* The only surviving Byzantine monastic complex from 9th-century Constantinople has been uncovered in the KucukyalI Arkeopark, located on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, the Italian head of the excavation team said Thursday.
  The rich monastic complex, built between 867 and 877, encompasses the church and burial place of Patriarch Ignatios, a prominent figure in Byzantine history who is depicted in the mosaics inside Hagia Sophia.
  The team leader Alessandra Ricci said that the discovery is a wonderful opportunity for her since she has a great passion for the Byzantine period and it is very rare to find wall paintings from that era in Istanbul.
  Ricci added that they found beautifully decorated marble floors, golden mosaics, wonderful coins and beautiful art objects that deserve to be displayed in a museum.
  The Byzantinist scholar said she decided to conduct the first excavations in the area in order to eliminate the ambiguity about whether the archaeological remains belonged to the Byzantine or Ottoman periods. She received permission from the General Directorate of Monuments and Museums, part of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and has been working under the direction of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums since 2008.
  In addition to identifying the site as Byzantine, the excavations have retrieved organic residue from the period that are being used to examine patterns of climate change and other aspects of the history of Istanbul. "There was a lot of grain, but no olive trees or vineyards," Ricci said, emphasizing that the team is also interested in exploring how much the ecological system and the climate have been transformed.
  She plans to continue her work excavating the complex's church next year.

* As part of the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture events, "Jazz in Ramadan" will host the greatest jazz musicians of the Muslim world on August 15.
  The festival will feature eight concerts that will be performed amid the magical atmosphere of TopkapI Palace and in the garden of the Archaeology Museum in Istanbul.
  Anouar Brahem Quartet will perform the first concert of the event Saturday at the Archaeology Museum. Other world-renowned Muslim jazz artists Ahmad Jamal, Abdullah Ibrahim and Dhafer Youssef will be the guests of the festival, as well as Turkish ilhan Er$ahin and AydIn Esen. Esen will perform his special program titled "AydIn Esen Plays for Ramadan."
  As part of the festival, there will also be a Dede Efendi concert by one of the best Turkish music performers, Munip UtandI, with Dede Efendi Ensemble at the Archaeology Museum. The concert will be a great opportunity for classical Turkish music fans.
  Kudsi Erguner and his group, as part of his "Islam Blues" project, will perform the last concert of the festival.

* The third International Sinop Biennial, Sinopale, will be organized from Aug. 14 to Sept. 4 around the theme 'Hidden Memories, Lost Traces.' For curator Beral Madra, the Sinop Biennial is important not only for locals in the central Turkish Black Sea area, but also other regional countries to forge strong international relationships with each other.
  Melih Gorgun and Beral Madra, who are the founders and supporters of the biennial, organized with the contributions of many national and international organizations and NGOs, spoke to Muge Akgun about the Sinopale and Turkey's policies on culture and arts.
  The idea for a biennial emerged because Gorgun wanted to make a contribution to the city where he was born and grew up. Gorgun, who believed the cultural background of the province of Sinop would be receptive to such an event, shared the idea with Madra, an experienced figure in biennial organization.
  Since 2000, there has been a need to spread contemporary art to all of Turkey, Madra said, who has become very excited about the Sinop project. After observing the city and the art potential around it, she understood the necessity of the idea.
  For the last five years, they had been questioning the role of culture and arts in the development of the city, Gorgun said.
  According to Madra, the Sinop Biennial is also important for other Black Sea countries with contemporary art rising in neighboring countries like Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia.
  The exhibitions displaying artwork will be launched at the opening at historical Sinop Prison. Meanwhile, artists participating in the opening include Joel Andrianomearisoa, Maria Ikonomopoulou, Georg Klein, Masa Project, Seyit Saatci, Jelena Vasiljev and Ludwig Kittinger.
  As part of the Sinopale, there will also be a "Gotland Pedagogy Art Seminar" for training art teachers led by Sonja TanrIsever; art workshops for children; "The Giant Symphony Within Me II" – musical therapy workshop by Renan Koen; "To Get Lost… Hidden Faces…" – theater workshop run by Hulya Karaka$ in collaboration with the Gebze City Theater; a performing arts workshop run by Karena Johnson in collaboration with independent theaters in Sinop and the exhibition "Temporarily Shelved," including Turkish and Irish artists curated by Rana ozturk and Vaari Claffey at Dr. RIza Nur Public Library.
  The international forum "Arts and Culture as Catalysts for Urban Development and Social Transformation" will be another important event at Sinopale III.

* Shadow play "Karagoz," which is an important branch of traditional Turkish theater, is kept alive only as a tool of entertainment during the month of Ramadan, according to a leader in the genre.
  Karagoz performance master and member of the Worldwide Puppetry Organization, or UNIMA, unver Oral said he had been writing articles and giving conferences and performances of traditional Turkish theater for the last 50 years. He said that the terms "traditional Turkish theater" and "Karagoz" were remembered only in the month of Ramadan today. "This brings Karagoz to a dangerous standstill," he said.
  He added "If a Turkish Public Theater was opened in Istanbul, all things regarding Karagoz would be kept there. The theater would have an archive, museum and all documents about Karagoz".
  Oral said the number of traditional Turkish theater artists was very few today, adding that even a training opportunity would be impossible if those artists could not train new ones.
  "If a Turkish Public Theater is established, the last masters would do something to train new ones. But traditional Turkish theater will come to an end with the last masters. From now on, there will be shows performed for money only. It is not possible to learn it from books since it is impromptu. If state organizations protected it, our traditional theater would be alive today. This is caused by the fact that these artists are ignored. I have been working for 50 years without getting any help," Oral said.
  Oral said he had offered a project to the Education Ministry in 1991 to include Karagoz in the curriculum and the project was approved. But, he said, Karagoz was performed only in some schools and then forgotten again.
  "When I was a child, I saw the pictures of Karagoz and Hacivat in a magazine. I drew them on cardboard and performed for my brother. Later on, in 1961 there was an ad in a newspaper that the Karagoz and Puppet Performers Association opened a course. This ad was a turning point for me. We attended the course with many friends and we met with the real Karagoz and Hacivat play for the first time. I tried to learn everything about the traditional Turkish theater. When I retired in 1983 I began to focus more on performing. But now I especially focus on writing books," Oral said.
  Oral said that innovation was not possible in any branch of the traditional Turkish theater since it has strict rules, but it can be improved. He said he had written some 70 books, adding that Karagoz would die with the last masters, and this is why he focused on writing books to keep Karagoz alive.