Transformation of the city and possibilities of artistic expression: the Istanbul case and tumulus

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1606725 (Table of Contents)

The city, with the advent of Modernism, and the medium- and small-scale components that form the city – which we will here refer to as the built environment – began to display an exponentially accelerating transformation. Although this transformation, at first sight and in a more general analysis, is subject to negative criticism; it also presents artists with new means of expression, which would not have been possible or conceivable in the earlier stages of Modernism, or at any other stage in the history of the city. This thesis will examine the transformation of the modern city in terms of the dynamics of historical processes and the physical environment. Within the context of the city of Istanbul, which forms the focal point of this work, this transformation will be tracked within a broader framework that goes as far back as the reform – or decline – period of the Ottoman Empire [1839- ], but will select its examples mainly from the post-Republican era [1923- ]. At the next step, the work will go on to analyse how the myriad and diverse transformations of the city are perceived and processed in the field of art – itself in constant struggle with a series of issues related to tradition, ‘the new’, locality, inter/transnationality - via various media and methods. A trilogy of my works [Shell, Between Two Seas, and Agora] will form the main trajectory of this analysis, which will be illustrated with both local and international works I have sensed a kinship with.