One of Istanbul's most famous sculptures, "Mediterranean Sea" is a figure of a woman with outstretched arms, formed from 112 evenly spaced strips of 12mm thick sheet metal.
According to the sculptor himself, when he heard about such manifestations of love as hugs, the image of the Mediterranean Sea appeared before him. This impression was the inspiration for his work. The sculptural composition, which displays the technique of cutting and folding paper, weighs 4.5 tons.
In 1981, Ilhan Koman was awarded the Sedat Simavi Fine Arts Foundation Prize for this work.