A marina that creates space for art: Milta Bodrum

Milta Marina, which has been serving in the center of Bodrum since the 1980s with its capacity to meet all the demands of boat owners, is both the center of the entertainment and social life of the city where long nights are experienced and the meeting point for art lovers with the four different galleries it manages.

Milta Bodrum has long been known as the marina with the highest daily entry and exit traffic in Türkiye. It is an exemplary facility that has made a difference with its advanced service understanding due to its shopping center and all kinds of technical service units, and has become an important brand on the international platform and Bodrum’s gateway to the world. The marina, which is active in all seasons and has many services including sea ambulance, is also the first business to have a Safe Tourism Certificate.

Its location is within walking distance of the Mausoleum, one of the seven wonders of the world, the historic Bodrum Castle, the Ancient Theater, the monumental Myndos Gate, and is in a place where many important events in maritime history took place. The success of Milta Bodrum Marina, which has been awarded the Gold Anchor international quality award five times by the European Boating Association, has received the National Blue Flag award every year since 1998 and has won the Best Environmental Awareness Activities Award, is reinforced by the many events it hosts throughout the year. The most important of these is the summer and winter race organizations with the clubs it cooperates with.

Preferring to support the arts over profitability, the company prioritises exhibitions with a marine theme.

Not content with all this, in recent years the marina management has decided to open up its indoor and semi-outdoor spaces to the arts and has transformed three spaces within the marina into art galleries. The marina, which also assumes the title of Bodrum’s art center with constantly renewed exhibitions, exhibits an understanding that increases the prestige of the marina while opening a space for young artists looking for a place to show their art. In Bodrum, where real estate and business values are above the national standards, the company, which prefers supporting the arts to profitability, sets an example for other marinas by prioritizing local artists and sea-themed exhibitions, adding fine arts to the values it adds to the city.

One of the last exhibitions opened towards the end of 2024 is a good example of this line. Born in 1979, Mustafa Çavuş is a painter, painting instructor and curator known for his Black Sea-themed works. The works in his exhibition Seyr-i Derya, consisting of oil paintings, explore the images formed in perception as a result of the new perspectives brought to nature by technology.

The artist defines his sincere and carefree style, which contains graphic patterns, with a simple approach that looks at the world of sailors from a bird’s eye view, with the following words: “The boat makes you feel the journey to peace and freedom. That’s the feeling; we are always facing towards freedom, but we have ties behind us. Freedom is always ready like a boat on the shore and the peace of knowing that… An endless blue represents peace. An endless blue, everywhere you look, you see the sea and the deep… You’re in the middle of nowhere, at once eerie and fascinating. Far from the story created by man, no trace of civilization, nothing in an endless void. It’s a tremendous feeling.”

Milta Bodrum Marina operates three different art galleries within Milta Bodrum Marina, as well as an art gallery in the historic Ottoman Shipyard on neighboring land. The magnificent bastion structure of this local cultural heritage, which is one of the most important points in Bodrum’s maritime and boatbuilding history and where galleons were built in the 18th century, continues its new life as an art gallery after being restored.

Mustafa Çavuş
Was born in 1979 in Trabzon. He graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at Atatürk University Faculty of Education in 2002. In the same year, he was appointed as a painting teacher at Pazaryolu Primary School in Erzurum. In 2010, he continued his career at Rize Turkish Telekom Fine Arts High School. He is the founder and president of the Rize Plastic Arts Association.

The artist has participated in numerous national and international group exhibitions and continues his work in his own studio. Mustafa Çavuş explores the new perspectives that technology brings to the world and nature, researching visual phenomena and examining new approaches in the visual arts. His works offer a simple and direct approach to a bird’s-eye view of the world. Since nature, from this perspective, contains interesting graphical patterns, he adopts a sincere, simple, and carefree style in his works.

In his work “Boat,” he describes the bird’s-eye view of the boat as an image of the sea and land, containing graphical effects from nature. The boat represents a journey towards peace and freedom. The emotion is as such; our future is always directed toward freedom, but our ties remain behind. Freedom, like a boat on the shore, is always ready, and knowing this brings peace… The endless blue represents peace.
Exhibitions:
2014 Colors of the Black Sea group exhibition, Trabzon. 2016 Colors of the Black Sea group exhibition, Trabzon. 2017 Başkent University group exhibition, Ankara. 2018 Colors of the North, Istanbul.
2019 Trabzon in the 101st Year of its foundation group exhibition, Ankara.
Unheard Scream Khojaly, Azerbaijan.
Rize Plastic Arts Association, Istanbul.
2021 Start group exhibition, Rize.
2022 75th State Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, Ankara.
2023 ArtAnkara, Ankara.
2023 Artcontact, Ankara.
Awards:
Gazi University International Painting Competition exhibition award.
Şamil Foundation International Painting Competition exhibition award.
Ministry of Culture and Tourism 75th State Painting and Sculpture Exhibition exhibition award.