Bursa Karagöz Museum ( tr, Bursa Karagöz Müzesi) is a museum located at Osmangazi in Bursa, northwestern Turkey, dedicated to the folkloric shadow play figures Karagöz and Hacivat. It was established in 2007.

Background

The museum is located on the Çekirge Street in Çekirge quarter of

Osmangazi Osmangazi is one of the central metropolitan districts of the city of Bursa in Bursa Province, as well as the fourth largest overall municipality in Turkey. The municipality has a population of approximately 778,843 as of 2012. On its own, it wou ...

district in

Bursa ( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the ...

. It is situated in a former power distribution building. The building, which was sometime not in use, was converted into an art house by the Bursa Municipality and the Bursa Art and Culture Foundation, and opened on 15 June 1997. It was named the "Karagöz House" in regard to the "Manument of Karagz and Hacivat" standing just across the building, which is a cultural symbol of Bursa. The art arthouse consisted of a theatre hall, where traditional Turkish shadow play

Karagöz and Hacivat Karagöz (literally ''Blackeye'' in Turkish) and Hacivat (shortened in time from "Hacı İvaz" meaning "İvaz the Pilgrim", and also sometimes written as Hacivad) are the lead characters of the traditional Turkish shadow play, popularized during ...

was performed, a gallery of Karagöz and Hacivat puppets, a speciality library and a design workshop. With the establishment of the international puppetry association

UNIMA UNIMA (''Union Internationale de la Marionnette'' - ''International Puppetry Association'') was founded in Prague in 1929 (the then Czechoslovak magazine Loutkář was UNIMA's first official journal in years 1929–1930). In 1981, the French pup ...

's Bursa branch, the art house turned into a center to revive the traditional shadow play. Ten years later of its foundation, the art house was converted into Karagöz Museum by the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality in 2007.

Exhibits

The museum consists of two galleries. The first gallery is about the history of shadow play. In the second gallery, 61 pieces of original Karagöz puppets gathered from traditional shadow play collections are on display. In addition, collections of several puppeteers enrich the same gallery. There are also Karagöz-Hacivat cartoons from Ottoman era newspapers and various

ephemera Ephemera are transitory creations which are not meant to be retained or preserved. Its etymological origins extends to Ancient Greece, with the common definition of the word being: "the minor transient documents of everyday life". Ambiguous in ...

on Karagöz. The museum hosts also temporary exhibitions.

Admission

The museum is open every day from 9:30 to 17:30 hours local time, but closed on Mondays. During the semester holidays, school children show interest to visit the museum. Shadow play performances are free of charge. In 2018, the number of museum visitors totalled to 129,000.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karagoz Museum Museums in Bursa Folk art museums and galleries Art museums and galleries in Turkey Museums established in 2007 2007 establishments in Turkey Osmangazi