After Utopia: The Birds”is a solo exhibition by glass artist Felekşan Onar, in a multidisciplinary collaboration with writer and curator Arie Amaya-Akkermans. As the first contemporary art intervention at the museum, the project spans across sculpture, theater, film, archaeology, and field research. The exhibition is conceived around three main components: a series of new glass sculptures in conversation with selected artifacts from the museum’s collection ranging from the Bronze Age to the Ottoman era, a contemporary play, and an exhibition monograph.
Onar’s recent sculptural series, at the heart of the exhibition at Sadberk Hanım, returns to the language of birds from her earlier project “Perched” (2018-ongoing), embedded in traditional glass making, using kiln casting and mouth-blowing in plaster molds, referencing the long history of glass making in the Near East. The birds in “After Utopia: The Birds” tell a story without a defined time or space. They are the main characters in a short play, written by the curator, in response to Aristophanes’ comedy The Birds. It is an interrogative text about the possibilities and impossibilities of utopia whose questions remain unresolved.

• Exhibition Design
• Construction management