“Inner Landscapes” ∏ Hans Wilschut
Eye Filmmuseum is presenting the first exhibition in the Netherlands dedicated to Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s photographs and films, titled “Inner Landscapes”, from January 17 to June 1, 2025. The exhibition brings together Ceylan’s films and his Cinemascope-format photographs, offering a broad perspective on his artistic journey. As one of the leading figures in both photography and cinema over the years, this exhibition provides a comprehensive look at his creative world. On this occasion, we had the opportunity to interview Jaap Guldemond, the exhibition director and curator at Eye Filmmuseum. We sincerely thank him for answering all our questions with great warmth and insight.
Interview with Jaap Guldemond – Director of Exhibitions / Curator Eye Filmmuseum:
What inspired you to open this special exhibitionfeaturing the photographs and films of Nuri Bilge Ceylan? How did the whole process unfold?
The idea for the exhibition had been going around in my head for a while already, because of the extraordinary artistic quality of the cinematic oeuvre of Nuri Bilge Ceylan that was known in the Netherlands only by a small group of people. Apart from that, there has to be a good reason to not just present his films in one of our cinemas, but to conceive an exhibition of his work in our exhibition space. Sort of recently I discovered the photographic oeuvre of Nuri Bilge Ceylan and the importance of photography within his artistic body of works.
Young Men in Ağri (2005)
His photo series Turkey Cinemascope especially triggered the idea for me to create an exhibition in which his films could be ‘matched’ by a precise selection of photographs from this series. Although very different in the making, the photos and the films of Ceylan share many common features. Features that are becoming more evident for the viewer when combined in an exhibition.
Two Sisters (Dogubeyazit, 2004)
In the exhibition, we see images captured from Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s perspective, both as photographs and films, from various regions of Anatolia. What does this exhibition mean to you and to visitors from all around the world?
To me the exhibition is a means to ‘tell about’ and show the audience the importance of Ceylans work. And not only the amazing artistic quality of his work, but also very interesting and relevant sociopolitical themes that his work adresses. Themes like the contrast between city and countryside, secularism and religion, academically trained versus practically trained, rich and poor, man and woman, and individualism versus collectivism. Although these issues are inextricably tied to contemporary Turkish history in Ceylans work, the themes are also universal and will resonate by many many people from all over the world.
The exhibition is open until 1 June 2025. Do you have any advice for those who have not yet visited but are planning to do so?
Don’t miss it and take your time in the exhibition to be able to ‘connect’ to the slow pace of Ceylans work. His work purposely tries to slow down and open up the viewers own contemplation.
Distant (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2002)
What can visitors expect from Eye Filmmuseum in the coming months?
Apart from the exhibition which is open seven days a week, there are also daily screenings of Mr. Ceylans feature films in our cinemas. And next to this we are organizing some interesting ‘talks’ and screenings around the work of Nuri Bilge Ceylan these coming months.
More info here.
In the meantime we will continu to prepare for two upcoming exhibitions: the next one will feature works from US artist and Oscar nominated filmmaker Garrett Bradley (from 14 June onwards). Consecutively, we will present a special exhibition curated by British icon Tilda Swinton (from 28 September onwards)
Thank you for all your answers.
We would like to thank dear Rachel Voorbij for making this interview possible.
Interview: Enes Serenli
Othon Cinema 
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