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An art exhibition in Istanbul is promising visitors guaranteed happiness, and its curator says the promise is a deliberate lie.
"Guaranteed Happiness!" (Mutluluk Garanti!) opened at Taksim Sanat, a cultural venue in the city’s central Taksim district.
It brings together 24 contemporary artists to ask whether happiness comes from within or can be bought, and how consumer culture shapes people’s dreams and desires. It runs through Jan. 10, 2027.
The show is organized by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s cultural arm, Kultur AS. Marcus Graf, a professor, curated it with assistant curator Oyku Demirci.
"Everyone wants to be happy, but once they are happy, they worry about becoming unhappy again," Graf said.
He said the exhibition asks whether happiness is an abstract idea, an attainable reality or a utopia, and whether people can fill an inner emptiness by consuming.
Graf said the works look cheerful at first glance, with large, colorful canvases. A closer look often reveals something unsettling or sad beneath the colors, he said.
He said the show scrutinizes the promises of happiness behind glossy surfaces and appealing images. Smooth, digitally produced realities and advertising spaces constantly promise people a happy life, he said.
The exhibition’s title and poster draw on advertising slogans used since the 1960s, such as those showing “happy couples” and "happy homes," Graf said.
The exhibition is divided into two atmospheres. The first is a dim, cold space with gray walls and white lighting, holding critical and figurative works about what Graf called the negative remnants of the world.
Visitors arriving from the chaos of Istanbul are invited to slowly forget their memories and the cues of everyday life.
The idea, he said, is that sometimes certain things must be forgotten to be happy. Works in this section deal with nature, people and knowledge that are on the verge of disappearing.
The second section is designed as a "garden of happiness." It has artificial grass, pink and blue walls hung with large abstract works, fake birds, birdsong and scents.
"After this transition, visitors will question within their own inner world whether they can find what they are looking for in this artificial and glittering valley of happiness," Graf said.
Graf said he aimed to approach the theme as broadly as possible, mixing artists showing for the first time with those already well known in major galleries and museums.
He also said he sought a balance of men and women, of generations and of artistic approaches.
The show includes figurative and narrative works as well as geometric and organic abstraction, across photography, sculpture, collage and painting.
"Whether happiness can be found in this layered world will be decided by the viewer," he said.
Participating artists include Altan Celem, Banu Aydogan, Eelco Hilgersom, Mustafa Hulusi, Mutlu Aksu, Nesrin Demirel, Serdar Acar and Zeynep Beler, among others.
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