Video Art and Collective Memory in Turkey

Authors

  • Merve Kaptan Istanbul Galata University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE29689

Abstract

Turkey's thriving art scene reflects the growing interest in the international contemporary art market in countries outside the Western world. Istanbul has become a major hub of cultural exchange between the Eastern Mediterranean region, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Video art is a popular art form in Turkey, and its popularity has been growing in recent years. The aim of this article is to present and study contemporary video practices since the 2000s in Turkey through the representation of time and collective memory. The article presents the four video artists who have structured the video art scene in Turkey: Ali Kazma, Halil Altındere, Erkan Özgen and Seza Paker. The selected videos present autobiographical memories or references to collective memory to explore how time is represented in video art.

Author Biography

Merve Kaptan, Istanbul Galata University

Merve Kaptan is a full-time assistant professor at the Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University in Turkey. She graduated with a master's degree in 2011 from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and obtained her doctorate from Galatasaray University in Istanbul. She is the author of critical studies on image theory: Corporeal Experience in Virtual Reality (2014), Video Art and Technis in Turkey (2018), Ghosts of the Image: From Writer's Museums to Mnemosyne Atlas (2022).

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Published

2025-02-05

How to Cite

Kaptan, M. (2025). Video Art and Collective Memory in Turkey. Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, 15(2), 95–118. https://doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE29689

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 2 (2024): Elicitations Catalogue 2024

Section

Elicitations

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Merve Kaptan

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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This work by https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/imaginations is licensed under a  Creative Commons 4.0 International License although certain works referenced herein may be separately licensed, or the author has exercised their right to fair dealing under the Canadian Copyright Act.