© Manca Juvan
FREEDOM AND URBANITY: ISTANBUL THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHS
Opening & Panel: 9 October 2025
Exhibition Details:
FREEDOM AND URBANITY: ISTANBUL THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHS
A Panel with Ahmet Ersoy, Z. Umut Türem, and Manca Juvan
What is urban freedom? And what is the role of photography in capturing this elusive ideal? The exhibition “Istanbul: Spaces of Freedom” (FOTO WIEN 2025) is comprised of selections from photographer Manca Juvan’s recent work, which seeks to portray a moment in the life of the eponymous metropolis and its changing relationship to the ideal of urban freedom.
Inspired by this exhibition, our interdisciplinary panel will think through the question of urban freedom, and consider the role of photography in capturing both its presence and its absence in modern Istanbul.
October 9, 2025
18:30-20:00
Fabrikraum
Johnstraße 25-27, 1150 Wien
SPEAKERS:
Ahmet A. Ersoy, Boğaziçi University
Archival Trash: Photojournalism and the Cityscape in Early Republican Istanbul
Z. Umut Türem, University of Vienna
Chasing Freedom in the Streets of Istanbul: Then and Now
Manca Juvan, Photographer
Istanbul: Spaces of Freedom
This panel is sponsored by “Theatre and Gentrification in the European City”, a five-year research project funded by the European Research Council’s Consolidator Grant Program (THEAGENT [101043740]).
For more information:
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/projects/theagent/events
https://fotowien.at/ausstellung/istanbul-spaces-of-freedom-foto-wien-2025/
Special Program:
09.10.2025, 18:30–20:00
Featuring:
Istanbul: Spaces of Freedom
Manca Juvan
Manca Juvan is a Slovenian photographer, videographer, and educator with over two decades of global experience. Known for her reportage and documentary work, she has recently embraced mixed media and audio-visual formats, with a special passion for books and film as forms. Manca's work, united by a belief in shared humanity, has earned numerous recognitions, awards and scholarships, including from the Magnum Foundation and EsoDoc. Her internationally acclaimed monograph "Guardians of the Spoon" won the 2017 International PhotoBook Award in Los Angeles.
Manca has exhibited widely, among others at the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana and venues in New York, Brussels, Luxembourg, Tehran and Paris. Her work has appeared in major national and international publications such as The New York Times, The Times, The Guardian, Le Monde and elsewhere. Her other monographs include "Afghanistan: Unordinary Lives", which is the result of her long-term work in Afghanistan, documenting the consequences of the Afghanistan war through the stories of ordinary Afghans, and the most recent one "Istanbul, Faces of freedom"—an outcome of an interdisciplinary project with Oto Luthar and the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts exploring the concept of freedom within an urban setting and the vibrant tapestry of metropolitan life, using Istanbul as its focal point.
Manca currently works on the ongoing multimedia project "The Sacrificed Valley", exploring the effects of industrial pollution on human health and the environment, which recently received the EsoDoc 2023 Movies that Matter award.
