Edward Burtynsky: Shifting Topography

Borusan Contemporary presents Edward Burtynsky: Shifting Topography, the Canadian artist’s first major solo exhibition in Türkiye, curated by Marcus Schubert. The exhibition is the result of a long-term collaboration between the artist and the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection. Spanning all floors of the historic Perili Köşk (Haunted Mansion), it brings together a comprehensive selection of Burtynsky’s oeuvre from the past thirty years with new works exploring the subject of erosion across the diverse landscapes of Türkiye.

Renowned for his large-format industrial landscape photographs that capture the complex intersections between nature and human industry, Burtynsky has examined the reshaping of our natural world for more than four decades. Distinguished by informed research, sweeping compositions, and extraordinary technical mastery, his photographs extend beyond documentation and offer a profound life-long meditation on the relationship between humanity and the planet that sustains it.

Shifting Topography begins with his recent exploration, commissioned by Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, on the subject of erosion across Türkiye. This portion of the exhibition, titled Erosion, debuts many new and never-before-seen images that Burtynsky produced during his 3,000-kilometer expedition across central Anatolia and the Mediterranean. These thirty-six meticulously composed photographs taken from altitudes of 125 to 500 meters document not only the visible degradation of the landscape but also the scale and complexity of remediation efforts.

Placed in dialogue with these works are selections from other key investigations in Burtynsky’s career. Water and Salt traces the role of these two elemental forces in shaping the environmental and cultural landscapes of our time. From India’s Stepwells to the lithium brine fields of Chile’s Atacama Desert, the works reveal both enduring traditions and the uncanny results of human intervention.

Produced between 2015 and 2019, the expansive body of work in African Studies offers a penetrating enquiry into the dramatic change numerous Sub-Saharan countries are facing as a result of human activity. Presented with compelling detail, these works reveal interwoven designs, both natural and human-made.

Nature recalls the essential element in Burtynsky’s production and brings the viewer back to the raw beauty that first inspired the artist. Images from this section mark a return to Burtynsky’s early landscape photography of the 1980s—this time enriched by over four decades of experience.

Many of the images in the Quarries were made during a middle period of Burtynsky’s career. Examining this process of anthropogenic erosion—a purposeful, profit-driven extraction of land-mass—this section presents a signature selections that surveys these forms of negative architecture.  

Berezniki Mine offers a glimpse into a central subject in Burtynsky’s career. Since his years working in a gold mine in northern Ontario as a young man, the artist has been interested in how the materials of modern life are drawn from the earth. In this section, the viewer is presented with Burtynsky’s idea of how mines are not just industrial sites but also metaphors for transformation.

Oil captures the intricate picture of an accessible, inexpensive 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, climate change.

Drawing the viewer in aesthetically while opening a window for deeper consideration of an unsettling reality, Shifting Topography offers both awe and warning. Reflecting on the fragility of what may be lost, it asks how a sustainable balance might still be maintained for generations to come.

Located at the historic building known as the Haunted Mansion, Borusan Contemporary is an institution devoted to contemporary art that provides a multi-platform program of exhibitions, events, and educational activities based on the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection. The institution promotes the production of new artworks and publications through commissions and acquisitions since 2011.