20 December 2006

Painting Exhibition of Türkan Elçi in Armada

As 2006’s final and 2007’s first exhibition, ARMADA will be hosting Mrs. Türkan Elçi, whose painting “Saint Sophia” has won the third prize in “2006 International Fine Arts Contest” in Spain. The paintings displayed at this exhibition are mainly sceneries of the “historical peninsula” of Istanbul.


Award-Winning “Saint Sophia”

The contest that Türkan Elçi has participated is the sole example in the world in its category and has been organized by the cultural association “Valentin Ruiz Aznar” in Granada, Spain, which takes place annually since 1981. There were participants from more than 40 countries from 5 continents . The contest of 2006 has been dedicated to “Antonio Gualda” who is a painter, writer and composer from Granada.

Türkan Elçi who was graduated from Aegean University Agriculture Faculty, worked at Ünal Cimit’s ceramic studio between the years of 1994-1999 and has been working since 2001 at the painting studio of the Assistant Professor Sedat Balkır in the Association of Painting and Sculpture Museums in Istanbul .

In this exhibition in Armada, the artist shares with us her 22 paintings of Istanbul, which are abstract works of interior and exterior spaces mainly on Chora Museum and Saint Sophia Museum.

We would like to invite all art-lovers to this wonderful exhibition at the Armada Lobby!

05 December 2006

Eleni Karaindrou, the Guest of Honour of the Armada Hotel

The Greek composer Eleni Karaindrou who gave a fabulous concert together with the Hacettepe University Symphony Orchestra (Ankara, Turkey) and 5 soloists from Greece the previous night at the Lutfu Kırdar Congress Hall, was the guest of honour of the Armada Hotel during her stay in Istanbul. The renowned musician who made the most important films of the world unforgettable through her compositions, came to Turkey upon the invitation of 5th Pera Fest “Encounter of North-South Musicians for Peace". Here is the news story on her magnificent Istanbul and Ankara concerts by Beril Aktaş from Turkish Daily News...

Here is what she wrote in the Honour Book of Armada:


Dear Mr. Kasım,

In the name of my musicians and myself, I thank you very much to you and your gentle crew for the excellent hospitality that was shown to us in such a beautiful hotel like this...


It is not so easy to forget this magnificent stay!
We will come back soon!
With love,
Eleni Karaindrou,

4 December 2006