Exhibitions Releases

Witnessing Our Age Through Images:
Borusan Contemporary Presents
Edward Burtynsky’s Shifting Topography

30 September 2025 Tue

Borusan Contemporary launches its 2025–2026 cultural season with one of the leading figures in contemporary photography, Edward Burtynsky. Result of a long-term collaboration, Edward Burtynsky: Shifting Topography is the artist’s first major solo exhibition in Türkiye. Featuring photographs taken in both Türkiye and across the world, the exhibition reveals the impact of human industry on nature and invites the viewers to an experience that is at once aesthetic and thought-provoking. Edward Burtynsky: Shifting Topography will be on view at Perili Köşk (Haunted Mansion) between September 20, 2025 – August 16, 2026.

In the new cultural season, Borusan Contemporary presents the striking lens of Edward Burtynsky, one of the foremost visual chroniclers of our time. Edward Burtynsky: Shifting Topography offers a comprehensive selection of the Canadian artist’s most acclaimed photographs from the past thirty years, alongside his latest project, featuring never-before-seen images from the diverse landscapes of Türkiye. Curated by Marcus Schubert, Shifting Topography takes the audience on a visual and intellectual journey across our planet through outstanding images presented under the themes “Erosion”, “Water & Salt”, African Studies”, “Nature”, “Quarries”, “Berezniki Mine”, and “Oil”.

Images on View for the First Time After a Long-Term Collaboration
Shifting Topography begins with Burtynsky’s recent exploration, commissioned by Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, on the subject of erosion across Türkiye. As part of a collaboration beginning in 2019, the artist undertook a two-week expedition in the spring of 2022 across central Anatolia and the Mediterranean region to produce his new series on soil erosion in Türkiye. During this exploration, more than 3,000 kilometers were traveled by land and air. Using drones and helicopters at altitudes of 125 to 500 meters, Burtynsky and his team captured detailed aerial views of this land in flux.

The resulting series, titled “Erosion”, includes thirty-six meticulously composed images, several of which are stitched together from multiple exposures to create sweeping, high-resolution panoramas. In these works, Burtynsky guides viewers across Türkiye: he portrays the erosion-control terraces of Kayseri Yeşilhisar with the delicacy of a painted canvas and captures the extraordinary nature of Lake Tuz [Salt Lake] through a distinctive vision. From the natural wonder of Lake Yarışlı in Burdur to the colorful fields of Kırşehir, and from the Göksu River Valley in Karaman to the arid lands of Nallıhan in Ankara, these images reveal not only the natural beauty but also the environmental transformations of Anatolia.

“We still hold the power to shape our future.”
Over more than forty years in photography, Edward Burtynsky has examined the impact of civilization on nature and his exhibitions have resonated worldwide. Speaking about his first comprehensive solo exhibition in Türkiye, the award-winning artist says:

“For decades I have been drawn to the ways in which human industry reshapes the earth’s surface. With Shifting Topography, I’m honored to present, here in Türkiye for the first time, a wide arc of that journey—from new works exploring erosion across this landscape to images made over thirty years around the world. My hope is that these photographs invite viewers to reflect on our shared responsibility for the planet we are transforming, and on the future, we still have the power to shape.”

The Director of Borusan Contemporary, Kumru Eren, DA, shares her thoughts on Shifting Topography: “Since 2014, the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection has continued to grow through photography commissions focusing on Türkiye’s nature, history, and cultural heritage. Shifting Topography exemplifies the long-term collaborations we foster with artists. At the heart of the exhibition lies the “Erosion” project, commissioned by our collection and realized by the Studio of Edward Burtynsky on the Anatolian plateau between 2019 and 2022. With its seven thematic sections spanning geographies from around the world and brought together at the Haunted Mansion, we hope Shifting Topography inspires our visitors to see the world from a different perspective. For 4.5 billion years, our planet has been in formation. We invite art lovers to witness humanity’s place within this ever-shifting system through Burtynsky’s perspective in this magnificent exhibition.”

“Cautionary Tales as Much as Works of Art”
Curator Marcus Schubert emphasizes the significance of the exhibition with the following words:
“Burtynsky’s photographs are visual paradoxes—they seduce with beauty, yet quietly unspool the difficult truths of our time. In Shifting Topography, those truths are etched into the Turkish landscape, but as we see from the breadth of works, they also echo across the planet.”

Burtynsky’s work has always balanced the documentary with the abstract and poetic. They are as much cautionary tales as they are works of art. To stand before these photographs is to confront both the cost of progress and the cost of forgetting. Burtynsky makes forgetting impossible.”

Shifting Topography from Türkiye to the World
Beginning with the landscapes of Türkiye, Shifting Topography expands to include a special selection of works from across the globe, ultimately holding up a mirror to the planet as a whole. The new works in the “Erosion” section are presented alongside several other investigations throughout the building: “Water and Salt” traces the interwoven geographies shaped by two elemental forces that continue to define our era; “African Studies” offers a penetrating enquiry into the Sub-Saharan countries; “Nature” marks a return to Burtynsky’s first inspiration—now enriched by more than four decades of experience; “Quarries” examines anthropogenic erosion—a purposeful extraction of land-mass— through these forms of negative architecture; “Berezniki Mine” offers insight into a central subject of the artist’s career, one rooted in his early years working in a gold mine; and “Oil” captures our intricate relationship with the fuel that on the one hand gave birth to the many marvels of the Industrial Revolution, but on the other, has fostered one of the gravest dilemmas of our age. From Türkiye’s hillsides to the far reaches of the world, Burtynsky’s images provide aesthetic and ethical insight into the irreversible traces we leave on the earth.

In the photographs of Edward Burtynsky—recognized as one of the foremost visual storytellers of our time—the harsh reality of nature being transformed by human hands collides with the unsettling beauty of these landscapes. This powerful and courageous duality engulfs the viewer in an intense experience.
Burtynsky’s masterfully crafted images lead us to reflect on the long-term consequences of humanity’s imprint on Earth, while urging us to seriously question what we are losing and how we can preserve the sustainability of the world we are building for future generations. Shifting Topography offers visitors not only aesthetic enrichment but also a profound intellectual journey.

Public Programs in Collaboration with Yuvam Dünya
As part of the exhibition Edward Burtynsky: Shifting Topography, Borusan Contemporary will organize special events in collaboration with Yuvam Dünya (Earth My Home) Association. Building on the themes of the exhibition and designed for different age groups, these events aim to raise awareness of the climate crisis and sustainability while fostering a broader social impact.

Exhibition Book Available in November
A comprehensive book will accompany Edward Burtynsky: Shifting Topography. Published under the same title, it includes in-depth texts on the artist’s projects realized in different geographies of the world and presented at the Haunted Mansion. The volume features an essay by curator Marcus Schubert, who has followed Burtynsky’s work for more than forty years, situating his practice within an art-historical context, an essay by Kumru Eren, DA, Director of Borusan Contemporary, written through the lens of art theory, along with extensive visual documentation. The book titled Edward Burtynsky: Shifting Topography will be available in November.

About Borusan Contemporary:
Borusan Contemporary is an institution devoted to contemporary art, providing a multi-platform program of exhibitions, events, and educational activities based on the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection while promoting the production of new artworks and publications through commissions. Since 2011, the institution has distinguished itself by focusing on international artists who incorporate photography, video, sound, light, and software-based technologies into their work, with a particular emphasis on lens-based practices and new media art in its most expansive and inclusive form.

Exhibitions and events take place at the Perili Köşk (Haunted Mansion), a historic edifice that serves as the headquarters of Borusan Holding on weekdays and Borusan Contemporary on weekends. In virtue of this positioning, a unique arts center model that operates within a corporate office setting has been created. By forming a hybrid space for mutual existence under the same roof, the institution offers an innovative approach to cultural engagement within the corporate world.

Borusan Contemporary is open every weekend between 10:00-19:00, and the visitor entrance closes at 18:00. Guided tours are held at 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, and 17:00. Further information on visits and admissions is available on Borusan Contemporary’s website.

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