New art residency opens in 500-year-old Byzantine cistern beneath Istanbul

The recently restored bathhouse showcases works from British artist Anousha Payne as part of ongoing exhibition

The painting and sculptures by Anousha Payne are inspired by the hammam's role as a communal space of relaxation and escapism for women. Photo: Zeyrek Cinili Hamam

The tranquil halls of Zeyrek Cinili Hamam in Istanbul instinctively invite a sense of reflection and renewal, as the incredible history of this recently restored 500-year-old, once-again-functional bathhouse is present in every detail.

Offering more than just traditional pampering treatments, the hammam also prides itself as a cultural hub with a museum. It has now launched a cycle of contemporary art exhibitions within its Byzantine cistern.

Curated by Anlam de Coster, the programme invites international artists who have never exhibited in Istanbul for a residency, to create and produce a site-specific body of work every six months, inspired by the hammam’s layered history, architecture and cultural significance.

The first exhibition is Murmurations, on show until August 15, created by London-based artist Anousha Payne. Through painting, sculpture and sound, Payne’s work is a direct response to the cistern’s storied walls.

Artist Anousha Payne uses materials commonly found in hammams such as hammered brass, wood and mother-of-pearl. Photo: Zeyrek Cinili Hamam

“My curatorial approach for Murmurations was rooted in creating a sensitive, open-ended dialogue between Anousha Payne’s practice and the unique spiritual and material resonances of the Zeyrek Cinili Hamam, particularly its recently uncovered Byzantine cistern where the exhibition takes place,” de Coster tells The National.

“From the onset, I was drawn to Anousha’s long-standing interest in mythmaking, the permeability between worlds, and the ways nonhuman forms embody transition.

“These themes resonated beautifully with the history of the hammam as a place of transformation and ritual cleansing, as well as with the deep-time strata embedded in its architecture,” she adds. “My role was to introduce her to this unusual cultural context while opening space for experimentation.”

The works are inspired by the etchings of sailboats discovered during excavation, likely from the labourers who built the hammam, as well as by the figurative shapes and traces left by centuries of water filling the space, extrapolated to symbolise the historical layers and traces of the city itself.

The artist took castings from the space, copying the hollows in the stone, plus watermarks and erosion patterns, and transformed them into characters that personify the memory of the site. This acted as a starting point to explore materiality, rituals and ways of connecting past and present.

“Initially I was thinking about the word Murmurations in the context of describing a flock of birds moving in synchronisation, but also considered how different people may perceive the shapes differently depending on their personal experiences. I also wanted to consider the idea of a murmur, a quiet repetition,” Payne says.

“The themes of the works are a reflection on a functioning hammam, the necessity of female systems of care and support, and also the materials that are part of hammam rituals. I have created a group of fictional women, and I consider the hammam as a place away from the domestic for women to commune.

Murmurations marks Payne's first solo exhibition in Turkey. Photo: Anousha Payne

“The central figure who greets you as you enter the cistern is made from hammered brass, the same technique that has been used for hundreds of years for creating hammered metal hammam bowls,” she adds. “There are two characters at the back of the last tunnel of the cistern made using wood and deadstock mother-of-pearl; this is the same technique used to create some of the hammam clogs I discovered in the museum.”

Another artwork, titled A Fossil of a Hand, uses a trace in the cistern that resembles a hand, which Payne copied and replicated in mother-of-pearl, inlaid into a wooden carving of a face. The piece imagines this as the caring hand of the cistern itself offering comfort and healing.

“Leaning (Flowers like a Veil) materially echoes back the first brass figure, also made of hammered brass, and has strings of ceramic flowers and bronze casts,” Payne says. “One of the sound channels, my sister’s voice, creates the sense that she is singing to us. This is made in response to a folktale that I often return to within my work, about a woman turning into a tree.

“The flowers are depicted in varying states of decay, representing the past, present and future, and from the ends of the string hang bronze casts. They are direct burnout casts, therefore replicas, of a plant called Harmala, also known as Uzerlik,” she adds.

“I came across this dried flower in the shop across the road from the hammam. When I asked the shopkeeper what the tea was for, I was told it is to ward off bad spirits, and I also read that the tea has healing properties. The bronze casts act as a record of a conversation, a record of local consumption and is also known for its healing properties – making the sculpture a kind of guardian of the space.”

Anlam de Coster, curator of the residency programme, will invite an international artist every six months to display their works in the cistern. Photo: Zeyrek Cinili Hamam

Throughout the exhibition, a sound piece composed in collaboration with Suren Seneviratne can be heard playing softly in the background. It takes the sounds of a busy bathhouse with women’s voices layered together and the clacking of metal washbowls, reimagined through the voices of Payne's mother and sister singing – acting as a guide to lead visitors through the exhibition. The sound is almost muffled, as though coming from underwater.

For visitors coming in for cleansing treatments, the art show is an added surprise that breathes artistic life into its ancient cistern, transcending the complex’s function as a mere bathhouse. For art enthusiasts, it offers a more immersive experience that combines antiquity and modernity.