Art in action
Politics and social engagement in art

Workshop at AKBANK Sanat Beyoglu, Istanbul

Concept by: Dr. Zoltán Somhegyi
Organised by: Akbank Sanat

We can trace the origins of the relationship between art, politics and social engagement from the Ancient Near East and Classical Antiquity onwards. However, in modern times, especially after Romanticism, artists started to be more openly and directly critical towards the condition and situation of their times, and in many cases became the living “conscience” of the society. The workshop aims to analyse both historical and current questions related to “art in action”. How art can be and should it be political? Is the social engagement a limiting or enriching feature of the arts? Should art stay “art for art’s sake”, or be(come) more and more radically political? These and other questions will be examined in the workshop, from an inter- and multidisciplinary perspective, with the participation of Turkish and international scholars.


Programme:

14:00 First session

Opening remarks by Dr. Zoltán Somhegyi, initiator of the workshop

Dr. Jale Erzen (Professor, Middle East Technical University, Ankara and Izmir University, Izmir)
Art and architecture for and against ideologies

Dr. Jacob Lund (Associate Professor, Aarhus University, Denmark)
Reframings of the present moment and the experience of contemporaneity in the work of Alfredo Jaar

Dr. Zoltán Somhegyi (Assistant Professor, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates)
Memory and politics through art. Contemporary examples from the Middle East and beyond

15:30 Coffee break

16:00 Second session

Ipek Duben (artist, Istanbul)
Art as engagement and conversation

Bedri Baykam (artist and writer, president of UPSD – Turkish Plastic Arts Association, Istanbul)
Art and politics. The art of constant repositioning and risk taking: The cost of freedom