ELDORADO: A Wor{l}d Game

Solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts of Split  (Galerija Umjetnina), Croatia

April 10 - May 19, 2019

Curated by Başak Şenova and Branko Franceschi

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Presented at the Split City Museum, Eldorado is Ali Cabbar’s research-based project examining the relationship between contemporary art, urban transformation, and gentrification. Developed over several years, the project began in 2016 when the Dolapdere neighborhood near the artist’s studio in Istanbul started to change rapidly following the construction of a major contemporary art museum. As art galleries and cultural institutions began moving into the area, Dolapdere became a clear example of a global pattern in which art acts as a catalyst for economic and social displacement.​

Through installation, photography, and symbolic interventions, Cabbar questions the role of the artist within this process. Is art a tool of resistance, or does it unintentionally become an instrument of exclusion? By observing how cultural institutions can transform neighborhoods while pushing existing communities to the margins, Eldorado reflects on the uneasy relationship between creativity and capital.​

The title Eldorado refers to the mythical city of gold—a place of promise, desire, and illusion. In Cabbar’s work, it becomes a metaphor for urban aspiration and the seductive image of progress. Several works in the exhibition were covered with gold leaf, reinforcing this symbolic connection to wealth, luxury, and the false promise of prosperity. Alongside these pieces, Cabbar presented photographs of the Dolapdere neighborhood taken during its transformation, documenting the visible traces of change and the gradual rewriting of the urban landscape.​

Behind the polished surfaces of cultural investment lies a more complex reality of erasure and social imbalance. Eldorado invites viewers to reconsider who truly benefits from urban renewal, and what is sacrificed in the name of development. The exhibition turns the myth of paradise into a critical reflection on the cost of progress and the hidden consequences of cultural prestige.