Martch Art Project is pleased to announce ReCollecting Anatolia, the first solo exhibition in Türkiye by Casper Faassen. Working from his studio in Leiden, Faassen examines how Western museum collections have been formed and how cultural authority has been historically constructed.
Through a process he terms “ReCollecting,” Casper Faassen traces objects dispersed across geographies and re-photographs them within newly constructed contexts, thereby challenging established narratives surrounding the formation of collections.
The scene of transportation depicted in the painting is associated with Guillaume-Joseph Grelot Hilaire and his travels in the region alongside the French ambassador Comte de Choiseul-Gouffier. It reflects a broader 18th-century practice of transferring cultural artifacts from Ottoman territories to Western Europe—a process often shaped by asymmetrical power relations. Faassen has succeeded in tracing the marble objects represented in the painting, identifying that many are now housed within the collection of the Louvre Museum. Through his distinctive visual language, the artist reassembles these objects photographically. Veiled behind translucent layers and covered with craquelé surfaces, the sculptures emerge as fragile images marked by time, memory, and displacement.
Rather than presenting these works as historical spoils, Faassen positions them as silent
witnesses, inviting reflection on the displacement of cultural artifacts and the narratives that continue to shape museum collections.
