Handan Börüteçene’s The Land of Three Inner Seas

Handan Börüteçene’s The Land of Three Inner Seas exhibition is not just about aesthetic reflection of art, but it also leads us to a deep intellectual journey. As soon as you step into the exhibition, you feel as if you have entered a different universe. With the help of light and shadow a magical atmosphere created. This play of light and shadows shapes the exhibition’s atmosphere, creating not only a visual experience but also an emotional one. This world which she created pulls you into a different depth. Each artwork, with its unique narratives, symbolisms, and themes, succeeds in taking the visitor to a different time and place. If you are a person who wants to learn what all the pieces are all about, this exhibition might force you because I think you create the meaning of the works by experiencing them yourself. Another thing that impressed me were the poems which were placed vertically just like the art works, in the center of the exhibition. Normally people don’t like to read if there is a visual show that has been going on but, here the situation is different. In my opinion, the poem wanted to be read while the experience and it contributed a lot to the overall experience. 

On the second floor there was an artwork that got my attention in a different way. Reaching to “I Am So Bored” within the exhibition was itself a layered experience. As you walk through other works, subtle whispers of “I am so bored” begin to echo around you. At first, it feels like someone else is saying it — as if a person hidden somewhere in space quietly expressing their weariness. I found myself instinctively following the voice, almost as though I was trying to find that person. This subtle journey led me to the work, and when I finally encountered the stone masks, I was both surprised and deeply intrigued. The masks, made from the artist’s own facial proportions yet inspired by lost tragedy masks of Myra, seemed suspended between presence and absence. In that moment, I realized the voice didn’t belong to just one person — it was collective, shared, and deeply human. The work captured a state of being that was less about boredom and more about an alert, contemplative stillness. It made me pause and reflect, not just on the piece, but on my own feelings and the shared emotional weight within the space. 

When I visited the exhibition three times last year, each visit left me with a different impression. Every time, stepping into the exhibition’s atmosphere felt like entering a new world due to the effects of light and shadow. Additionally, a week ago, I found the exhibition catalog in a second-hand bookstore in Beyoğlu, and this allowed me to mentally revisit this world once more. This new experience helped me relive the feelings from my previous visits and reminded me of details I may have missed during my initial visits. Unfortunately, the exhibition is over but even though as a designer candidate who tried to visit all the exhibitions in Istanbul, this was the exhibition that impressed me the most. The catalog that I found helped me to visit there once again and give me the inspiration to put this exhibition to my exhibition visit paper.