- Art Theory, Cinema, Eastern European Studies, Conceptual Art, Cultural Politics, Marxist theory, and 19 moreSituationist International, Punk Culture, Political Theory, Noise And Music, Western Balkans, Yugoslavia, Contemporary History, Communism and national question, Serbian Politics, History and Philosophy of Social Sciences, Boris Buden, Philosophy, Sociology, Literature, Gender Studies, Political Philosophy, Ethics, Cultural History, and Feminist Theoryedit
An interview with Rastko Močnik on the history and politics of radical print in Yugoslavia.
Research Interests:
An extensive introduction to the anthology "Sickle of Syntax and Hammer of Tautology: Concrete and Visual Poetry in Yugoslavia, 1968-1983" that I compiled.
Research Interests:
Review of Revolutions for the Future: May ‘68 and the Prague Spring, published by Suture Press, Lyon, 2020.
One of the most remarkable things within the book Going Out For A Banner 1963-1983: The Visual Adventure of the Left is its exploration of the image used by Dev-Genç, the Turkish Revolutionary Youth Federation. 1 The famous image... more
One of the most remarkable things within the book Going Out For A Banner 1963-1983: The Visual Adventure of the Left is its exploration of the image used by Dev-Genç, the Turkish Revolutionary Youth Federation. 1 The famous image depicting a man raising his left fist has been reproduced on so many different occasions-from the notorious 1978 May Day in Taksim Square, to last year's equivalent Gezi Park-the so-called " Dev-Genç child " image became a symbol of the Left in Turkey. Yılmaz Aysan, the book's editor, pays special attention to this image accordingly, which is taken from a scene in Glauber Rocha's film Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (God and the Devil in the Land of the Sun), made in 1964. In the section of the book titled Adventure of an Image, we can trace the history of the " Dev-Genç child, " from its first ever reproduction in Turkey in the fourth issue of Yeni Sinema (New Cinema) in 1967-a special issue devoted to Brazilian Cinema Novo-to its first political use in 1969 in a poster of ODTÜ Sosyalist Fikir Kulübü (ODTÜ Society of Socialist Thought, a platform which gave rise to Dev-Genç). The image later gave rise to a number of unaccountably different and obscure reproductions. In an interview given to the Sendika.org portal, Aysan, who himself was the designer of many socialist posters and publications in Turkey, describes the story of this image as 'mysterious' and 'enchanting.' 2 The strangeness of Glauber Rocha's image within the iconography of the Left in Turkey is, formally speaking, a result of the tension which is ascribed to the indexicality of the image in general. In this particular case we have both aspects of indexicality theorized in many different accounts. 3 On one hand, we can detect the denotative aspect of the image itself, pointing at a particular gesture of protest and joy from a slice of the movie which addresses these issues, and on another hand we have the connotative aspect underlining the historicization of this particular image; its change from cinematic to various political uses. Thinking about these two aspects-the gesture and the trace of the image-in conjunction as a tension, or precisely as if at a crossroads, is one of the most crucial theoretical issues in discussing the political context of the image. It is obvious that we need more space and additional references to demonstrate this tension of the image used in the iconography of Dev-Genç posters. But to start with, we should recognise that the tension in this enchanting strangeness of the image has a double character: it has simultaneously the tension of Glauber Rocha and of the Left in Turkey. To speak 1 Yilmaz Aysan, Afişe Çıkmak: 1963-1980: Solun Görsel Serüveni, İletişim yayınevi, İstanbul, 2013. " Afişe Çıkmak " means " going out for banner, " and in the context of the slang used by the socialist Left in Turkey it refers to the activity of illegal agitation and propaganda. 2 " Afişe Çıkmak " üzerine: Duvarlar dile geldi, solun serüvenini anlattı, Sendika.org: emek hareketinin gündemi, 13 Februar 2013,
Counter-constructivist Model is an experimental book utilizing formal devices of film making for deeper anlysis of social issues such as multiculturalism, cultural nationalism, whiteness, segregation, racism and riots. The book is... more
Counter-constructivist Model is an experimental book utilizing formal devices of film making for deeper anlysis of social issues such as multiculturalism, cultural nationalism, whiteness, segregation, racism and riots. The book is realized as part of artist-in-residence programme by Bortkyrka Konsthall in Fittja. Apart from offering new model and method for dealing with various social issues related to nationalism, it also aims at deconstructing myths and fables surrounding these issues.