Opened in Ankara - SALT ULUS

Photo by Cemil Batur Gökçeer

As modern Turkey’s capital, Ankara has a deep and complex social history. Yet, during the last two decades it has become trapped by the shadow of burgeoning arts and cultural development taking place almost exclusively in İstanbul. Aware of the imbalance of contemporary cultural activity across Turkey, but in particular the stark contrast between the current situations in the country’s two most important cities, SALT finds it imperative to create a network that broadens the current İstanbul-focused cultural agenda. SALT Ulus is therefore launched to encourage research to be developed in Ankara in parallel to that being conducted in İstanbul. The resulting knowledge will enter a process of open exchange and dialogue that will inform all of SALT’s programming and activities across its three venues SALT Ulus, SALT Beyoğlu, SALT Galata and at saltonline.org.

It is hoped that students and researchers from Ankara and İstanbul who wish to explore the transformation of modern Turkey will engage with programs at all three of SALT’s institutions. At SALT Ulus two spaces are reserved for the use of young researchers for periods of four months at a time. While SALT Research at SALT Galata exists as the main open platform for such investigation, selected publications and information from SALT Research are available at SALT Ulus, with many more materials accessible on request.

Initially the program at SALT Ulus involves already composed projects that have taken place in İstanbul, but include Ankara in their scope. After this initial phase, locally developed programming will take priority, and reversing the current trend these projects may then travel on to İstanbul.

As a physical entity SALT Ulus does not compete in terms of scale and prestige with SALT’s venues in İstanbul. The building in question is the annex of the former Ottoman Bank on Atatürk Bulvarı across one of the Republic’s main landscape projects Gençlik Parkı. Used today as Garanti Bank, the main building was designed by Guilo Mongeri and was constructed in 1926. The annex housing SALT Ulus was a later addition, also commissioned to Mongeri, to provide lodging for traveling bank inspectors. Unused since 2002, this building was repurposed after the establishment of SALT, and opened as SALT Ulus.