IN THE CLOSE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN ART PRACTICE AUTOETHNOGRAPHY: THE FIGURES OF DISPLACEMENT IN CONTEMPORARY ART

Year 2019, Volume: 9 Issue: 4, 473 - 490, 01.10.2019

Esra Oskay Malicki

Abstract

The shifting position of the artist in the field of
cultural inquiry in parallel with the emphasis on subjective truth replacing
the objective basis in ethnographic research opens a shared ground for
discussions between ethnography and art. Focusing on representations of
displacement in contemporary art practice, the paper aims to understand
different modalities of representing experience through studying the subjective
responses of selected artists in the framework of ethnographic turn in art. The
paper traces the figures of displacement within contemporary art criticism in
parallel with the figurative language of contemporary social thought that
manifests a thinking through spatial metaphors. In this regard, the cross field
between ethnography and autoethnography in particular in relation to art
practice is analyzed through case studies, in order to expand the
interdisciplinary dialogue between these two distinctive forms of cultural
inquiry. Instead of seeking methodological analogies between ethnography and
art practice, the study focuses on this particular motivation of ethnographic
work to capture reality and express experience. Beyond the mere replication of
ethnographic methods that risks producing meagre ethnographies and restricting
the emergence of possibilities across the distinctive practices of inquiry, the
paper aims to locate the conversation between art and autoethnography on a
transdisciplinary ground. In this way, the research strives to shift the focus
from methodological disparities and mimicries towards the shared concerns of
art and ethnography.

Keywords

Ethnographic Turn in Art, Autoethnography, Displacement, Home

References

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