The museum's first show, entitled ''Compression'', was hosted in Track 05, where art lovers could enjoy works created by students of the Visual Communication, Concepts, Photography and Video departments of Istanbul Bilgi University's Communication Faculty. The exhibition included graphic concepts and photography, traditional communication art, and new media art including 3-D computer animation. Amongst the presented artists were Orhan Cem Çetin, Muhittin Bilginer and Mahir M. Yavuz.

For many years, it has been fashionable to transform industrial buildings into museums, and Silahtaraga powerplant is no exception: the 'Musee d'Orsay' in Paris was a train station, Newcastle's 'Baltic Art Museum' was a manufactory, New York's 'Dia Center' was a printing house and London's 'Tate Modern', too, was a powerhouse, changing from Bankside Electric Powerplant into one of the world's most popular museums for the latest trends in art.

At the Silahtaraga site, the directors have decided to maintain both the building and inside, and to establish an energy and natural resources museum explaining the production of energy. Thus, the art installations will not be allowed to efface the building's history.

The preservationist instinct will not, however anchor this burgeoning institution in the past-rather, the art that will be featured at the power plant will be largely contemporary, and the museum will feature international as well as Turkish artists.