Art Biennials as Contested Spaces

Art BienniAls As Contested spACes ConfliCting ideologies And CreAtive CritiCism surrounding the istAnBul BienniAl Tijen Tunali F or the past thirty years, the Turkish contemporary art scene has expanded both inward and outward with aid from the European Union, sponsorship from private corporations, and the attention of the international art world since the foundation of the Istanbul Biennial in 1987. Whilst the Istanbul Biennial internationalises Turkish contemporary art, the opposition against the increasing monopoly of this major art event continues to grow in the local art scene. The protests, activist performances, and open condemnations received unprecedented attention in the mainstream media and pushed discussions on the Biennial beyond niche art circles into the public sphere. The critics of the Istanbul Biennial, which include two opposing segments of the Turkish Left, the Kemalist nationalists and the anarchists, are quite hostile to the biennial phenomenon in general. The Kemalist nationalists see the Istanbul Biennial as the imprint of imperial cultural colonialism because of its role as the vessel of exchange between the international art world and the Turkish contemporary art scene. The main artistic camp supporting this ideology, occupying positions in fifty-six art academies in Turkey, disregards experimental or postmodern art, whilst claiming to be the artistic and political platform engendering modernist and nationalist discourses. On the other hand, the anarchist activists base their arguments on art’s relationship with the corporations that circulate global capital through financial markets, real estate 54 | APS MDINA CATHEDRAL CONTEMPORARY ART BIENNALE 2017 investment, and global tourism. While the anarchists link the newly-recognised power of independent curators with the globalisation of art under neoliberal hegemony, according to the Kemalists the foreign curator is treated as the ‘other’ and is not to be trusted by the local art world.1 While corporate sponsorship and cultural imperialism are the two main criticisms aimed against the Istanbul Biennial, when studied closely, the reasons for the opposition are rooted in more complicated issues than simply the structural and ideological tribulations of the biennial institution. Mainstream leftists in Turkey have had close ties to modern progressivism, yet modernism and postmodern/contemporary art in Turkey have developed as critical stances in relation to modernism’s authoritative ideals.2 From its foundation in 1923 until the 1990s, the Kemalist ideology (that takes its name from the founder of Turkey as a sovereign state, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk) catalysed the processes of cultural modernisation that was closely linked to Westernisation. The Kemalist reforms were forged to invent a new ‘citizen’ and this operative principle was not only legally enforced overnight but entrenched itself in vast areas of society, from the universities to the artistic and cultural sphere for decades to come. Top-down modernisation led by this nationalist secular elite had also begotten administrative middle-class gate-keepers of the Kemalist ideology as part of the state apparatus. However, the transition into neoliberalism and the privatisation of state-assets would significantly weaken this hegemonic class in the 1990s. In 2002, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan came to power with a populist programme and his promise to empower those marginalised by the Kemalist elite, establishing a neoliberal-Islamist government. Since then, the ideological grip and filtered values from the West to mould a Turkish Westernised cultural sphere, as well as the Kemalists’ power over culture, continued to be weakened.3 Kemalists exploited the anti-imperialist sentiment of Kemalism with the hope of restoring their power, 1 Beral Madra, ‘Poetry is Here, Justice Will Come,’ accessed October 12, 2009, http://universesin-universe.org/eng/nafas/articles/2003/8th_istanbul_biennial. 2 Sürreya Evren, ‘Neither with nor Without You,’ in Insan Neyle Yaşar?: Metinler : 11. Uluslararası Istanbul Bienali, 12 Eylül-8 Kasım =What Keeps Mankind Alive? The Texts: 11th International Istanbul Biennial, September 12-November 8, eds, Ilkay B. Ayvaz and Nazım Dikbaş (Istanbul: Istanbul Kültür Sanat Vakfı, 2009), 374. 3 In Turkey, when popular segments of society experienced the postmodernisation of culture in the 1990s, especially due to immigration from rural Turkey to economic centres, it created a new system of values. Those values included a new lifestyle, music, architecture, and fashion that eventually constituted a new postmodern Turkish identity that had become decolonised and free of Western influences. Hasan B. Kahraman, Postmodernite ile Modernite Arasında Turkiye: 1980 Sonrası Zihinsel, Toplumsal, Siyasal Dönüşüm (Istanbul: Agora Kitaplığı, 2007). ART BIENNIALS AS CONTESTED SPACES: CONFLICTING IDEOLOGIES..., TIJEN TUNALI | 55 and have dismissed the Istanbul Biennial as an instrument of the ‘neoliberal imperial project.’4 Hanru’s commentary in the 2007 Biennial’s catalogue on Turkey’s modernisation as a forced top-down project of the elite infuriated the Kemalists.5 The Kemalist media interpreted it as a direct attack on the ideas of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his modernist reforms.6 Soon after that, 131 academics – led by the dean of the Fine Arts Faculty at Marmara University – issued a declaration condemning Hanru for accusing the founder of the Turkish Republic of being a ‘non-Humanist.’7 In Turkey, it is not only a political but also a social taboo to criticise Atatürk because the majority of society embraces him as ‘the Father of the Turks.’ The media, which largely favours the Islamist government, quickly took the opportunity to manipulate the nationalist sentiments of the public in order to consolidate power. Several mainstream media outlets continued to verbally lynch Hanru for a number of months. The widespread and polemical reactions to Hanru’s biennial set the foundations for the justification of control over critical artistic and discursive practices to conceal layers of conservatism and nationalism – the central feature of contemporary Turkish society. Hence, in a country such as Turkey, where coverage of art and art festivals rarely exceeds the length of a brief paragraph, the attention that this edition of the Istanbul Biennial received was unprecedented and generated a much-needed public discussion about the foundation principles of Turkey and freedom of speech in the arts. Hanru’s criticism not only brought intellectuals, artists, organisers, the curator, the state and the media face to face in such discussions, but it also provoked a series of creative and amusing protests. For example, a punk-rock music group hung a dozen dirty pairs of underwear on the wire fence of the biggest venue with a big note saying, ‘They should clean up their own dirty underwear first’.8 Through the 11th and 12th editions, some anarchist groups protested against the Istanbul Biennial with the same zeal as the nationalists. Some even invited 4 Adnan Turani and Zafer E. Bilgin, ‘Söyleşi: İnsan Önüne Her Konulanları Yemek Zorunda Değildir,’ Sanatçının Atölyesi 1 (2008): 210. 5 Hou Hanru, ‘Not only Possible but also Necessary, Optimism in the Age of Global War,’ in 10. Uluslararası Istanbul Bienali, 8 Eylül - 4 Kasım 2007=10th International Istanbul Bennial, September 8-November 4, 2007, eds. Hou Hanru and Ilkay B. Ayvaz (Beyoğlu, Istanbul: Istanbul Kültür ve Sanat Vakfı, 2007), 15-19. 6 ‘Hou Hanru’yu Kınıyoruz,’ Milliyet, November 12, 2007, 1. 7 ‘Biennial Finds Itself in Age of Expression War,’ Turkish Daily News, September 27, 2007, 1. 8 ‘Istanbul Festivali Kürotörune Kirli Çamaşırlı Protesto,’ Sabah, October 23, 2007, 26. 56 | APS MDINA CATHEDRAL CONTEMPORARY ART BIENNALE 2017 people to damage the artworks and offered tips on how to do it on their blogs and websites. In 2009, the curators from Zagreb; Ivet Ćurlin, Ana Dević, Nataša Ilić and Sabina Sabolović, who formed the curatorial collective What, How and for Whom (WHW) used the theme Den wowon lebt der mann? (What Keeps Man Alive?), a song from Bertolt Brecht’s 1928 Three Penny Opera. Similarly to Brecht’s projection of the dialectical tensions between art and industry in his theatre, WHW staged the conflict between dissident contemporary art and its corrupt counterpart, which paved the way for the protests of radical leftists – an attempt that would have been appreciated by Brecht. The young anarchists focused on the apparent contradictions between this edition’s overtly Marxist rhetoric and the fact that one of Turkey’s biggest corporations, one that produces warships and tanks for eight countries, including Israel, and whose founder, Vehbi Koç, is publicly known for his support of the 1980 coup, was the major sponsor of the Istanbul Biennial. Nationalist-Kemalists were silent about this, whilst the anarchist-activists prepared for several days of creative protests. During the opening week of the Biennial, the anarchist group that called themselves ‘cultural commissaries’ circulated subverted images of the Biennial posters in the busy streets of Istanbul and over the Internet. They also organised gatherings for the upcoming anti-global resistance days across popular spots in town. Anti-IMF and anti-globalisation meetings merged with anti-biennial meetings. Additionally, in some popular bars and locales of İstiklâl Caddesi, some creative performances were held. For example, the anarchist-artist collective İç Mihrak (Internal Enemy) presented a three-minute performance called Beğenal (changing the word ‘bienal’ to ‘beğenal’, which translates ‘to choose and buy’), whose theme was on corporatism in the arts and ‘Koç’s invasion’ of the Istanbul Biennial. An anonymous group circulated short videos of animated images on social media networks mocking the ironic relationship of the Brechtian biennial under the sponsorship of Turkey’s biggest corporation, known for its support for the 1980 coup d’état and the prosecution of many intellectuals and artists throughout the 1980s. When an executive representative of Koç Holding was making a speech about the importance of the Biennial for the economy of Istanbul, protest noises from outside were heard. The activist crowd, led by the group Resistanbul, some wearing clown costumes, staged their intervention by shouting slogans, whistling, and playing drums and trumpets outside the venue to protest the hypocrisy of the event. Some artist groups, which are a part of the anarchist Protest against the 9th Istanbul Biennial in front of the main venue by a folk-rock group known as ‘Grup Günizi.’ Photograph was taken by the author in Istanbul, Turkey, September 10, 2007. Protest against the 11th Istanbul Biennial. The photograph was taken by the author in Istanbul, Turkey, September 12, 2009. A poster mocking the 11th Istanbul Biennial. The photograph was taken by the author in Istanbul, Turkey, September 5, 2009. A boy holding a sign showing the caption, which mocks 12th Istanbul Biennial: ‘Mom, are police human?’ Source: www. internetajans.com, accessed July 12, 2013. 58 | APS MDINA CATHEDRAL CONTEMPORARY ART BIENNALE 2017 organisation Resistanbul and ‘the culture commissaries,’ were also present at the exclusive opening gala of the 11th Istanbul Biennial. At the entrance, the protestors disseminated a leaflet with the title Direnal! (mocking the word ‘biennial’ and literally meaning in Turkish to resist and take) and read a manifesto to the public that talked about the basic consequences of the decisions forced by the IMF and the World Bank. The manifesto ended with an activist call to the streets: “Let’s prepare works and visuals (posters, stickers, stencils, etc.) for the streets of the resistance days. Let’s produce together, not within the white cube, but in the streets and squares during the resistance week! Creativity belongs to each of us and can’t be sponsored!” Their call was interpreted as ‘naïve’ and ‘biased’ by some Turkish contemporary artists who participated in previous Istanbul Biennials and as ‘premature’ and ‘inadequate’ by others. Ahmet Öğüt, one of the artists displaying works in the Turkish Pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennale, said: “Such a choice between street and the white cube is not necessary”.9 Burak Delier, who came to be known for his strategic criticism of neoliberalism at the 9th and the 10th Istanbul Biennials, said: “It is true that this group reacted fiercely upon only hearing the contextual title of the Biennial. One cannot judge an exhibition without seeing it”.10 The anarchists called for people to participate on the streets, and 97 independent artists and 18 art collectives – none of whom participated in the Istanbul Biennial for various reasons –gathered to stage an artistic performance to protest the corporatism and elitism of the artworld. To produce this exhibition, 265 participants worked collectively for two years on an interdisciplinary project called The Alternative Work Platform. This giant alternative exhibition titled Hayalet (which can be interpreted simultaneously as ‘imagine’ and ‘ghost’ in Turkish) opened in 2009 on the day the Istanbul Biennial opened to the general public. It was organised without the hierarchical institutional structure conventionally required for large-scale art events: no advisory board, directors, curators, or sponsors. The project aimed to create an artistic movement that would bring together diverse tendencies and multiple generations of artists raising their voices against the existing hierarchical mechanism and corporate hegemony in the art world.11 Although the event was announced in the local newspapers and on the Internet as ‘the alternative biennial’ and the artworks openly ridiculed the 9 Author’s interview with Ahmet Öğüt, Istanbul-Turkey, November 19, 2009. 10 Author’s interview with Burak Delier, Istanbul-Turkey, December 9, 2009. 11 ‘Hayalet Aramızda.’ Birgün, September 14, 2009, 8. ART BIENNIALS AS CONTESTED SPACES: CONFLICTING IDEOLOGIES..., TIJEN TUNALI | 59 Istanbul Biennial, the organisers insisted that the way they prepared this artistic platform was intended to transcend the biennial model and not to contest it.12 The 13th edition held in 2013 was titled Mom, am I barbarian? and curated by Fulya Erdemci. During the heat of the Gezi uprising – the biggest civil protest in the history of the Turkish Republic – a photograph appeared on social media (and later as a poster on the streets) showing a child coming out of a cloud of pepper gas with police following him and holding a paper that reads ‘mom, are police human?’. The photograph that circulated on the Internet was real and taken during the uprising, but on it was superimposed the word ‘Isyanbul’, an alteration of the word Istanbul merged with isyan (revolt), that proclaimed the act as a staged protest against the Istanbul Biennial. The 14th Biennial organised in 2015, titled Saltwater: A Theory of Thought Forms, was curated by the American curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and coincided with the November 1st general elections amidst escalating political violence and terrorism. In this edition, in an atmosphere of fear and the growing political polarisation under a ruling party adopting an increasingly authoritarian style of governance, the antagonism towards the Istanbul Biennial discontinued. The Istanbul Biennial has been important not only for the corporate world to attract international investments but also for Turkish contemporary art to be exposed to a globalised market. Through the channels that the Istanbul Biennial has built, international ideas, concepts, and funding have flourised in Turkey.13 Many artists who had been deemed too radical for the local art market: Ahmet Ceylan, Mehmet Dere, Burak Delier, Genco Gülan, Halil Altındere, Ahmet Öğüt, Şener Özmen, Inci Furni and Esra Ersen to name a few, have become visible locally and internationally. The Biennial vitalised the local art scene to such an extent that it also allowed the growth of alternative cultural activities and anti-establishment art spaces in the 1990s, which had become invisible in the 1980s under the military junta’s cultural directives.14 Not-forprofit art spaces, collaborative project groups, and off-space art exhibitions appeared as a reaction to the privatisation of art institutions and the hegemony of the Eurocentric artworld. Turkish contemporary art has burgeoned in the discursive and economic space that the Istanbul Biennial has created. 12 Erkan Doğanay, ‘Casper Bienal’e Karşı,’ Taraf, October 8, 2009, 12-14. 13 Azra Tüzünoğlu, ed., Dersimiz Güncel Sanat (Istanbul: Outlet, İhraç Fazlası Sanat, 2009). 14 Beral Madra and Ayşe O. Gültekin, Iki Yılda Bir Sanat: Bienal Yazıları (Istanbul: Norgunk, 2003), 44. 60 | APS MDINA CATHEDRAL CONTEMPORARY ART BIENNALE 2017 Bibliography Amirsadeghi, Hossein ed. Unleashed: Contemporary Art from Turkey. London: Thames and Hudson, 2010. ‘Biennial Finds Itself in Age of Expression War.’ Turkish Daily News, September 27, 2007. Dervişoğlu, Gökçe. ‘Corporate Support on Art: A Vicious or Virtuous Cycle.’ In Istanbul Biennial’s Published Texts. Istanbul: Ofset Basim, 2009. Doğanay, Erkan. ‘Casper Bienal’e Karşı.’ Taraf, October 8, 2009. Erdemci, Fulya. ‘Curator’s Text.’ In Mom, Am I Barbarian? 13th Istanbul Biennial Guide. Istanbul: IKSV, 2013. Evren, Sureyya. ‘Neither with nor Without You.’ In Insan Neyle Yaşar? Metinler: 11. Uluslararası Istanbul Bienali, 12 Eylül-8 Kasım=What Keeps Mankind Alive? The Texts: 11th International Istanbul Biennial, September 12-November 8, edited by Ilkay B. Ayvaz and Nazım Dikbaş. 470-381. Istanbul: Istanbul Kültür Sanat Vakfı, 2009. Hanru, Hou. ‘Not only Possible but also Necessary, Optimism in the Age of Global War.’ In 10. Uluslararası Istanbul Bienali, 8 Eylül-4 Kasım 2007=10th International Istanbul Biennial, September 8-November 4, 2007, edited by Hou Hanru and Ilkay B. Ayvaz. Beyoğlu, Istanbul: Istanbul Kültür ve Sanat Vakfı, 2007. ‘Hayalet Aramızda.’Birgün, September 14, 2009. ‘Hou Hanru’yu Kınıyoruz.’Milliyet, November 12, 2007. ‘Istanbul Festivali Kürotörune Kirli Çamaşırlı Protesto.’ Sabah, October 23, 2007. Kahraman, Hasan B. ‘The End of ‘New’ As We Know It.’Third Text 22 (2008): 21-34. Keyder, Çağlar. Istanbul: Between the Global and the Local. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. Madra, Beral. ‘Hot Spot of Global Art: Istanbul’s Contemporary Art Scene and its Sociopolitical and Cultural Conditions and Practices.’ Third Text 22 (2008): 105-112. _____________. İki Yılda Bir Sanat: Bienal Yazıları. Istanbul: Norgunk, 2003. _____________. ‘Poetry is Here, Justice Will Come.’ Accessed October 12, 2009. http:// universes-in-universe.org/eng/nafas/articles/2003/8th_istanbul_biennial. Tüzünoğlu, Azra ed. Dersimiz Güncel Sanat. Istanbul: Outlet, İhraç Fazlası Sanat, 2009. Tijen Tunali is Postdoctoral Research Associate at Université François-Rabelais, Tours, France. She received her PhD in Art History and Criticism, with the title ‘Festivals of Art, Carnivals of Representation: On Contemporary Art and Neoliberalism’, from the University of New Mexico in 2015. Her writings have appeared in books published by Verso, Palgrave McMillan, and Liverpool University Press. Tunali has received numerous awards, grants, and has presented papers at several international conferences. Recently published papers include ‘Contemporary Art and the Post-1989 Art World’ (Dandelion Journal, 2017), and ‘Aesthetics of (An) Other Politics: The Art of the Zapatista Movement’ (Journal of Global South Studies, Fall 2017). She has also curated exhibitions in Buenos Aires, New Mexico, Istanbul, and Nicaragua.