Papers by Duygu Demir
Thresholds, 2018
This paper focuses on the complicated afterlives of the legendary yet understudied Pavilion of Tu... more This paper focuses on the complicated afterlives of the legendary yet understudied Pavilion of Turkey at the Brussels World Fair, also referred to as Expo 58. In so doing, it tracks the exhibition from its construction in a moment characterized by nationalism and high modernism to its partial reincarnation more than fifty years later at a small-scale cultural center in Nicosia, Cyprus in 2010. In 1958, the pavilion combined architecture, design, painting and sculpture in order to embody the idea of synthesis in the arts, a utopian post- war manifestation of European modernity that also resonated in Turkey. The design and displays of the pavilion not only championed synthesis, but were also marked by contesting ideas of nationalism, presenting a hybrid understanding of cultural heritage through Ottoman revivalism, Anatolian humanism, Kemalism, Islamism as well as regional modernism. Consequent tribulations of an evolving sense of nationalism became further embedded in the pavilion when it was dismantled and returned to Turkey after Expo 58. While the pavilion was never to be reconstructed in Turkey as planned as its return to the country coincided with the coup d’état in 1960, it became further entangled with a tortuous political history, marked by two more military coups surrounded by periods of social unrest and indeterminacy. The resurfacing of the most memorable aspect of the pavilion in recent years, a 100-meter long mosaic mural by artist Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, presented in Nicosia in pieces as a monument to fragmentation is a reprisal, and brings issues of national representation through exhibition-making to the fore. The story of the wall’s disappearance, and its consequent re-emergence in Nicosia testifies to the transformation of this symbol of Turkish modernism into an emblematic historical artifact, a signifier of the disenchantment with the project of modernity. Taking up the pavilion as a material case-study and cultural barometer of two markedly different moments in time, this paper rethinks conventional narratives of Turkish modernity through foregrounding questions of absence and disillusionment, and ruminates on the capacity of art and architecture to be re-inscribed through social and politics shifts.
Art Journal, 2019
Review of Angela Harutyunyan's book The Political Aesthetics of the Armenian Avant-Garde:... more Review of Angela Harutyunyan's book The Political Aesthetics of the Armenian Avant-Garde: The Journey of the “Painterly-Real,” 1987–2004. (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2017)
ARTMargins, 2014
Aiming to contextualize Turkish artist İsmail Saray's artist book Leonardo da Vinci (1976), t... more Aiming to contextualize Turkish artist İsmail Saray's artist book Leonardo da Vinci (1976), this text centers around the artist's educational formation and the early years of his artistic practice between the years of 1973–1980, when he was based in Turkey. Tracing key moments in this period including his participation in the Paris Biennial of 1977, the Yeni Eğilimler [New Trends in Art] exhibition of 1979 in Istanbul as well as his guest appearance in the exhibition Sanat Olarak Betik [Book as Art] organized by the conceptualist artist collective Sanat Tanım Topluluğu. This essay also gives a glimpse of the conditions under which artists were operating at the time, heavily influenced by the political developments in Turkey. The dematerialization of Saray's practice is traced through the artist books and his production on paper, including correspondence that led to the production of his artworks by fellow artists elsewhere, a phenomenon that awaits further investigation.
Altan Gürman, 2019
Arter'de düzenlenen Altan Gürman retrospektifinin kataloğu için ısmarlanan bu metinde Altan Gürma... more Arter'de düzenlenen Altan Gürman retrospektifinin kataloğu için ısmarlanan bu metinde Altan Gürman'ın pratiğine Osmanlı'dan beri süregelen askeri ressamlık kavramı üzerinden yaklaşılıyor.
Altan Gürman, 2019
Commissioned for the catalog of "Altan Gürman," one of the inaugural exhibitions of Arter's new m... more Commissioned for the catalog of "Altan Gürman," one of the inaugural exhibitions of Arter's new museum space, this text attempts to look at Gürman's practice through a lineage of military painters, extending as far back to the miniatures of Matrakçı Nasuh and the landscapes of Ahmet Ali (Şeker Ahmed Pasha).
Thresholds, 2018
This paper focuses on the complicated afterlives of the legendary yet understudied Pavilion of Tu... more This paper focuses on the complicated afterlives of the legendary yet understudied Pavilion of Turkey at the Brussels World Fair, also referred to as Expo 58. In so doing, it tracks the exhibition from its construction in a moment characterized by nationalism and high modernism to its partial reincarnation more than fifty years later at a small-scale cultural center in Nicosia, Cyprus in 2010.
In 1958, the pavilion combined architecture, design, painting and sculpture in order to embody the idea of synthesis in the arts, a utopian post- war manifestation of European modernity that also resonated in Turkey. The design and displays of the pavilion not only championed synthesis, but were also marked by contesting ideas of nationalism, presenting a hybrid understanding of cultural heritage through Ottoman revivalism, Anatolian humanism, Kemalism, Islamism as well as regional modernism. Consequent tribulations of an evolving sense of nationalism became further embedded in the pavilion when it was dismantled and returned to Turkey after Expo 58. While the pavilion was never to be reconstructed in Turkey as planned as its return to the country coincided with the coup d’état in 1960, it became further entangled with a tortuous political history, marked by two more military coups surrounded by periods of social unrest and indeterminacy. The resurfacing of the most memorable aspect of the pavilion in recent years, a 100-meter long mosaic mural by artist Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, presented in Nicosia in pieces as a monument to fragmentation is a reprisal, and brings issues of national representation through exhibition-making to the fore. The story of the wall’s disappearance, and its consequent re-emergence in Nicosia testifies to the transformation of this symbol of Turkish modernism into an emblematic historical artifact, a signifier of the disenchantment with the project of modernity.
Taking up the pavilion as a material case-study and cultural barometer of two markedly different moments in time, this paper rethinks conventional narratives of Turkish modernity through foregrounding questions of absence and disillusionment, and ruminates on the capacity of art and architecture to be re-inscribed through social and politics shifts.
This is the translation of the Turkish text inside Saray's artist book "Leonardo da Vinci" to Eng... more This is the translation of the Turkish text inside Saray's artist book "Leonardo da Vinci" to English.
Art Margins, 2014
Aiming to contextualize Turkish artist İsmail Saray's artist book Leonardo da Vinci (1976), this ... more Aiming to contextualize Turkish artist İsmail Saray's artist book Leonardo da Vinci (1976), this text centers around the artist's educational formation and the early years of his artistic practice between the years of 1973–1980, when he was based in Turkey. It identifies key moments in this period including his participation in the Paris Biennial of 1977, the Yeni Eğilimler [New Trends in Art] exhibition of 1979 in Istanbul as well as his guest appearance in the exhibition Sanat Olarak Betik [Book as Art] organized by the conceptualist artist collective Sanat Tanım Topluluğu [STT]. The text also gives a glimpse of the conditions under which artists were operating at the time, heavily influenced by the political developments in Turkey. The dematerialization of Saray's practice is traced through the artist books and his production on paper, including correspondence that led to the production of his artworks by fellow artists elsewhere, a phenomenon that awaits further investigation.
Book Reviews by Duygu Demir
Art Journal, 2019
Review of Angela Harutyunyan's book The Political Aesthetics of the Armenian Avant-Garde: The Jou... more Review of Angela Harutyunyan's book The Political Aesthetics of the Armenian Avant-Garde: The Journey of the “Painterly-Real,” 1987–2004. (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2017)
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Papers by Duygu Demir
In 1958, the pavilion combined architecture, design, painting and sculpture in order to embody the idea of synthesis in the arts, a utopian post- war manifestation of European modernity that also resonated in Turkey. The design and displays of the pavilion not only championed synthesis, but were also marked by contesting ideas of nationalism, presenting a hybrid understanding of cultural heritage through Ottoman revivalism, Anatolian humanism, Kemalism, Islamism as well as regional modernism. Consequent tribulations of an evolving sense of nationalism became further embedded in the pavilion when it was dismantled and returned to Turkey after Expo 58. While the pavilion was never to be reconstructed in Turkey as planned as its return to the country coincided with the coup d’état in 1960, it became further entangled with a tortuous political history, marked by two more military coups surrounded by periods of social unrest and indeterminacy. The resurfacing of the most memorable aspect of the pavilion in recent years, a 100-meter long mosaic mural by artist Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, presented in Nicosia in pieces as a monument to fragmentation is a reprisal, and brings issues of national representation through exhibition-making to the fore. The story of the wall’s disappearance, and its consequent re-emergence in Nicosia testifies to the transformation of this symbol of Turkish modernism into an emblematic historical artifact, a signifier of the disenchantment with the project of modernity.
Taking up the pavilion as a material case-study and cultural barometer of two markedly different moments in time, this paper rethinks conventional narratives of Turkish modernity through foregrounding questions of absence and disillusionment, and ruminates on the capacity of art and architecture to be re-inscribed through social and politics shifts.
Book Reviews by Duygu Demir
In 1958, the pavilion combined architecture, design, painting and sculpture in order to embody the idea of synthesis in the arts, a utopian post- war manifestation of European modernity that also resonated in Turkey. The design and displays of the pavilion not only championed synthesis, but were also marked by contesting ideas of nationalism, presenting a hybrid understanding of cultural heritage through Ottoman revivalism, Anatolian humanism, Kemalism, Islamism as well as regional modernism. Consequent tribulations of an evolving sense of nationalism became further embedded in the pavilion when it was dismantled and returned to Turkey after Expo 58. While the pavilion was never to be reconstructed in Turkey as planned as its return to the country coincided with the coup d’état in 1960, it became further entangled with a tortuous political history, marked by two more military coups surrounded by periods of social unrest and indeterminacy. The resurfacing of the most memorable aspect of the pavilion in recent years, a 100-meter long mosaic mural by artist Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, presented in Nicosia in pieces as a monument to fragmentation is a reprisal, and brings issues of national representation through exhibition-making to the fore. The story of the wall’s disappearance, and its consequent re-emergence in Nicosia testifies to the transformation of this symbol of Turkish modernism into an emblematic historical artifact, a signifier of the disenchantment with the project of modernity.
Taking up the pavilion as a material case-study and cultural barometer of two markedly different moments in time, this paper rethinks conventional narratives of Turkish modernity through foregrounding questions of absence and disillusionment, and ruminates on the capacity of art and architecture to be re-inscribed through social and politics shifts.