Salt is a not-for-profit cultural institution based in Istanbul that engages in research, exhibitions, publications, web projects, and public programs, exploring the intersections and interactions between various disciplines. As part of its long-term commitment to digitization, Salt Research makes archival sources freely accessible via archives.saltresearch.org, alongside a catalog of publications available for on-site consultation. 

The archival collections at Salt Research encompass over 2,000,000 unique digitized resources on art, architecture, design, and social and urban history, with a focus on Türkiye, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Eastern Europe. Tracing the history of art in Türkiye after 1950, the Art Archive brings together visual and textual sources from museums, artist initiatives, and foundations, along with archives compiled by artists and curators and materials related to historically significant exhibitions.

Among the recent additions to the Art Archive is the Handan Börüteçene Archive. Work on this archive has been launched in collaboration with the artist following “In the Realm of Three Inland Seas” (Salt Beyoğlu, 2023–2024), the most comprehensive exhibition of Börüteçene’s work to date.

The collection offers insight into Börüteçene’s artistic practice spanning more than four decades. It includes works from her student years in Istanbul and Paris during the 1980s, as well as documents, press clippings, and photographs related to exhibitions in which she participated, both in Türkiye and abroad.

About Handan Börüteçene

Handan Börüteçene studied ceramics at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul. Her interest in archaeology and history led her to participate in excavations beginning in 1978. After graduating in 1981, the artist moved to Paris and continued her studies in the sculpture studio of Georges Jeanclos and César (Baldaccini) at l’École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Her first solo exhibition was held in Paris, while she also took part in significant exhibitions in Istanbul.

Establishing unexpected connections with Türkiye’s cultural heritage through sculpture, installation, photography, and text, Börüteçene received a merit award for Kır/Gör [Break/See] at the 5th exhibition of New Trends in Art (1985), organized as part of the Academy’s Istanbul Art Festival. Producing site-specific works, the artist opened Bütün Denizlerin İçinden Geç, Sessizlik ve Sırdır Ötesi [Pass Through Every Sea, Beyond Is Silence and Secrecy] (1991) at Hagia Irene and Yeryüzünün Belleği [Memory of the Earth] (1995) at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. 

In her work, presented under different titles over time—Suların Bağladığı / Suların Çözdüğü [Waters That Tie / Waters That Untie], Kendime Gömülü Kaldım [I Remained Buried Within Myself], and Morla Döndüm. Gömülü Gecemden Sabaha [I Woke Up in Purple. From the Night I Was Buried] (1999–2023)—she traced the Byzantine cultural heritage looted and taken to Venice in the 13th century through a narrative centered on Moero of Byzantium, Istanbul’s earliest known female poet. To give Moero greater visibility, the artist sewed a replica of the dress depicted in an icon of Saint Eudokia held at the Istanbul Archaeological Museums and, in place of ornamental stones, adorned it with fragments of broken ceramics evoking vanished civilizations. The dress featured in a series of “souvenir” photographs taken at Byzantine sites in both cities.

Börüteçene currently lives in Istanbul, Paris, and Kaş, continuing her practice at the intersection of archaeology, history, nature, and cultural heritage.

For more information, please visit the Handan Börüteçene Archive.