Art in Japan>Contemporary Art 1930-2004>Neresi? Burasi?: Turkish Art Today

Original articles on art, artists, architecture, exhibitions, galleries, museums and cultural institutions around Tokyo, Japan.

Neresi? Burasi?: Turkish Art Today

by John McGee

Nasan Tur, The Puddle and the Blue Sky, 2001, video (Photo: Yildirim Arici)

Long before Baghdad, Crusaders made for its closer neighbor, Constantinople. They were neither first nor last. This ancient city at the meeting point of two continents has been invaded or ruled by Romans, Muslims and nearly everyone else within reach. In the 20th century, the city was modernized, westernized and officially renamed Istanbul. No wonder its citizens suffer an identity crisis—European or Asian, traditional or modern? 

This exhibition, one of many exchanges celebrating the Year of Turkey in Japan, uses the theme of place (the title means "where? here?") to complicate some of the stereotypes of Turkey and create a pluralistic view of the diverse contemporary art being produced by Turkish artists living both inside the country and out. The ten artists represent three generations: those who introduced contemporary art to Istanbul in the 1970s, those who brought international attention to Turkish contemporary art in the '90s, and the emerging artists of today. 

The physical and historical dimensions of Istanbul are the starting points for most of the work, while gender roles, identity, changing social conventions and poetics are the thematic destinations. 

Cevdet Erek, Sketch for The Second Bridge, 2003, video (Courtesy the artist)

Gülsün Karamustafa (b. 1946) uses the narrow streets and spacious courtyard apartments of Istanbul as sets for a trio of short, melodramatic vignettes, Men Crying (2001), shown simultaneously on adjacent monitors. Karamustafa was interested in how popular films of the '60s and '70s first revealed a soft side of macho Turkish men. She hired a director of such films and three of the Cary Grants of their day to (re)create climactic scenes, each of the now older actors brought to tears by the actions of a strong woman. 

Seçil Yersel (b. 1973) shows a personal side of the city's interiors in her Cinemascope, fish-eye photographs of her grandmother's modern apartment. A cold sun cuts into the spaces, painting the elderly woman, white walls and empty furniture in both hard light and Vermeer diffusions. 

Hüseyin Alptekin (b. 1957) compiles the dreams and memories of the city-as-crossroads in his photo collection of hotel, restaurant and shop signs, Capacity/Capacities IV (2003). There's Seoul Cosmetic and Aspirin Café. Hotel Arafat is near the Sayonara Club, Hotel Eifel below the metal pylon of a power line. 

Gülsün Karamustafa, Men Crying, 
2001, video. Directed by Atif Yilmaz,
music by Selim Atakan 
(Courtesy the artist)

But Istanbul's most visible symbol of identity complication is the Bosporus—the convoluted trough cutting the city in two. A pair of suspension bridges lashes the continents together with tenuous narrow bands. One of them stars in Cevdet Erek's dual video projection, The Second Bridge (2003). Two cameras, one on either side, capture tankers navigating the currents below and changes in weather, e.g. a blizzard, enveloping the structure above. 

The bridge plays a supporting role in Esra Ersen's humorous video, Hello, Where is it? (2000) wherein the artist videotaped front-seat conversations of people driving back and forth. For some, like the arguing couple who crosses to the European side every weekend, the trip is a source of conflict. Most, however, seem to ignore the intercontinental sashay as part of the infrastructure of their daily lives. 

Many of the younger artists like Ersen look to European and American artists rather than to the older Turkish ones who helped smooth their way. And so, they continue to straddle two worlds. They avoid ghettoization or orientalizing—not "Turkish artist," just "artist"—and yet feel free, thankfully, to insert regionalisms.

This exhibition was held July-Aug 2003 at the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama in Kita-Urawa, Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

©2006 John McGee

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