Murathan Özbek’s “Taş Düşedursun”: Sisyphus, Iceland and the Body in an Ankara Photography Show

Standing in front of a massive boulder in Iceland, photographer Murathan Özbek asked himself a simple question: was Sisyphus’s stone like this? That question became “Taş Düşedursun,” his solo exhibition at Galeri Siyah Beyaz in Ankara, on view from 16 October to 21 November 2026.

A myth of repetition, suspended

In Greek myth, Sisyphus is condemned to push a rock up a hill forever, only for it to roll back down each time it nears the top. In the twentieth century, Albert Camus turned him into a figure of modern existence: a man who keeps going in a world without guaranteed meaning. Özbek’s title — roughly “let the stone keep falling” in Turkish — shifts the emphasis. According to the exhibition texts published this week, the show rethinks the ideas of repetition and necessity by focusing on a moment in which both the stone and the action are held in suspension.

Iceland as a stage

Iceland’s volcanic landscape is an apt setting for such a meditation. It is one of the youngest terrains on Earth, a place where stone is visibly still being made and unmade by lava, ice and erosion. Photographed there, a boulder is not a timeless object but a moment in a geological process — exactly the kind of in-between state the exhibition explores.

The body in the landscape

Özbek does not leave the landscape empty. He includes the body of artist Ekin Bernay in his photographs, placing a human figure against basalt, scree and open sky. The relationship between body and geography is the exhibition’s main axis: the figure measures the scale of the land, while the land, in turn, frames the body as something just as temporary. The photographs move between documentary record and performance, between the observed and the staged.

Galeri Siyah Beyaz: an Ankara institution

The venue adds its own history. Galeri Siyah Beyaz was founded in 1984 by Faruk Sade in Kavaklıdere, close to Kuğulu Park, at a time when Ankara’s cultural life was under heavy pressure after the 1980 coup. For four decades it has combined a contemporary gallery with a famous bar, making it a meeting point for artists, writers and audiences; today it is run by Fulya and Sera Sade. A thoughtful photography exhibition in this space continues a long tradition of the gallery supporting serious, independent practice in the capital.

Why it is worth a visit

• For photography lovers: landscape photography that goes beyond the picturesque to ask philosophical questions.
• For artists: a clear example of how a single question, asked in front of a single object, can generate an entire body of work.
• For Ankara audiences: a chance to see contemporary photography in one of the city’s most historic independent galleries.

Visiting information

Galeri Siyah Beyaz, Kavaklıdere Sokak No 3/1–2, Kavaklıdere, Çankaya, Ankara. 16 October – 21 November 2026. Phone +90 312 427 0005; please confirm opening hours with the gallery before visiting. Full details are on our Taş Düşedursun listing, and more exhibitions in Ankara, Istanbul and abroad are on Upcoming Art Exhibitions in Leading Galleries.