Book | Talks on Memory and Arts | 2021

Talks on Memory and Arts 2020

Hafıza Merkezi (Truth Justice Memory Center)

Co-editor | TR & ENG

The essays which constitute Talks on Memory and Arts 2020 are based on a series of talks carried out online between 16–25 December 2020 as the first public activity of the project on Memory and Arts in Turkey. Coordinated by the Hafıza Merkezi, the project aims to cast a look at today’s Turkey through the lens of artistic creations in an environment where the rule of law, human rights and democratic values are wearing out and non-governmental initiatives struggle with all sorts of threats. The research project, which focused on artistic creation in the fields of visual arts and performing arts from 2000 onwards, consisted of two phases: the first was the constitution of a selection/archive, and the second, its opening to interpretation. In order to allow for multiple readings, the productions included in the selection were open for interpretation by 15 academics, critics and artists from various working fields and debates were carried out within working groups concentrating on specific themes. These discussions were later turned into a series of talks which consequently turned into essays constituting this volume.

Authors featured in this book are Aslı Zengin, Banu Cennetoğlu, Banu Karaca, Begüm Özden Fırat, Dilan Yıldırım, Ege Berensel, Erden Kosova, Ezgi Bakçay, Nora Tataryan, Özlem Hemiş, Tanıl Bora, Turgut Tarhanlı, Umut Tümay Arslan, Zeynep Günsür Yüceil and Zeynep Sayın. Those who have contributed to this volume include Meltem Ahıska with the foreword and Lara Fresko Madra who interviewed the project team. This volume was edited by Eylem Ertürk and Sevim Sancaktar, designed by Salih Gürkan Çakar and translated into English by Baptiste Gacoin.

Ertürk, Eylem, and Sevim Sancaktar, eds. Hafıza ve Sanat Konuşmaları 2020. Istanbul: Hafıza Merkezi, 2021.

The book was published originally in Turkish ISBN: 978-605-70285-0-1

Ertürk, Eylem, and Sevim Sancaktar, eds. Talks on Memory and Arts 2020. Translated by Baptiste Gacoin. Istanbul: Hafıza Merkezi, 2021.

The English translation is available as an e-book ISBN: 978-605-70285-5-6

Contents

Foreword: Memory and Art: For Equality, Liberty, Justice and Peace 

Meltem Ahıska | 9 

Bridges, Chains and Ruptures 

Erden Kosova | 19 

“The Politics of Art” in Turkey in the 2000s: Karşı Sanat Çalışmaları 

Ezgi Bakçay | 27 

Violence, Memory and Art within the Context of the Right to Freedom of Artistic Expression and Creativity 

Turgut Tarhanlı | 39 

Histories of Ongoing Violence: Complicity and Implication 

Banu Karaca | 61 

An Essay on the Representation of Violence and the Possibility of Confrontation with the Past 

Nora Tataryan | 69

Planning and Statufying Memory 

Tanıl Bora | 79 

The Body in Hope Slips Into Uncanny Spaces or a Praise of the Void 

Zeynep Günsür Yüceil | 95 

The Memory of Antigone 

Özlem Hemiş | 109 

The Possibilities of Memory and Posthuman Bodies: Techno-Monsters and Ghosts 

Aslı Zengin | 121 

The Time of Childhood: Home, Excavation and Memory 

Umut Tümay Arslan | 135 

Menstrual Blood, Hair and Needle: Constructing Testimony to the Self 

Dilan Yıldırım | 165 

The Memory of Death, the Death of Memory 

Zeynep Sayın | 179

(My/Our) Fantasies, Archive and You? 

Banu Cennetoğlu, Seçil Yersel | 191

The Art of List-Making 

Ege Berensel | 199 

The Outside of the Archive 

Begüm Özden Fırat | 209 

Bridges, Chains and Ruptures: Interviews by Erden Kosova | 217 

Feyyaz Yaman: Outside the Framework | 218 

Gülsün Karamustafa: The Memory of Transience | 230 

Hale Tenger: Like the Backs of Foggy Windows | 236 

Asena Günal: Under Close Watch | 242 

Barış Seyitvan: In Spite of Everything | 248 

Interview with the Project Team 

On the Memory and Arts Research: the Present of the Past, the Future of the Present 

Lara Fresko Madra | 257 

Ayşe İdil, Enis Köstepen, Eylem Ertürk, Gamze Hızlı, Meltem Aslan, Sevim Sancaktar

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