Documentary Series: Beyoğlu Symphony, Beyoğlu’s Less Visible Stories of Production and Craft

March 25, 2022

Prepared within the scope of the Beyoğlu Senin initiatives, the “Beyoğlu Symphony” documentary series was produced by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Directorate of Urban Planning.

Director: İmre Azem

Beyoğlu Symphony 1, Interview Participant / Field Expert: Aslı Kıyak İngin

Location: Beyoğlu, Istanbul

Within the scope of the Beyoğlu Senin initiatives, the “Beyoğlu Symphony” documentary series, prepared by director İmre Azem, addressed Beyoğlu’s multilayered structure through the relationships between production, trade, craft, and everyday life. The series, consisting of six films, documented Beyoğlu’s stories that are often not visible, yet touch one another, nourish one another, and coexist.

Together with the centuries-long history of Galata Port, Beyoğlu became one of the centers of production, trade, and encounters. The inns, workshops, shops, and craft networks that developed around the port shaped not only the district’s cultural identity, but also its economic and social memory.

However, in recent years, the increasing pressure of the tourism and service sectors has made it difficult for production and craft workshops in Beyoğlu to continue existing. Rent pressure, changing forms of use, and the transformation of central areas have made it increasingly fragile for producers to remain in the area. Yet these places are important spaces where local knowledge, craft culture, and urban memory are carried.

Aslı Kıyak İngin, who was interviewed in the first film of the documentary series, drew attention to the historical trade ecosystem of the district through the inns, producers, and craft workshops in the Beyoğlu area. She emphasized that Beyoğlu’s production practices do not consist merely of individual workshops or shops, but are part of a broader network woven together through inns, streets, suppliers, masters, apprentices, customers, and everyday relationships.

Beyoğlu Symphony First Film - Interview, Aslı Kıyak İngin

For many years, this network sustained Beyoğlu’s distinctive production culture. The small workshops inside the inns became part of a broader ecosystem that functioned together with material suppliers, masters, customers, and other producers. This close relationship turned production into not only an economic practice, but also an urban, social, and cultural one.

Today, however, this ecosystem struggles to survive within the developing urban structure and is increasingly displaced by the rise of tourism- and service-oriented uses. In her interview, Aslı Kıyak İngin emphasized that production practices in Beyoğlu are not merely nostalgic traces from the past, but also important values that shape the city’s present and future.

At precisely this point, by making visible the production practices at risk of disappearing, the documentary raises an important question about the future of Beyoğlu: Can space still be made for production in the city center?

The entire series was screened collectively for the first time on January 22, 2023, at the “Beyoğlu Symphony” Documentary Film Screening and Forum event held at Metrohan. Following the screening, the films were opened up for discussion within the forum to be evaluated together with the agendas of the Beyoğlu Spatial Strategy Plan. In this way, the documentary series was considered as a shared ground for discussion that makes it possible to reflect on Beyoğlu’s present and future.

Photographs: IMM Urban Planning Branch Directorate, “BEYOĞLU SYMPHONY” DOCUMENTARY FILM SCREENING AND FORUM / İBB Şehir Planlama Şube Müdürlüğü, “BEYOĞLU SENFONİSİ” BELGESEL FİLM GÖSTERİMİ VE FORUM (JANUARY 22, 2023), url.

Beyoğlu Symphony First Film: