Istanbulite

It seems to me that no exhibition can be stranger, more interesting, or more creative than Istanbul itself. Buildings, all of different heights and in various states of decay, are stacked on top of each other without gaps, their unplastered facades climbing the hillside. They are so intertwined that no one could ever separate them back into individual homes. No cadastral expert in this neighborhood could determine whose land is whose, where the path is, where the boundary lies, or who has encroached upon which border. Whose wall is being used by whom, how do people find their doors, whose terrace is whose, how do the cables not get confused about their destination? These questions are unanswered and meaningless. Because life continues with all its energy on these slopes.

These lines, which reveal the contradictory beauty, architectural complexity, and chaotic charm of modern Istanbul life, also bear the traces of a keen observation of the city's daily life.

Istanbulin is a storybook, a guide, a compass for those who will walk Istanbul tirelessly… The narrator, whom Ertuğ Uçar takes through the city with a different kind of attention and observation, sometimes focuses on the stories of people he encounters, and sometimes on those of cats, birds, and dogs. In each story, the reader finds themselves at a different point in the city and, in this world where fiction and reality intertwine, traces "Istanbulin things" along with the narrator.

This urban narrative penned by Ertuğ Uçar is a unique call not only for architecture students or city enthusiasts, but for anyone trying to understand the soul of Istanbul. It offers a new perspective to those looking for Istanbul stories and those who wish to form an emotional and intellectual connection with the city.