Turkey in the global art scene: dual narratives in the politics of international exhibitions after the 1980s

Abstract

This study investigates contemporary art and heritage exhibitions as instruments that kept changing vision of the nation as well as the modern cultural policies to control cultural sphere of the society and representing national identity as a part of social memory of the people in the post-1980s. This dissertation underlines three transformations. In Turkey's cultural politics, after 1980, the first was the formation of the privatization in art and culture and the rise of the Turkish bourgeoisie, directly related to the neo-liberal capitalist economic formation. While the local Turkish art scale penetrated the international vision of Turkey in the world, the neo-liberal economic and political change triggered the form cultural policy took after the 1980s. The second is the change in Republican art history writing from a statist, monolithic, discourse to a post-modern discourse, based on diversity and multiple pasts. The third is the gradually shifting image of Turkey from a nationalist/Turkist identity into a more cosmopolitan and multicultural one, as designated in international heritage exhibitions and international contemporary art events. In light of this perspective, the study analyzes Turkey's internationally-framed heritage exhibitions and modern art in the age of globalization. I argue that both international heritage exhibitions and modern art exhibitions carry political, social, and cultural implications and are related closely the representation of the Turkish identity and art history.