THE MEANING OF ‘BEING POLITICAL’: AN ANALYSIS OF ‘ARTIST INITATIVES’ IN ISTANBUL by NIL UZUN Submitted to the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Cultural Studies Sabancı University Fall 2009 © Nil Uzun 2009 All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT THE MEANING OF ‘BEING POLITICAL’: AN ANALYSIS OF ‘ARTIST INITATIVES’ IN ISTANBUL Nil Uzun M.A. in Cultural Studies 2009 Supervisor: Professor Ayşe Öncü Keywords: Artist Initiatives, Being Political, Framing, Transnational Networks The emergence of ‘artist initiatives’ represent a new form of collective organization in the contemporary art scene in Turkey. In the media, they have acquired news value and framed as a link between creativity and ‘being political’. With the use of culture as a resource in the era of neoliberalism, this thesis aims to analyze the three distinct factors, which lend specific content and meaning to the idea of ‘being political’ in Istanbul’s art scene. Firstly the historical and institutional constitution of the art field in Turkey during the past two decades of neoliberalism; secondly the discursive framings of actors in this field on this subject and thirdly the growing linkages with transnational networks of artists and activists. iii ÖZET ‘POLİTİK OLMANIN’ ANLAMI: İSTANBUL’DAKİ ‘SANATÇI İNİSİYATİFLERİ’NİN BİR ANALİZİ Nil Uzun Tez Danışmanı: Prof.Dr. Ayşe Öncü Kültürel Çalışmalar Yüksek Lisans Programı Anahtar Kelimeler: Sanatçı İnisiyatifleri, Politik Olmak, Ulusötesi Ağlar Sanatçı inisiyatiflerinin ortaya çıkışı, Türkiye’de güncel sanat alanında yeni bir kolektif organizasyon formunu temsil etmektedir. Basında, bu organizasyonlar haber değeri kazanmakta ve yaratıcılık ile ‘politik olmak’ arasındaki bir bağlantı olarak ifade edilmektedir. Neoliberal çağda kültürün bir kaynak olarak kullanılmasıyla beraber, bu tez, İstanbul sanat sahnesinde ‘politik olmak’ fikrine içerik ve anlam kazandıran üç ayrı faktörü incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bunlardan birincisi Türkiye’deki sanat alanının neoliberalismin son yirmi yılındaki tarihsel ve kurumsal dönüşümü ikincisi bu alandaki aktörlerin bu konuya dair söylemsel çerçeveleri ve üçüncüsü ise ulus ötesi sanatçı ve aktivist ağlarla olan bağlantılardaki artışlardır. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My profound thanks to my advisor Ayşe Öncü for letting me find my own voice but at the same time never letting me to get lost on the way. Without her support, her belief in me, her friendship and her critical advices stemming from experience and brilliance, this project would not be that exciting in each step. I am indebted to the people from contemporary art circles for their insights, sharing their ideas and for opening up their hearts during long hours of talks. A number of individuals, their works and guidance in and out of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in Sabanci University, have provided me the inspiration and motivation to go on when I felt confused and exhausted. I am appreciative of Dicle Kogacioglu and Ayşe Gül Altınay as well as the faculty of Cultural Studies program who together enabled me to explore an interdisciplinary approach to culture. I am also grateful to Meltem Ahıska for her invaluable contributions to this thesis. Other individuals’ friendship and intellectual generosity have provided me the courage to believe in a way that academic achievement and personal integrity nurture one another. They include Eda Güçlü, Zeynep Ülker Kaşlı, Özgül Akıncı, Burak Köse, Önder Küçükkural, Demet Yıldız, Özge Yağış, Zozan Pehlivan, Zeynep Çetrez, Serkan Yolaçan, and Bülent Küçük with whom I have been constantly and enthusiastically supported and challenged by during my graduate studies in Sabanci University. I am also thankful to my friends Gözde Aras, Renk Dimli and Selin Doğu for making this process easier in any possible way. No words can express my gratitude to dearest Gürkan Mıhçı in this process for being there whenever I need. I am most grateful to my family Rengin and İbrahim Uzun, for being the greatest parents, friends, mentors and for being everything I need. Without their companionship in life, I would not be who I am now. Finally, I am thankful to Şemsa Özar, to whom this thesis is dedicated. She believed in me before myself; without her encouragement and inspiration, I would not be even imagining what I have come through. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 Purpose of the Present Study ………………………………………………..2 Some Theoretical Considerations……………………………………………3 Method of the Study .....................................................................................10 Organization of the Chapters ........................................................................12 Chapter 1: Art and Politics in the Neoliberal Era ...........................................................14 1.1 Shifting Parameters of the Art Field in Contemporary Istanbul…………..16 1.2 Making Distinctions: “Modern” versus “Current” Art ………………...…20 Chapter 2: ‘Not Political Enough’…………………………….......................................30 2.1 Framing ‘Political’..................................................................................... ..31 2. 2 ‘The Political’ for Contemporary Art Scene of Istanbul …..... …………..36 2.2.1 Collective Identity ………………………………………………... 40 2.2.2 Hierarchies and Positions ……………...…...…………………….46 Chapter 3: “Being Political is In”…………………………………………….………....51 3.1 Mobilization ……………………………………………….……………...52 3.1.1 Assassination of Hrant Dink - 19 th January Collective ……..…….53 3.1.2 Feminism as “Another form of Discrimination” ‘The F Word’…..54 3.1.3 Diyarbakır, a Site of ‘Being Political’……………………............57 3.1.4 “Public Space”, “Street” and Intervention”.……………………....60 3.2 Opportunities …………………………………….……………..………...64 3.2.1 The Myth of EU Funds …..…………………………………..…...64 3.2.2 Optimism, Global War and the Biennials ………………………....71 Conclusion …………………………………....………………………………………...74 Appendix A …………………………………………………………………………….79 Appendix B ……………………………………………………………………………..81 References ….…………………………………………………………………….……..85 vi APPROVED BY: Prof. Dr. Ayşe Öncü (Dissertation Supervisor) Assist.Prof. Dr. Dicle Koğacıoğlu Assoc. Prof. Dr. Meltem Ahıska DATE OF APPROVAL: 3 rd February 2009 vii INTRODUCTION Three years ago, on June 14 of 2006 to be specific, a group of artists organized a formal meeting to discuss the formation of what are referred to as “independent artist initiatives” in Istanbul. The meeting attracted large numbers of participants from different fields of the contemporary art scene in Istanbul, including prominent writers, curators, academics, art historians and artist groups. (See Appendix A for the list of participants) On the agenda of the meeting were such issues as independence, autonomy, finance, sustainability that are vital questions for “artists initiatives” and “independent/alternative artist run spaces”. The emergence of such small scale artist organizations, collectives, gatherings or ‘alternative spaces’, represent a new form of collective organization in the contemporary art scene in Turkey. 1 Over the past three years, they have become the focus of a series of debates, workshops and conferences held in Istanbul on art and ‘new’ forms of political engagement. In the mainstream media, they have acquired news-value, framed as initiatives that link creativity in art with protest and activism. The ‘art and culture’ pages of major newspapers invariably refer to artists initiatives as reference point in debates on art and politics. In tandem with the growing significance of Istanbul Biennials, both nationally and internationally, imagining a form of being political through art has become associated with the emergence of so-called independent initiatives. As the curator of the 10 th Istanbul Biennial, Hou Hanru put it, “resistance needs new forms of action which sought to create new networks of relations between artist-run spaces” 2 and organization of art events, which means more initiatives and collectives that bring together artists, cultural producers and researchers within trans-disciplinary, trans-cultural venues.” The following newspaper headlines exemplify this phenomenon: 1 PIST, PIST blog, http://pist-org.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_archive.html#114964145025032134 2 Hou Hanru, “Initiatives, Alternatives: Notes in a Temporary and Raw State”, How Latitudes Become Forms, Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, (36-39) quoted in Tan (2008, 131-132). 1 “A cultural garage [Garage Istanbul] which gives priority to remaining independent, articulating the present, being political , being aware and reaching the masses.” 3 “(...) This is the most political biennial [10 th Istanbul Biennial] ever held in the world (...), what the curator [Hou] Hanru means by optimism is the ongoing revitalization of political sensitivity and criticism which was lost in 90s ”4 “Artist Initiatives are the address for total independence in art .”5 Purpose of the Present Study My main objective in this thesis is to explore how ‘the political’ is constructed and contested within the contemporary art field in Turkey. Specifically, I want to focus on these newly emergent artists’ initiatives and/or alternative artist-spaces in Istanbul, to understand the meanings associated with ‘being political’, along with such terms as ‘protest’, ‘activism’, ‘independence’ and ‘resistance’ are constituted. More broadly, I will argue that the dynamics, which lend