E. İolanda Patrizia Bach Ruscello
Patrizia Bach, a draughtswoman, lives and works in Berlin and sometimes in Istanbul. She completed her studies in fine art and visual communication in 2014 as a master class student of Nanne Meyer at the Berlin Weißensee Art Academy, with a thesis on Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project. In 2016 she initiated the exhibition project Past in Each of Its Moments Be Citable (DEPO, Istanbul), in which she invited a group of Turkish and German artists to explore Istanbul in the light of Benjamin’s Theses on the Philosophy of History. Bach’s projects have been presented in many places, including at the Berlinische Galerie Berlin (2020), DEPO, Istanbul (2018) and Walter Benjamin in Palestine – on the Place and Nonplace of Radical Thought in Ramallah (2016). She is the recipient of the Global Grant and the Research Grant of the Berlin Senate (2016/2017) and was a guest at Akademie Schloss Solitude in 2018. Her book Passagen-Arbeit, Zeichnungen zu Walter Benjamin & Paris- Stadtplan; Zu Walter Benjamins ‚Passagen-Werk (Arcades Work, Drawings for Walter Benjamin & the Paris City Map; Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Work) was shortlisted by the Book Art Foundation for the most beautiful German books of 2018. Since 2018 she has been working with the author Regina Dürig on various projects.
Patrizia Bach was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from February to September 2021.
Patrizia Bach, a draughtswoman, lives and works in Berlin and sometimes in Istanbul. She completed her studies in fine art and visual communication in 2014 as a master class student of Nanne Meyer at the Berlin Weißensee Art Academy, with a thesis on Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project. In 2016 she initiated the exhibition project Past in Each of Its Moments Be Citable (DEPO, Istanbul), in which she invited a group of Turkish and German artists to explore Istanbul in the light of Benjamin’s Theses on the Philosophy of History. Bach’s projects have been presented in many places, including at the Berlinische Galerie Berlin (2020), DEPO, Istanbul (2018) and Walter Benjamin in Palestine – on the Place and Nonplace of Radical Thought in Ramallah (2016). She is the recipient of the Global Grant and the Research Grant of the Berlin Senate (2016/2017) and was a guest at Akademie Schloss Solitude in 2018. Her book Passagen-Arbeit, Zeichnungen zu Walter Benjamin & Paris- Stadtplan; Zu Walter Benjamins ‚Passagen-Werk (Arcades Work, Drawings for Walter Benjamin & the Paris City Map; Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Work) was shortlisted by the Book Art Foundation for the most beautiful German books of 2018. Since 2018 she has been working with the author Regina Dürig on various projects.
Patrizia Bach was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from February to September 2021.
Blog post
Exhibition Tours with E. Iolanda Patrizia Bach Ruscello
As part of Tarabya Cultural Academy’s 15th anniversary celebrations, E. Iolanda Patrizia Bach Ruscello’s solo exhibition Past, Quotable in Every Moment – Using Istanbul as an Example is on view at the German Consulate General in Istanbul. On three dates in October, the artist, an alumna of Tarabya Cultural Academy, invites visitors to join her for artist-led tours of the exhibition.
The tours offer an opportunity to explore the exhibition with the artist and gain insight into her long-standing engagement with history, memory and city archives.
At the centre of the exhibition is the TOMIKO archive, which the artist has been building for more than twenty years. It is a collection of private family snapshots and amateur photographs – images she regards as often-overlooked historical records. The exhibition presents photographs from the archive’s Istanbul holdings, complemented by the artist’s drawings and by fragments of Walter Benjamin’s On the Concept of History in German, Turkish and English.
Drawing on Benjamin’s reflections on the writing of history, the exhibition explores how the past becomes visible and how it continues to resonate in the present. Photographs, drawings and texts enter into dialogue with the architecture and historical furnishings of the Consulate General, opening up new perspectives on Istanbul as a place shaped by layered memories.
Dates
14 October 2026, 5 pm
21 October 2026, 5 pm
28 October 2026, 5 pm
Venue: German Consulate General in Istanbul
Prior registration is required.
With the kind support of Siemens Energy.
In cooperation with the German Consulate General in Istanbul.