As summer ends, our minds quietly start looking for something too. Moving from the coast back to the city, from holiday back to everyday life, what fills that gap is sometimes a new project, and sometimes simply setting aside time for something beautiful.
This is exactly where art comes in. Looking at a painting, walking slowly through an exhibition, or standing in the quiet of a museum — none of these are grand, life-changing acts. But they are small, quiet reminders: beauty is still there, we just need to make time for it.
This is where Zarif Yaşam's approach to an art route comes from. Our aim isn't to visit every exhibition in a city — it's to be able to choose the handful of works, the handful of places, that will genuinely speak to us that month. This is why, for September, we've put together a route that begins in Istanbul and stretches across a few of Europe's major cities — not for you to visit them all, but so you can choose the one that calls to you the most.
In Istanbul this month, two different layers of time come together: at Istanbul Modern, a wide-ranging retrospective dedicated to the life of Semiha Berksoy brings painting, opera, theatre and cinema together in a single journey. At the Pera Museum, an exhibition opens that looks at early Republican-era Istanbul through the lens of photographic archives — a selection that recalls a city's memory, its people, and its culture of dress.
Reaching Paris, three distinct faces await us: at the Petit Palais, the free-spirited journey of Eva Gonzalès, one of the 19th century's important women painters; at the Musée de l'Orangerie, an exhibition focused on Claude Monet's relationship with light and time; and at the Palais Galliera, a selection exploring the world of weaving, embroidery and craftsmanship in French couture tradition — a reminder of how fine handiwork becomes lasting beauty.
Amsterdam and London are also part of this month's route. At the Rijksmuseum, an exhibition tells the quiet stories of garments worn, repaired and preserved across generations; in London, an annual design festival spread across the whole city brings craft and design together.
What this route has in common is really a single idea: beauty isn't only something to be looked at. Sometimes it's thought about, protected, shared, and becomes part of life.
You can find this month's full route on the following page — city, venue, dates, and a short note for each.
You don't have to travel far to see an exhibition; sometimes stepping through the door of a museum you've never visited, in the very same city, is enough. What matters is being able to set aside a small appointment with art that month.
While exploring Istanbul by ferry, on foot and by tram in our Zarif Seyahat section, your path may cross some of the venues on this route too — two sections, two different faces of the same September.