CULTURE TROUBLE: INSTITUTIONS, LIFESTYLES, POLARIZATION AND BEYOND

Parallel to global trends, we are in a period where one of the main points of conflict in Turkish politics and social life can be described as culture wars. Especially following the 2010 referendum and the Gezi uprising, culture wars have become an expression defining the construction of the government’s hegemony through two opposing socio-cultural camps, as well as identity and lifestyle politics and activities in the cultural and artistic sphere.

In this event initiated by KIRIK, in collaboration with Begüm Özden Fırat, we aspire to envision culture not as a battlefield but as a struggle against attempts to narrow our lives and imagination into two opposing camps. We would like to discuss the rich and productive negotiations in public life and the sphere of cultural expression. We invite you to take a critical yet constructive look at the social struggles and neighborhoods where we wedged into, distancing ourselves from the institutions we have created within or around them and to collectively envision what lies beyond.

Part of a program on culture wars and cultural hegemony.

Program

12:00 

WELCOME

Begüm Özden Fırat & Zeyno Pekünlü

12:15-14:30

THE RETREAT TO CULTURE IN THE OPPOSITION CAMP: CULTURAL HEGEMONY, CULTURAL STRUGGLE, CULTURE AND POLITICS

Emre Tansu Keten

LGBTI+ FRIENDLY SPACES AND LGBTI+ SUBJECTS IN ISTANBUL: CHANGES IN GHETTOS, CAPITAL AND THE CITY

Lara Özlen

WHAT SHALL WE DO TO PROTECT OUR LIVES AS WOMEN DISSOCIATE ON THE BASIS OF WHO THEY VOTE FOR?

Feride Eralp

14:30-15:00

Tea and coffee break

15:00-17:00

INSTITUTIONAL CRITIQUE IN THE FIELD OF ART IN TURKEY

Osman Erden

THE PUBLICNESS OF THE MUSEUM IN TURKEY

Ayşe H. Köksal 

AUTONOMOUS INSTITUTIONS OF CULTURE

Enis Köstepen

Begüm Özden Fırat is a faculty member at the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Sociology Department. She works in urban sociology and sociology of culture, visual culture studies, and social movements. She is among the editors of the volumes Commitment and Complicity in Cultural Theory and Practice (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2009), Cultural Activism: Practices, Dilemmas, Possibilities (Rodopi, 2011) and Küresel Ayaklanmalar Çağında Direniş ve Estetik [Resistance and Aesthetics in the Age of Global Uprisings] (İletişim, 2015). Her book, Encounters with the Ottoman Miniature Contemporary Readings of an Imperial Art, was published in 2015 by I.B. Tauris. She is among the directors of the documentaries Hoşgeldin Lenin [Welcome Lenin] (2016) and Boşluk [The Lightwell] (2020). 

Emre Tansu Keten was born in 1988 in Lüleburgaz. He graduated from the Department of Journalism at the Marmara University Faculty of Communication 2011. He completed a master’s and a doctoral degree at the same university. He was expelled by legislative decree from the university where he worked as a research associate in 2017 for signing the peace petition. After being expelled, he regularly wrote in avenues such as Cumhuriyet Pazar, T24, K24, and Gazete Pencere and worked as an editor and copy editor at various publishers. He has published many articles and book chapters.

Lara Özlen graduated from the Bilgi University Department of Cinema and TV 2013. Afterward, she completed her master’s degree at the Sabancı University Cultural Studies Department in 2017. Since 2013, she has assumed responsibilities such as communication and video editing in various avenues of civil society. Additionally, she continues to write and read as a part-time scholar. Queer issues, gender, memory, and film studies are among her areas of interest. Furthermore, she still enjoys writing small articles on cinema for 5Harfliler and freelance journalism for various newspapers. 

Feride Eralp is a feminist activist who lives in İstanbul. Throughout the last ten years, she has been part of various groups and platforms such as the Women are Strong Together action platform through which the women’s movement coordinates street actions in Istanbul and occasionally across the country, the Women’s Initiative for Peace, the feminist web collective Çatlak Zemin and campaigns carried out that aimed to prevent Turkey from withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention. She has been a volunteer for Feminist Mekan for the last seven years and is among the organizers of the Feminist Night Marches that take place on the March 8 International Women’s Day and the November 25 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Osman Erden completed his master’s thesis titled The Reflection of National Socialism on German Art at the Western Art and Contemporary Art program of the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Social Sciences Institute, after which he earned a doctorate with his dissertation titled Factors Shaping the Area of Contemporary Art in Turkey. Erden continues to serve as an assistant professor at the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Art History Department. Erden was a member of the board of directors of the Turkey branch of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) under UNESCO between 2008-2011 and was president of the same between 2011-2014. His book The Short History of Modern Art was published in 2016. Erden is working on two books; The Art of the Early Modern Period and The Culture Policies of the Nazi Government in Germany. 

Ayşe Hazar Köksal acquired her undergraduate degree at the Boğaziçi University History Department in 1999 and her master’s degree at the European Studies of Society, Science and Technology International Graduate Studies Program with her thesis titled Reading Museums Through Technology in 2002. She received her doctoral degree from the Istanbul Technical University Art History PhD Program in 2011 with her dissertation titled Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum in the Process of the Institutionalization of Art. Köksal has written articles about contemporary art, the museum, the biennial, and institutions in publications such as Genç Sanat, Artist and Sanat Dünyamız, and she is among the editors of the E-Skop Journal of Art History and Critique. Among her fields of work are art and art museums, forms of organization in the arts, museums and architecture, the relation between contemporary art and the market, image and the city, culture policies, cultural and creative industries. 

Enis Köstepen studied international trade and sociology at Boğaziçi University and anthropology at The New School for Social Research. He has been on the editorial board of the Altyazı journal of cinema since its founding in 2001. Since 2008, he has assumed the production of feature films at Bulut Film. Köstepen is among the producers of the movies Tepenin Ardı [Beyond the Hill] (2012) and Abluka [Frenzy] (2015). He has worked as project development and fundraising coordinator at Hafıza Merkezi between 2013-2021. He was among the founders of the Altyazı Cinema Association in 2019 and remains a member of its board of directors.