Intervention: December 24th and 31th, 2025, January 7th and 14th, 2026 This audiovisual intervention seeks to activate a non-traditional exhibition space within Istanbul Modern. On the museum’s mezzanine, Mysteries by Christian Boltanski unfolds as an invitation to reflect on the relationship between the vastness of the Patagonian landscape and our modes of perception. For this work, the artist installed three monumental metal structures on the remote coast of Bahía Bustamante (Chubut, Argentina). Set in motion by the wind, these pieces —permanently placed— aim to resonate and engage in a poetic dialogue with the song of the whales. Boltanski conceived this gesture as an aspiration against the passage of time: “Perhaps in a hundred years my name will be forgotten, but someone will say there was a man who came here and spoke with the whales,” he stated. With real-time sound and imagery, Mysteries brings the spirit of the Argentine coast to the shores of the Bosphorus, creating a sensitive bridge between distant geographies and echoes that endure across time.
Image: Christian Boltanski, Mysteries