Baksı Museum: Contemporary Art Above the Çoruh Valley

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1. What is the Baksı Museum?
2. How do you get to the Baksı Museum?
3. When is the best time to visit the Baksı Museum?
4. What is the history of the Baksı Museum?
5. What is the Baksı Museum famous for?
6. What can you see at the Baksı Museum?
7. Frequently asked questions about the Baksı Museum
8. What do the official records say about the Baksı Museum?

What is the Baksı Museum?

The Baksı Museum (Baksı Müzesi) is a museum of contemporary and traditional art on a bare hilltop above the Çoruh valley, in the village where its founder was born. The village was called Baksı and is now officially Bayraktar. The museum’s aim, as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe put it when awarding its 2014 Museum Prize, is to bring high-standard art and design to an underdeveloped rural area and to revive traditional weaving and textile making.

It is an unexpected sight in the empty uplands of Bayburt: a steel-and-concrete main building with a curved roof, surrounded by annexes built of local stone, with exhibitions of Turkish contemporary art next to rooms of village objects, textiles and handicrafts.

How do you get to the Baksı Museum?

The museum is about 45–50 km from Bayburt city by road, in the direction of İspir. The simplest way to get there is to drive or take a taxi from Bayburt. The nearest airports are Erzurum, about an hour and a half from Bayburt, and Trabzon, about two and a half hours.

The road follows the Çoruh valley; in winter, snow can make the final climb to the village difficult.

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When is the best time to visit the Baksı Museum?

Late spring to early autumn, when the roads are clear and the museum runs its main exhibition season and events. The museum hosts workshops, seminars, concerts and talks, and a summer visit can coincide with one of them.

Opening times change with the season, so check with the museum before you set out, particularly between November and April.

What is the history of the Baksı Museum?

Hüsamettin Koçan, an Istanbul-based artist and dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Marmara University, conceived the idea in 2000 for the village where he was born. It took about ten years to realise, with the support of some 160 contemporary artists. The main building was completed and opened to visitors in 2010. His wife Oya Koçan, a ceramic artist, directs the foundation that supports the museum.

In 2014 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe gave Baksı its annual Museum Prize. The winner keeps a bronze statuette by Joan Miró, “La femme aux beaux seins”, for a year, and the Miró sculpture was displayed at Baksı during that time. Since then the museum has held exhibitions linking traditional crafts with contemporary art, including a show of photographs by the film director Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

What is the Baksı Museum famous for?

• The setting. A hilltop above the Çoruh in a remote mountain village, a long way from any big city.
• The Council of Europe Museum Prize. Awarded in 2014.
• Art with village life. Contemporary works are shown next to the everyday objects and handicrafts of the region.
• Weaving workshops. Local women learn to make updated versions of traditional designs, which creates work in the village.

What can you see at the Baksı Museum?

Contemporary art. Paintings, sculpture and installations by Turkish artists, many of whom supported the museum from the start.

The ethnographic collection. Everyday objects of the region, preserved as part of local heritage, and exhibitions that explore the link between traditional crafts and contemporary art.

The workshops. Folk-art workshops where local women weave and learn traditional techniques. Bayburt’s own textiles, such as kilims and the woollen ehram, are part of this tradition.

The building. The main building’s curved, convex roof was designed to shed the heavy snow of the region, and the annexes around it are built of local stone.

The view. From the terraces you look down into the Çoruh valley and across to the mountains.

Frequently asked questions about the Baksı Museum

What do the official records say about the Baksı Museum?

The 2002 provincial inventory predates the museum, which opened in 2010, but its section on handicrafts describes the weaving tradition that the museum’s workshops set out to keep alive:

In Bayburt, marble and copper working and kilim and ehram weaving are important. The kilim motifs produced in particular belong to Bayburt and are original. Ehram weaving is also a weave particular to the region. Items made from ehram, such as waistcoats, tablecloths, bedspreads, prayer rugs, curtains and ties, attract interest. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Bayburt Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)