Ilhan Ozan

Today positioning the new art and cultural institutions outside the West – in places where local artistic and cultural productions have not historically found an institutional ground – stands as one of the most critical questions for cultural practitioners. By bringing art professionals all over the world together, CIMAM’s 2015 annual conference addressed related issues. The two of thematic areas, “Is the museum still a place of debate” and “How has modernism been perceived globally?” were particularly relevant to my curatorial practice as well as my academic works. Within this framework, my interest lies in seeking exhibition models as innovative responses to urgent issues in art history as well as social environment to overcome entrenched structures, and rethinking the role of institutions in contemporary art practices.

Regarding the context of the country I live in, the first session of the conference was of personal significance as it becomes an increasing struggle to expand the limits of freedom of expression, which I believe is not region-specific. Therefore, the fundamental question I face is how art and cultural institutions can function as platforms that trigger meaningful conversations around certain social and political events in regions where freedom of expression is under pressure, and democratic channels are weak.

I found two of the arguments presented in the keynote speech of the first session controversial. Firstly, a shift in the source of pressure on art was claimed to be happening, a shift from the state pressure to community pressure. Although I agree that a community pressure does exist, it would be short-sighted to think that the state pressure is disappearing, especially when considering the current situation not only in Turkey but also many other countries with increasing state control through constitutional regulations. Therefore, I think that argument could be partially applied to certain Western countries at best, as the examples were also from European contexts.

Secondly, the speech emphasized heteronomy of museums through a perspective that in my opinion undervalued the potential of contemporary institutional practices, if not of museums in historical development. I personally believe stronger in the power of contemporary cultural institutions as “one of the key places where new ideas and possibilities can enter society”. From this view, institutional practice revolves around developing socio-politically relevant exhibition models and challenging cultural-historical constructions, which makes institutions a site for the production of knowledge and intellectual debate.

I must say that it was very productive to discuss these issues from different perspectives and exchange ideas. Thanks to the Getty Foundation that made my participation possible.