Two sides of a coin: A reading of contemporary and traditional art practices in Turkey

Dr. Hülya Arık is a feminist and cultural geographer and a postdoctoral researcher in the Gender Studies Program at the University of Gothenburg as part of the project, Spaces of resistance. A study of gender and sexualities in times of transformation. Her current research explores the cultural politics of religion, secularism and gender in Turkey with a focus on the Islamic and traditional visual arts scene in Istanbul. Hülya completed her PhD in 2015 at the Geography Department at York University in Toronto with a project on the unique intertwinement of discourses on religion, secularism and security through gender within the context of the Turkish military. This work has been published in several academic journals such as Gender, Place & Culture, Security Dialogue, and Social & Cultural Geography. She is an organizer of the Regional Studies Association Network on the Politics of Displacement, Identity and Urban Citizenship in Migratory Contexts (2017-20).

Işıl Eğrikavuk is an artist, researcher and academic, who is currently teaching at the Media and Communication Faculty of Berlin University of the Arts. Her work focuses on artistic research, community practices and performance. Eğrikavuk is the winner of Turkey’s first contemporary art prize, Full Art Prize in 2012. She has participated in numerous international exhibitions and residencies, and her work has been published in both local and international journals. For three years she had a weekly column in the Turkish national newspaper Radikal, “Güncel Sanat Kafası” (“High on Contemporary Art”), in which she commented on the intersection of daily news and contemporary art. Recent exhibitions include: Art Souterrain, Montreal, (2019), Block Universe Festival, London (2017), Lenbachhaus Museum, Munich (2017), Art of Disagreement, Salt, İstanbul & Ankara (2016-2015), 11th Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah (2013), 11th Istanbul Biennial (2009).