Part of the reason is that it is not an accolade that really increases İstanbul’s sense of self-worth. It’s a bit like describing Venice as a city with good water features or Paris as well worth the detour. For those already engaged in the cultural life of İstanbul, 2010 seems a bureaucratic distraction -- a chance to get a bit of arts funding out of an institution that distributes beneficence as freely as blood from a stone. And for those not engaged -- well, what’s the point?Defining the point of the exercise is, of course, what İstanbul 2010 should have been addressing in 2008 and 2009. When İzmir bid (alas, unsuccessfully) to host the world’s fair, Expo 2015, it raised a realistic hope that this was an event which would have left its mark: London still looks back at the Great Exhibition of 1851; Montreal might still be paying for the Olympic Games from the summer of 1976, but it’s not an event the city can forget. İstanbul needed to ask what they could be doing under the European Capital of Culture umbrella that would create a legacy for the city of tomorrow.
It is still the early days, but so far there is not much to report. So far the most dramatic accomplishment has been to get rid of the scaffolding, after 17 years, that was being used to restore the mosaics in the dome of Aya Sofia. I have to confess, I sort of like the scaffolding and have mixed feelings about seeing it go. There is an exhibition at the Tophane Armory, the result of an artistic exchange bringing European artists to work in İstanbul. The latest bulletin advertising the schedule reserves pride of place not so much for events as for the “Our Energy is from İstanbul” advertisement campaign itself. However exciting these collages of images may be, they are a means not an end.
One argument in its favor is that İstanbul ECoC describes itself as being about outreach. It is less about building a Crystal Palace that will claim a place on an already-crowded skyline than it is about bringing art and music and theater to parts of the city where these are still luxury commodities rather than a part of everyday life. Such efforts will make few headlines but could create an impact. However, much of the money is actually being spent on physical plant -- restoring historic buildings or tidying up Kadıköy square. In these recessionary times, there is nothing wrong with this. Some of the most dramatic buildings in Washington, D.C. -- the Jefferson Memorial or the National Gallery -- were conceived of as public works projects during the Depression. Who would object if İstanbul 2010 produced a commitment to construct a world-class museum to house the finds of in the Byzantine harbor during the Yenikapı excavations?
However, what seems to have been overlooked at the end of month one is that İstanbul is not just a cultural capital but a European cultural capital, and that it bears this honorific as part of an effort to strengthen Europe’s belief in Turkey and Turkey’s European vocation. It is not just about making İstanbul feel more cultured but making both Europe and İstanbul itself understand that the city is an important custodian of an important tranche of Europe’s own heritage. There is still much to be done. One of the 2010 projects is to produce a decent map of public transportation -- which is all to the good. But another should have been an inventory of historic properties -- something very elemental which İstanbul still lacks.
Let’s be optimistic. The next 11 months may produce a steep learning curve. The project was launched with fireworks on a night when the city was inundated with rain, producing both figurative and literal damp squibs. If İstanbul 2010 has produced so much frustration already, this may be a sign that it is also producing the determination to get things right.
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