Imagination and Knowledge: Dynamics of Displaying Byzantium in Istanbul

That imagination plays an indispensable role in the growth of knowledge is a widely accepted observation. This paper contextualizes this dynamic with regard to representing Byzantium through displays from the nineteenth century to the 1930s and from the 1990s to the present. The approach adopts the concept of display as arrangements or staging leading to multisensory experiences that boost engagement with a subject. Illustrated books and the passion they engendered in nineteenth-century Constantinople are the starting points for representing Byzantium. High-quality materials, attractive covers, and elegant or sometimes lavish interior ornament and design—and the possible inclusion of the printing house imprint or a bookplate as statements of ownership of production and prideful acquisition—drove this phenomenon, transforming such books from sources of information into objects as well. In parallel to combing through books with reconstructions of lost monuments, connoisseurs and intellectuals who frequented museums or private salons also exhibited a taste for plaster casts alongside original artifacts as aids to further their knowledge. Photography brought further expansion to the technologies of display. A new interest in displaying Byzantine material culture and history emerged in Istanbul in the 1990s and continues to evolve to this day. Renewed international, scholarly interest in the Byzantine era sparked this trend, which also benefited from a confluence of strong local incentives, including the growth of private initiatives and foundations along with collaborations involving public museums and other cultural institutions. This occurred at a time of emerging developments in urbanism and transportation that changed landscapes and, in the process, led to unprecedented archaeological discoveries. Museological and economic circumstances favored the organization of temporary exhibitions of thematic character, leading to collaborations by curators, scholars, architects, and scenographers to construct narratives in which imaginative conceptualizations augmented reality, and the two approaches mutually nourished one another.