discussions sessions, creating an archive, producing exhibitions and contributing to a new literature. Based on the principles laid down at its founding, Bozlu Art Project works to bring in different interpretations to existing perspectives through exhibitions it holds in both the artistic sense and in terms of exhibiting practices. Developing projects to enhance the national and international visibility of artists it works with, thus bringing art to wider audiences, is one of Bozlu Art Project’s most fundamental missions. Sharing its vision with art lovers through artists’ talks accompanying exhibitions, documenting, cataloguing and archival work along with books published by Bozlu Art Publications, Bozlu Art Project aims to contribute to filling in the palpable lack of information and documentation in Turkey regarding memory building in the field of art history.
Running two separate spaces with one in Nişantaşı and one in Şişli until December 2018, Bozlu Art Project has carried its Nişantaşı gallery to the Şişli Mongeri Building as of January 2019. The historical Mongeri Building built in the mid-1920s by architect Giulio Mongeri of Italian origin, a prominent figure in Turkey’s Early Republican era architecture, is home to Bozlu Art Project’s exhibitions, library, archive, publication work and artists’ talks. In retrospectives and temporary exhibitions held in the Mongeri Building, the artworks of promising artists of the younger generation are displayed in addition to those of the important figures of Turkey’s modern and contemporary art scene, and viewers are provided with the opportunity to observe the works of artists from different disciplines and generations within a broad historical framework.
The art collection belonging to Dr. Şükrü Bozluolçay, founder of Bozlu Holding, comprising the artworks of prominent figures in modern and contemporary Turkish art, dating all the way back to the 1970s, is also put on display in the Mongeri Building at certain times in the year, organized around various concepts. Materials such as palettes, brushes, aprons, and tubes of paint used by many an important artist ranging from the classics up to our day during their artistic productions shown in the section titled “Artists’ Ateliers”, which is an important part of the collection, seek to enable new readings of the relationship between the artist and atelier, as well as present a new look on the idea and logic of collecting in Turkey.