Alexandre Vallaury (1850-1921)



Levantine architect Alexandre Vallaury (1850-1921), who studied at the Paris National College of Fine Arts, was one of the inventors and pioneers of the neo-Ottoman style that defined buildings built on the Bosphorus shore in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the buildings created by Alexandre Vallaury, we can count the Ottoman Bank building (1892) in the neo-renaissance style, or the Museum-i Hümayun (1907) in the neo-classical style, or the famous Pera Hotel (1894), which blends gaudy, ostentatious and luxurious styles. Young Turkish photographer Bilal İmren, a graduate of the faculty of fine arts, offers us to explore the legacy of Alexandre Vallaury in Istanbul - from his own selection and perspective. As a professional documentary photographer, he aims to reveal the architect behind every stylized corner and curve, detail and perspective line, shadow or directed light trail.

The academic dimension of his photographs best reveals these massive and voluminous immovable subjects. Today's artist bows respectfully before the past centuries, while revealing pure and concise shots and his beautiful gaze. This exhibition, organized on the occasion of the 39th European Heritage Days, which has become a French and European cultural tradition, is both an invitation to an artistic journey in the city and a sign of the strong cultural relationship between France and Turkey, which existed yesterday, today and will exist tomorrow. .

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