ArtDog Istanbul Issue 33

"IT WAS THE HAPPIEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE, I DIDN'T KNOW"

Moments of Our Lives

There are sunflower fields on the cover. From a distance, that yellow light looks like the calm of the summer sun, but as you get closer, it leaves a subtle ache inside you. Because at the heart of this issue is the Museum of Innocence; that long story where the pain of remembering mixes with happiness. The pages we prepared about the series, adapted from Orhan Pamuk's novel and premiering on Netflix, brought us even closer to this light.

The meaning of the image is hidden in a sentence spoken earlier: When together, Füsun's answer to Kemal's question, "What movie was playing in your mind at that moment?" is sunflower fields. Perhaps the happiest moment of their lives.

When you pick up our MARNI–April issue, you will notice a sunflower field in the silence of the cover. Facing the light, bending in the wind, that image where yellow turns into an almost timeless glow... This issue pursues that very feeling.

In the world of the Museum of Innocence, objects are silent but they do not forget. A bag, a key, a cup, or a pair of shoes hold not lived moments, but often unlived possibilities. Memory here is constructed not with words, but with touched surfaces, with small, stored objects. Perhaps that is why this issue does not merely look at a series; it also questions the meaning of collected objects, hidden glances, and small acts of resistance against time.

In our interviews with the series' creative team, one phrase echoes throughout: This story is not a period piece, but a timeless narrative. Just as every reader carries a different trace from the novel, it is a world that allows every viewer to construct their own memory from this story. Perhaps this is why sunflowers are on the cover: as a sign of a feeling, an association, a memory, rather than a scene.

We approached The Museum of Innocence not merely as a series to be watched, but as a universe unfolding layer by layer, from art direction to the language of objects, from the memory of the space to its visual atmosphere. Because sometimes, to understand a story, one must listen not to the events, but to the traces it leaves behind.

There is another reason for this issue. At the 2025 Awards, organized for the first time by the Art History Association, ARTDOG was deemed worthy of the Culture-Art Media-Publishing Award of the Year. This award is not just a mark of success; it was the manifestation of a publishing philosophy we have defended for many years. The jury's reasons included research-based journalism, content production that nurtures critical thinking, efforts to make new artists visible, connections with the international art agenda, an inclusive editorial perspective, innovative use of digital platforms, and sustainable publishing practices. Each of these criteria was another way of expressing the publishing ethics that ArtDog has believed in since its inception.

Witnessing Ipek Duben receive the Honorary Award and Beral Madra being named Curator of the Year at the same ceremony held special meaning for us. Without the paths they paved, the language of art we speak today would be different. This award may have been given to a magazine, but it actually belonged to a tradition of thought, an editorial conscience, and a cultural space we built together.

ArtDog was founded in 2019, but it carries the experience of many decades behind it. We are constantly pursuing hard work, patience, faith, and even stubbornness. Sometimes it's a small exhibition announcement, sometimes a long conversation with an artist, and sometimes, as in this issue, a series that echoes a novel... In all of them, we try to ask the same question: How does art remind us of ourselves?

Sunflowers turn toward the sun. With this issue, we turn toward the light of memory. Because we know that sometimes a magazine issue is like a museum: the stories it holds wait quietly to be remembered again one day.

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