ESMA for Glass Week, 7-15 September, 2019, Palazzo Contarini Polignac, Venice

As a part of the second edition of the Venice Glass Week, hosted at Palazzo Contarini Polignac, the conference ‘Murano-Istanbul: A Glass Making Journey II’ was held in collaboration with Turkish glass artist Feleksan Onar. The conference has been a peripatetic approach around the central theme of enamelled glass as an artistic and trade object between the Serenissima and the Sublime Porte, the traditional names for Venice and the Ottoman seat of government, during the Renaissance. ‘ESMA’, a short film by Onar, was premiered following the conference, inspired by the Sokullu Mehmet Pasha Mosque in Istanbul, built by the Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan in 1569-71.  

The historical chronology of enamelled glass was presented by Prof. Uzlifat Özgümüs (Istanbul University), which can be best described as a loop: Beginning in the Roman period, it reached its zenith with the Mamluk dynasty, via the Byzantine era, later becoming a major craft in Murano after the fall of the Mamluks at the hand of Timur, and finally entering back into the Ottoman palaces and glass factories, during the Renaissance. For Onar, whose practice in traditional glass making is invested in this circular journey across eras between Venice and Istanbul, the film served as an opportunity to explore connections, present and past, in the cultural memory of the Mediterranean. 

Three different speakers provided further historical background on this particular exchange: Gianpaolo Scarante, former Italian ambassador to Turkey, opened the conference with a talk on the role of the Venetian “bailo”, the emissary at the Ottoman court that existed uninterruptedly for nearly five centuries. Archaeologist Feridun Özgümüs (Istanbul University) spoke about the official relationship between the Serenissima and both the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, from the perspective of the later Konstantiniyye, then Istanbul. Lastly Prof. Vera Constantini (Ca Foscari University, Venice) looked into the history of Venetian-Ottoman diplomacy and trade during the Renaissance. 

Onar’s short film ‘ESMA’, weaves together the threads of history, material culture and multicultural exchanges, around the figure of the Sokullu Mehmet Pasa Mosque in Istanbul, built by the famous Sinan in the 16th century, commissioned by the Vizier's wife, Ismahan Sultan. In this film, produced specially for the occasion, the glass artist presents not only the remarkable architectural features of the mosque, a pastiche of influences and styles, but also introduces the audience to a personal account of Ismahan Sultan’s endeavor to master beauty by means of light, with the nine hundred pieces of candelabri specifically commissioned from Murano workshops through the intervention of the Venetian bailo.

 ‘Above all, the most important thing for me is the light in the Mosque: the light that will bring safety, wisdom and peace to all those who worship... My mother Nurbanu frequently receives exquisite glass pieces from Venice, and therefore I know the masters in Murano are the best to make the lamps I envision! I seem not to be able to decide on the form of the pieces, but I know I would like to have at least 900 of them for this mosque, for it to shine like no other..’