“ROMANTİKA / Bir Ömrün Seyrüseferi” (Romantika / A Life’s Voyage), produced by Folkart and hosted with the support of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, opened on 5 September alongside the 95th İzmir International Fair as the most comprehensive exhibition ever held in Türkiye on Nâzım Hikmet. It can be visited at the Kültürpark Atlas Pavilion until 15 January 2027.
Curated by architect and Nâzım Hikmet researcher M. Melih Güneş and designed by Ömer Durmaz, the exhibition spreads over 15 halls in an area of around 2,125 square metres. Hundreds of documents, manuscripts, the poet’s personal belongings and audiovisual recordings are presented alongside literature, painting, sculpture, photography, film and design.
The title comes from “Romantika”, the name the poet first chose for his last, autobiographical novel, completed in 1962 and published in Turkish as “Yaşamak Güzel Şey Be Kardeşim” (Life’s Good, Brother). Because the novel begins and ends in İzmir, and through Hikmet’s days in the city in 1925 and the links to “Güneşi İçenlerin Türküsü” and “Kuvâyi Milliye”, İzmir becomes one of the exhibition’s main narrative threads.
The Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the Nâzım Hikmet Culture and Art Foundation, the Moscow Nâzım Hikmet Culture and Art Foundation and the Ara Güler Archive and Research Centre opened their archives for the show. It also draws on Vera Tulyakova Hikmet’s archive, works held by collector Gürkan Us, and pieces by Abidin Dino, Avni Arbaş, Doris Kahane, Natalia Goncharova and Jak İhmalyan. Sedat Girgin has created a work especially for the exhibition, and some paintings by Nâzım Hikmet himself are also on display.
Dates and venue
- 5 September 2026 – 15 January 2027, Atlas Pavilion, Kültürpark, İzmir
