Politics, Contemporary Art and Curation
Speaker: Professor Hasan Bülent Kahraman
Time: 6:00-7:00 pm
Political art is a phenomenon that played an important role in the establishment of modernity. Various periods’ art has functioned in line with their own ideologies. It is also a fact that art is used for the dissemination of ideology and indoctrination of the masses. It is certain that this approach, which is open to various interpretations, is transformed directly by the transformation of art itself. How contemporary art, which owes its ontological existence to politics in a period of transition to micro-politics, establishes and articulates this relationship is a problem in itself. Curating, which appears as an attempt to disassemble and reconstruct, perhaps takes its place in this equation as a political element on its own. But does the curator have a chance to add a political dimension to the produced art that perhaps does not belong to him? What if they do?
Prof. Hasan Bülent Kahraman
Prof. Hasan Bülent Kahraman is an academic, free-lance art and cultural critic and curator based in Istanbul. Holding a BA degree in Civil Engineering, and MA degrees in economics and art philosophy, he has a Ph.D. in political science. He studied, lectured and held chairs at Bilkent, Sabancı, Michigan and Princeton University. He is the Ertegun Professor at Princeton University. At Kadir Has University he was the Vice-President and the Dean of Faculty of Communication. He served as the President of Netkent University, the first fully on-line education university in Northern Cyprus and Turkey. He is now the Vice-Rector of Isik University and Head of the Strategic Plan. Working as a free-lance art curator and critic he was the Advisory Board member of Istanbul Biennale for 12 years. He is now sitting at the Executive Board of Sabanci Museum, Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair and works as the Chief Curator at Akbank Arts Center. He directed and was the Chief-Curator of Gallery KHAS. Kahraman was the Artistic Director of the Europalia-Turkey Festival, in Belgium for the full year of 2015. He is the Chief Curator of Abdullah Gul Presidential Library, Kayseri. The first Presidential and Political History Museum in Turkey. Kahraman has written extensively on art theory, culture theory, social theory and literary theory. Contributing to dailies for years he curated shows for Louis Bourgeois, Marcel Broodthaers, Magdelena Abakanowicz, Johan Tahon, Susie McMurray, Mureen Connor, Eda Soylu, Sıtkı Kösemen, Darion Mouradian, Genco Gülan and other numerous artists, both in solo and group shows. He published, edited and contributed to magazines and journals. He has contributed to the progress of contemporary art and literature in Turkey in the last 35 years. Kahraman has conducted various TV programs. He has more than 25 books and innumerous articles both in Turkish and English.
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* The program will take place on the digital platform Zoom.