Photographer Burak Bulut’s 4-year project, “Ayaküstü” (loosely translated as “In Haste”), tracks the bizarre encounters during the everyday life of Istanbul. The exhibition centers around the spontaneous appearances of ballerinas in various distinctive urban locations. The project creates an unexpected convergence between ballet—a refined Western performing art traditionally confined to indoor venues—and the raw, living texture of Istanbul’s streets. This encounter intertwines concepts such as city and stage, urban and spectator, while challenging perceptions of location and time in the city.

In this performance-photography series, ballerinas emerge as an awakening outcry within the fabric of Istanbul. However, the project’s focus is not on the ballerinas themselves, but rather on the expressions of Istanbul’s residents who witness these extraordinary moments. The mirror that is momentarily held up to the city finds its meaning in the astonishment, curiosity, and nonchalance that appear on people’s faces. With their elegance set against the backdrop of the metropolis’s ever-transforming historical places, the ballerinas create an intentional distance between the street and passersby, expressing a sense of alienation while reminding us of the variable and transient soul of Istanbul’s streets with all their rhythm, gestures, iconography, and sounds.

As the ballerinas step from traditional stages into streets, subways, stations, shops, and alleys, they infiltrate the ordinary; what typically melts into the city’s relentless flow and becomes invisible gains visibility, if only for a fleeting moment.