believeinutopia

who is contented in a world having such a system? so believe in utopia, it may come true. who knows?

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What is folklore?

The best way for defining the folklore as not giving people a voice but listening that voice carefully within different sounds coming different directions, recording the voice without rejecting the other sounds and then writing a song which that voice could be the best for and believing that song would be listened by everyone one day.  

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Akil Hastanelerinde Hayat

Beyond.Istanbul’a yazan psikolog Tolga Erdogan’in yazisini okudum. Turkiye’de yurumeyen tum sistemleri aciklar gibi. Saglikli bir insanin kalmasinin mumkun olmadigi bir yeri bir iyilestirme merkezi olarak nasil sunuyorlar anlamis degilim. 

Tum bu konularda cok fazla caresizlik hissediyorum. Icim urperiyor bir yandan da. Akil hastanesindeki insanlarin akil hastanesi algilarindan ziyade, toplumda yaratilan akil hastanesi imaji da arastirilasi. Sahi, neden bu hastaneler akil hastaneleri? Osmanli Darussifa’larina ne olmus?

 Ileriye goturulemeyecegini hissettigim tum bu yanlislarla alakali umutsuz hissediyorum ancak bunun yani sira, yaptigim islerle ilgili daha umutlu olmus olabilirim. Cunku Bati bilimini tek dogru kabul eden ve insan, kultur, dil etkenlerini dislayan hicbir calismanin basariya ulasacagini dusunmuyorum. Bilimin insani tektiplestiren algisinin sonucu bu “tedavi” merkezinde ne kadar yarar saglanabildigini sorgulamak da bir bilimsel veri olacaktir. Asagida Tolga Erdogan’in yazisindan bir kesit paylasiyorum: ”Ne yapılması gerektiğini bildiğini iddia eden bilim de meseleyi ruhani güçlerle açıklamaya çalışan din de sadece kendini referans noktası olarak gördüğünde dogmadan başka bir şey olamayacaktır. İnsanların ihtiyaçlarını göz ardı ederek merkezi bürokrasi makinesiyle sorunları çözebileceğini düşünen bir sağlık sistemi, doğası gereği ancak “güvenlik” ve “hijyen” temelinde bir yaklaşım geliştirebilir.”

Yazi linki icin: https://beyond.istanbul/akıl-hastanesinde-hayat-8d5c12f2b925?fbclid=IwAR28KTSfdq2sFYy7TT9qf0tPbmBFqDPrefQLjKlLvM09icyL6GDsOnS0HtA

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Grup Yorum

Grup Yorum is a Turkish band mostly writes songs about political problems, anti-discriminations and revolutionary acts since 1985. In every protest, it is possible to see Grup Yorum to support people mentally and physically in the squares. The only fault that they made was to believe in laws in Turkey. The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey of 1982, Article 26 are protected as follows: Everyone has the right to express and disseminate his thoughts and opinion by speec h, in writing or in pictures or through other media, individually or collectively. This right includes the freedom to receive and impart information and ideas without interference from official authorities. In their lyrics they express themselves and the pain of the minorities and people who are frustrated. For this reason, they were arrested, their concerts were cancelled without any explanation and their records were collected many many times.

Lastly, the group members Seçkin Aydoğan, Melis Ciddioğlu, Cemre Baş Nurtepe were attend the manifestation in the 13th December 2011. This time, they could not be liberated and they were exposed to systematical torture in the prison. They accused for supporting to organizations however they were not part of it. Authorities in the prison damaged the otolith of the singer, breaked the fingers of the violinist.

As Michael Drewett indicates, the reason of ejecting of lyrics in the South African songs might be right after facing cases like this. Moreover, as we might remember the revolutionary singer Victor Jara who was from Chile, were killed in 1973 in the stadium after the General Pinochet Strike. This kind of actions by government shows the anger not only for the person or band but also for the big crowded who support revolutionary acts. Government menaced the communities to be respectful in the country.

Here you can find one of the songs belongs to Grup Yorum which they dedicated it to the mine workers. Even you cannot understand the lyrics; you can feel the emotions in it. Maybe if government stops to censor the work of this kind of valuable artists, they can make society realize the importance of unfair circumstances in the society. This blog entry also was dedicated to the 301 mine workers who were died in Soma at 13th May 2014.

For the free and fair world.

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Freak(?!) Humanity Monument

The Humanity Monument was started to build in 2006 by Mehmet Aksoy but it was ceased on 2008 with the objection of government because of the fact that the monument was on shooting area. Mehmet Aksoy explained his sculpture as a human being divided in two and the invisible part was wars in the world. When the wars would end, human beings may find themselves in the world. Beside this meaningful remark, Prime Minister called this monument as “freak” which Aksoy found it unfair and disrespectful. Erdoğan said that “A person erected something weird near the Hasan Harakani Mausoleum -which includes religious meaning- and the monument and the minaret of the mosque were the same height.  It is not thinkable to have something like that in an area which is full of artistic art-pieces. We are waiting to see the park rather than that freak. Authorities will decide on the right choice” On the other hand, Mehmet Aksoy who is sculptor questioned the changeability of the decisions by Protection Assembly and he claims that government casted doubt on this issue.”

Suddenly government legislated to eject the controversial sculptures in Kars and then they started to decide which ones are controversial or not. The chairman claims that this sculpture was discussed between National Assembly and voted. 19/23 people vote to eject this sculpture according to public improvement law. He added that, the sculpture cannot be carried another place because it was made with the unqualified material so they decided it should be demolished by a large majority. Moreover, he defended this decision: “People ask everyone in the streets do they like the song or not? So, we also do not need to ask authorities on art issues. I know what sculpture is or not.” 

Although Culture and Tourism Ministry claims that, he supports the freedom of speech in the art but also we have sensibilities in the society so people respect this. As Pelin Başaran says, by this attitude we cannot believe that he support the Article 26 of The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey which protects the free speech right to artists. As Richard Burt argues censorship now has no fixed place, so it is quite impossible to decide if it should be fit sensibility of society or freedom of speech right. 

Moreover, another claim by Pelin Başaran, for the real reason underlying this destruction was also political. Although the opponent conservative party demanded to be destruct that monument, government did not accept up until Armenian- Turkish relations went bad. As this monument, symbolizes the relationship and peace between Armenia and Turkey, Prime Minister decided to destruct this monument to show of his strength. This mentality keeps to restrict the marketplace of ideas. Since there is no tolerance through the different opinions than government in the Turkey art becomes more and more restricted.

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Arbitrary Censorship

 The actor Barış Atay who is also known as an activist against the government was taken into custody because of cyber-crime case against government. After Atay proved that this was an unfair accusation, government tried another way to make him silence which is censorship. The play which Barış Atay took part was censored. Kırmızı Yorgunları was a play directed by Ozen Yula whose another play also -“Yala ama Yutma”(Lick but don’t swallow)- was censored before. The play includes some concepts such as the loneliness of the human in modern times, alineation towards environment and other humans, otherizing, the people that can not express themselves. Moreover, the play combines novels and cartoons by using intertextuality.

As theatre playing company of Atay announced that the play which was planned to take place on 5th February 2014 on the Gebze Osman Hamdi Bey Stage, was cancelled by Kocaeli Municipality Cultural and Social Relations Administer Ali Yaşildağ, because of the speeches of Barış Atay against government. After the objection of this last-minute-decision of the municipality, they offered playing company to perform on that stage with the one requirement: playing company’s name will be ejected from the list of Gebze Osman Hamdi Bey Stage.

Actor Barış Atay announced by his twitter account that: censorship and prohibition on art can not be accepted. In the Gebze Osman Hamdi Bey Stage Kırmızı Yorgunları can not be played. This is an explanation about the oppressive and repressive mindset of Kocaeli Municipality Culture Chairman not only us but also all theatre groups.

On the other hand, Kocaeli Municipality Culture and Social Relations Adminester Ali Yeşildal rejected censorship claims and also claimed without any evidence that asserted Barış Atay did not pay the rental for the stage and cancelled the play.

Pelin Başaran indicated that, with the privatization attempt for theatre, government became high-handed by deciding with various strategies. When they gain the right to control and censor without any explanation, art world lost their freedom -as if it has in Turkey-.

As Frederick M. Wirt states “Censorship statutes are never written in objective terms, because they are aimed at attitudes and values, not actions. Since censor laws never define precisely what is prohibited, the interpretation of the administering censor fills the empty generalities of the law with morality by fiat”

As we see in this case, censorship does not lean any artistic feature or lack of artistic aproach on the art-piece, this only leans on the political thoughts and the side of the artist. If we can not talk about freedom of speech and thought, so it is impossible to talk about freedom of art since art is the best way for expression! 

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Fear of Censor

 When we look at the themes which mostly was censored was the same with the taboos of the Turkish society. Religion, its practises and Kemalist ideology were two of these taboos. Allah Korkusu(Fear of God) was an exhibiton(or planned) by Hafriyat artist community which protest the restrictions on the taboos of the society. The exhibition ,as Ozden Sahin analyse and translate, was composed of 4 different themes:

Individually, the fear of God meaning the voice of conscience. That comes to mean the first meaning: the fear of the man from the Creator. 2. Socially, the fear of God in Turkey which is rapidly becoming more and more conservative, more Islamic and which is stranded due to nationalism…. 3. Fear of being without Atatürk over fear of God.… 4. Fear of God in a world that is becoming small and in a global economy. On Earth, wealth and intellect, poverty and fear are firmly related.… What are the benefits of wealthy countries from this state of world?

  Artists applied and created art-works based on these 4 themes. One of the artists of exhibition, Hakan Akçura choosed the combine religion and Kemalist ideology by showing the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as profit of the Turkish Republic.

Kemalism is a form of worship, Kemal Akçura

More importantly, while Hafriyat was preparing their exhibition, the radical Islamic newspaper Vakit, published news and claimed that this exhibition is so impertinent. The interesting point is the time that Vakit published this news targetting to Hafriyat, was before the time that exhibition opened. After this article full of figthing words by Vakit, Hafriyat claims that the aim of the exhibition was not insulting spiritual world, it aims to question the usage of fear by governments  with regard to notion of “Fear of God” and discrimination on the society.

Since Vakit also added the address of exhibition place at the end of the journal, Hafriyat group demanded police protect themselves in the opening plenary on 10th November 2007. The police who came to the opening, started to question 3 of artist- Akçura,Başol and Özatalay- and then Hafriyat decided to pulled the exhibition back to make viewer and artists secure however there was no legal process took place at that time as Ozden Sahin reports.

We all can see the Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon as grounds for the study of self-censorship asHelen Freshwater analyzed. From a big powerful center People might be pursued by a huge powerful center.Thus, all the people surrounding it know that they should control themselves

As Ozden Sahin indicates the words “Allah” and “fear” in order to create a title for a contemporary poster exhibition apparently outside of the Islamic contexts may have created a recognition among the conservative circles that it was a blasphemous act towards the unquestionable Islamic judgment over the fear of God. Although people seem this exhibition as a blasphemy and  insulting Islam, it is impossible to know this before the exhibiton’s opening unless they are not claitvoyant. 

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Are you "kidding"?

Censorship is in every institution in Turkey but more importantly it is in the mentality of the people. “Home Design” is a reality show which was broadcasted in one of the major television channels in Turkey. It might be interesting to think how we can encounter the art censorship in a reality show unless you forget the truth that we mention about Turkey. In one of the episodes of this show, when camera turns to the wall, people saw, or could not see, the censorship on the painting because of the fact that the two women were depicted in painting were nude. As people may realize this was the painting of Gauguin: Are You Jealous? After this scandal one viewer reflected her opinion: “While all television channels are broadcasting the violence, rape and sexuality cases; I cannot believe that they censor a painting that innocent and meaningful.”

 This also reminds us another case in Turkish media censorship. The presenter, Oylum Talu, in one of the live feed talk shows wanted to show the Birth of Venus which was painted by Botticelli in the screen. After 5 minutes, she connect her crew with her ear-plug and she said that “Now, our crew decided to censor the art. They said we need to broadcast this one of the important painting by censoring. If we censor The Birth of Venus, let us jumps through window.” Although Talu seemed right, this was the fault of her crew or the Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council which seems a God for the crews in media with full of fear. This might be self-censorship to not to get penalty by TRRSC or censorship of obscenity but in any of these two cases to see nudity as an obscenity is true or false? If people hidden the nature of people this much, children might be affected less or more in the future? By using harm principle of Mill as an excuse over children, censorship was tried to normalize by the media according to Banu Karaca. She also emphasizes easiness of reference nudity in art to obscenity.  

Although it is illogical and at the same point quite unfair to compare the same context in another countries, let me show you the Three Prong Obscenity Test, which is also called Miller test,. This aims to prevent children to be harmed because of obscenity and for this aim it has three criteria:

Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.

Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law.

Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

Since, Turkish media institutions are at the very first level of this standards, I leave you alone with the quote of Justice William Rehnquist :“Nudity alone is not enough to make material legally obscene under the Miller standards.”

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"I know cencors like this."

Hale Tenger is a 54 year-old artist in Turkey which is the only reason that she has 2 court cases. "I know people like this II" is an art work by Tenger was exhibited in 1992 which combines 2 ready-made object: Priapos(fertility god) and "3 wise monkeys" which refers to ignorance generally. Tenger creates star and crescent figures which is the same withTurkish flag.

Beşir Ayvazoğlu who is a writer in Turkish newspaper, wrote that by doing this art-work, Tenger needs to wait to response as a revenge. Ayvazoğlu, literally target Tenger in a newspaper which everyone can access. Moreover, without the explanation of Tenger, Ayvazoğlu use defamation which is harmful for Tenger. It is also possible to see the difference between libelling and fighting words in here. Beside libelling Ayvazoglu uses figting words, since Ayvazoğlu directly intended to cause the reader to react to the Tenger. 

Beside, there is no law of defamation to protect the reputation of artist to unfair attack; Tenger was on trial because of insulting the Turkish flag according to Article 301. As Siyah Bant ,which is an anti-censorship community in Turkey, follows this court case; since it is not a real Turkish flag this court case results with abatement. After this, someone -who is unknown- sued Tenger because of the reason that Tenger used the symbol of Turkish flag. Tenger pleaded that that was an art-piece which explains gender roles on the society and woman rights then she was acquitted.

Apperantly, everyone may say there is no reason for exhibitting this piece again since she has no court anymore but Tenger did not think so. Since there is risk for multiplicity of actions, however two exhibiton places offered her to exhibit "I know people like this." Tenger rejected to exhibit once more, as she confessed in an interview by 1+1 journal. Intimidation coming through society to Tenger came true and Tenger used her self-censorship unfairly not to be exposed to violence in the society. As Michael Drewett explains that African musicians prefer obscurity in their lyrics in order to avoid censorship, socities and art policies always prevent the liberation of artists.

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we dont like grey anymore!

Even most of you might heard about Gezi Protest, you probably do not know the relation grey and the protests, then follow me! Gezi Parkı protests started in 28 May 2013 peacefully by gathering and chilling in the grass against to urban development plan of Istanbul. When the reaction of this peaceful movement was so violent then it turned to battlefield between the police, as a representative of the government, and the society who are mostly aged 20-25. The media censorship, prohibition of protest, alcocol, minority policies was criticized by society. Since the crowd mostly is formed by young people, street writing was a great and amusing mean to express themselves. Here are the some examples of the street writings.

Are you aware of the danger? No one sends candy crush invitations for a while?!

If they had no bread to eat, let them have pepper sprey!  -Recep Tayyip Antoinette

My butt has gotten thinner, thx police!

Turn off the television mom!

All these things turned to grey with the censorship of the government. After every night that people wrote their writings, people in charge color them in grey to cover them. The contradictory issue of the graffiti is discussion if it is vandalism or freedom of speech. As Peter Vallone says "if they do it in my property it is not freedom of speech, it is vandalism." Although it is logical, the coloring the writing in a grey is also vandalism if it is in someone's own property. Is there any other explanation to cover writings in the streets rather than restricting marketplace of ideas? Who is the owner of asphalt?  Moreover, even in a court case handled against racist street writing, Guy Charles who is a professor at the University of Minnesota claims that “I think there would be a very good argument that the First Amendment is violated.” so these funny street writings are quite innocent.

Until your grey color ends!

Grey, grey, grey. You grip my soul!

The other example that shows this grey color has no logical reason was happen in Cihangir. People who wake up in morning, saw this stairs and it called everybody's attention. The painter Hüseyin Çetinel said: "I want to see people happy, everybody smiles when sees the stairs." After a night, it dissapeared by grey color by Municipality without any explanation. Most people consider this counter-attack as avoiding the colors of the life by silencing and oppressing.

before/after

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Is free kick really free?

Halil Altındere is a Kurdish artist who was born in 1971 living in İstanbul. In the contemporary art world in Turkey, he is known by his polemical art-pieces. He uses daily images like flags, passports or banknotes and puts these items in different contexts such as Kurdish identity in Turkey, military forces from a critical perspective. Altındere also was a curator of an exhibition called "Free Kick" in the 9th International Istanbul Biennale which was caused a stir with the works of Demet Yoruç(Hulk), Murat Tosyalı(Obedience) and Burak Delier(Guard).

Burak Delier,Guard, (2005)

Since it is hard to criticize in Turkey, he generally suffers because of censorship and prosecutions about his art since he claims he produce "open works" which are open to be interpreted in different ways. Altındere supports Wendy Brown son tolerance and says democracy needs to tolerate. Since democracy make a way to the countries for market of ideas to exchange different opinions and free speech, on the other hand, according to Article 301 in Turkish Constitute, these works must be banned because of the reason that it makes people alienate from appreciation of the military and includes insult to Turkishness. The Article says that "a person who publicly denigrates Turkishness, the Republic or the Grand National Assembly of Turkey shall be punishable by imprisonment of between six months and three years."

  In this point, it is possible to see the harm principle through the people who are involved in military services. As Mill says "that the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others."  So, is this against to freedom of expression from the perspective of Altındere, or is this harming the Turkish people? Can we censor the art-works, as complainants indicate in the petition of court case, because of the fact that it does not suit with the social values, however it suits with European Human Rights Courts' norms? Moreover, as Banu Karaca if this should be punished says why the Beyoglu District Criminal Court suggests to confiscation the exhibition catalogues rather than closing the exhibition?   Since, it is not directly says any hate speech or fighting words towards Turkishness and there is no logical reason raised against Altındere, art should not be censored in this case. 

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Freedom(?) of Speech practices in the art world of Turkey

 In its past; Turkey faced exiles, prison sentences for writes and artist; shattering books. In recent years, mostly in fine-arts there is discussions about fine-arts and for this reason we can see invectives, blackmails through artists and this time shattering art-pieces. It is hard to define art as a category and list based on this. That's why art war circumvented most of times rather than be supported. With every changing government take its understanding of art and ruined others. Although the art history of Turkey was not that pleasant, it might get worst with the new law draft by ruling party. It says they will create a council for consideration of art-piece and this council will be constituted by people who government will choose. This means, they can capture all means of art and censor depending on their "value-judgements".

For this reason, I will write this blog for my final project about the censorship in art, mostly fine arts, in Turkey. Although art can be seen as free expression for everbody, it was observed in every period art was banned or restricted by governments. I  want to focus on more current cases. By doing so, i can correlate political atmosphere and art world for recent years in Turkey!

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peoplealwaysleave

One Tree Hill izlediğim zamanlardı. Peyton'ın buna gerçekten inandığını görmüştüm. Ama bir insanın buna inanarak nasıl yaşadığını düşünemiyordum. Çok umutsuz bir yaşam ya? Herkes gidicekse ne anlamı var be! Evet şu anki depresyonumun sebebi(şekerimin düşmediği göz önünde bulundurulursa) benim için çok önemli birinin gidişi. Film şeridi gibi düşününce kimler gitti diye çok sevdiğim bir arkadaşım vardı, canımdı ya! Sonra bir gün gideceğini söyledi, bundan yaklaşık 3 ay sonra da gitti. Aniydi. Kaç gün ağladığımı hatırlamıyorum bile. Neler neler düşündüğümü. Evet unutulucaktı ama ben bu unutma, alışma olayını yaşamak da istemi'yodum ki. İşte şimdi bu giden X kişisi de dünyadaki en önemli insan olabilir benim için ama gidiyor. Temelli olmaması belki mutluluk verici ama kapalı alan fobisi gibi sanki. Birden o alan bana basarsa ve çıkamazsam deli olmamla onu görmek isteyip göremeyince yaşayacağım şey aynı şey. Zor olucak ama alışılacak di mi?