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A Day With: Demet Müftüoğlu Eşeli

By ISTANBUL'74
29 June 2020

DAY with

Demet Müftüoğlu Eşeli is the co-founder and creative head of ISTANBUL’74, the international IST. Arts & Culture Festival, ‘74STUDIO and ’74Escape. Born in Istanbul, Demet spent many years in New York City, before returning to her home city to establish her own creative initiatives. Together with her husband Alphan Eşeli, Demet founded ISTANBUL’74 in 2009 with the aim of cultivating platforms that connect Istanbul to the international cultural scene, and forging cultural and artistic relations by bringing together some of the world’s most talented and creative minds. She now juggles her time expertly between running the creative studio, and organising cultural events, festivals, exhibitions and artistic collaborations with creative leaders from around the world.

7 AM

I typically start each morning with a browse through some of my favorite news apps.

NY Times Wall Street Journal Financial Times

Followed by a quick scroll through instagram. I’m always on the hunt for inspiration, and our ISTANBUL’74 account aims to be an inspirational and creative space, sharing the best of arts & culture.

7.30 AM

A wholesome breakfast, fresh coffee and some tunes are always essential to start the day. These days I have these albums on repeat:

8 AM

I take a quiet moment in my favorite part of our home with our cat Punky.

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This garden is our sanctuary, and we made it as green as possible and created our own personal jungle with lots of tall and lush bamboo trees.

9 AM

Missing my usual commute over the Bosphorus to get to the Istanbul ‘74 office, which is on the European side in the neighborhood of Akaretler.

These days, I’m more often working at my desk at home, but I’m also missing my office and library.

9.30 AM

The work day begins with lots of phone-calls and virtual meetings with my teams at ISTANBUL’74 and ‘74STUDIO. Our projects vary greatly, and we work on branding, artistic direction and creative consultancy with the studio, while with ISTANBUL’74 we’re involved in a myriad of creative projects, from exhibitions and artistic collaborations to the IST Festival.

1 PM

I’ll squeeze in a quick lunch break, and lately have been enjoying ordering a treat from the
Vakko Patisserie.

Lately I can’t get enough of listening to podcasts, and while I’m eating I’ll tune into the latest episodes of one of my favorites. Coming from a long background in fashion, I love the insightful and indispensable BOF podcast.

And of course our 74PODCAST! We’ve been speaking to creatives and leaders in their fields from all around the globe, and our inaugural series focuses on discussions on what the future brings

2 PM

After lunch I’ll take a quick moment to check in with some friends around the world. I can’t wait to be able to travel again, but on the other hand this moment has allowed lots of time for some great new projects, like initiatives we’re putting together with our travel platform and community ‘74ESCAPE, including this new series Breaking Bread with Chef Vera Lou Lou.

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Favorite coffee table books and publications.

4 PM

At some point in the day, I’ll stop by the gallery space depending on what project or collaboration we’re working on at the moment. This was from José Parlá’s show in September 2019.

I’ll very often be on a shoot somewhere in the city. This was from a shoot with Cabana Magazine with Antonio Monfreda for the latest issue.

7 PM

After work winds down, in the evening we enjoy food and a drink in the garden, kick back in the living room, listen to records and watch films…

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On the watch-list this week:

Some window calligraphy leftover from our dear friend, artist José Parlá. He did this last year when visiting for his residency and exhibition with ISTANBUL’74