INSIDE VIEW A TURKISH DELIGHT It’s a mark of modern museums and galleries that they are often envisaged to match the ingenuity and creative zest of the artworks that they contain. Incredible buildings in major art centres have proved an attraction in their own right, but finding an example in a small city in northwestern Turkey may come as something as surprise. The Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM) in Eskişehir is the brainchild of art collector Erol Tabanca, a native of the city that may fly under the radar but, as Tabanca is keen to point out, is home to around 20 museums and three universities. Opened in 2019, OMM was designed by acclaimed Japanese architects Kengo Kuma and Associates and is inspired by the timber trade for which the Odunpazarı district is renowned. The collection of wooden slats join together to form a three-level 4,500sq m building, within which Tabanca’s 1,000-piece collection of modern and contemporary art sits alongside temporary exhibitions. The initial show in 2019, entitled The Union, featured a selection of the Turkish artists that Tabanca has focused on, along with complementary pieces from around the world. It’s Tabanca’s dream to both draw attention to this little-known cultural hub and promote the work of the creative talents in his home country – backed by his family, as his wife Rana and daughter Idil are also involved in the museum. Various media feature throughout his collection, as exemplified in the painting, photography, sculpture, video and installations in the latest exhibition, Grief and Pleasure, which focuses on the contradictory nature of human emotions as portrayed through art. Time will tell whether Tabanca’s dream of drawing an array of new visitors to his hometown comes to fruition, but it’s clear that the art world’s imagination is already captured. omm.art FACING PAGE Idil and Erol Tabanca, the daughter-and-father team behind OMM 86 NetJets
