Hope and Resilience: The Presentation of the Refugee Issue in Contemporary Art

Öz

This article examines the refugee crisis, one of the 21st century’s most complex and human-centered challenges, shaped by the devastating impacts of political conflicts, economic hardships, and wars. This crisis has forced millions to leave their homelands and struggle to build new lives in refugee camps or foreign countries. It has also emerged as an ethical, cultural, and political area of inquiry within contemporary art. In this context, artists such as Alfredo Jaar, Ai Weiwei, Yara Said, Khaled Barakeh, Issam Kourbaj, and Bouchra Khalili address the refugee crisis through various media, including sculpture, photography, installation, and video, inviting audiences to reflect on the multidimensional nature of the issue. These artists not only offer a visual narrative but also highlight the underlying ethical responsibilities and political struggles associated with the refugee crisis. The article aims to analyze the approaches of contemporary art toward the refugee crisis and the social and political impacts of these approaches, seeking to understand how art contributes to social change.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• refugee
• contemporary art
• politics
• aesthetics
• society

UMUT VE DİRENÇ: MÜLTECİ SORUNUNUN ÇAĞDAŞ SANATTA SUNUMU

Öz

Bu makalede, 21. yüzyılın karmaşık ve insani meselelerinden biri olan mülteci krizi, politik çatışmalar, ekonomik zorluklar ve savaşların yıkıcı etkileriyle şekillenen küresel bir trajedi olarak ele alınmaktadır. Milyonlarca insanın kendi topraklarından zorla ayrılmasına ve mülteci kamplarında ya da yabancı ülkelerde yeni bir hayat mücadelesine zorlanmasına yol açan bu durum, çağdaş sanatın etik, kültürel ve politik bir sorgulama alanına dönüşmüştür. Bu bağlamda, Alfredo Jaar, Ai Weiwei, Yara Said, Khaled Barakeh, Issam Kourbaj ve Bouchara Khalili gibi sanatçıların eserleri, mülteci krizini heykel, fotoğraf, enstalasyon, video gibi farklı medya aracılığıyla ele almakta; izleyiciyi bu sorunun çok boyutlu yapısı üzerine düşünmeye davet etmektedir. Sanatçılar, eserleriyle yalnızca bir görsel anlatı sunmakla kalmamakta, aynı zamanda mülteci krizinin altında yatan etik sorumluluklara ve politik mücadelelere dikkat çekmektedir. Makale, çağdaş sanatın mülteci krizine yaklaşımını ve bu yaklaşımın toplumsal ve politik etkilerini analiz ederek, sanatın toplumsal değişime olan katkısını anlamayı amaçlamaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• mülteci
• çağdaş sanat
• politika
• estetik
• toplum

Etik Beyan

Makale araştırma ve yayın etiğine uygun olarak hazırlanmıştır. Yapılan bu çalışma etik kurul izni gerektirmemektedir.

Kaynakça

1. Adorni, G. (2018). Breathing through the medium: representations of refugees in contemporary art. Dandelion: Postgraduate Arts Journal and Research Network, 9(1), 1-29.
2. Adorno, T. W. (2007). Negative dialectics. (Çev: E. Ashton), Continuum.
3. Akande, D., Kuosmanen, J., McDermott, H., Roser, D. (2020). Human rights and 21st century challenges: Poverty, conflict, and the environment. Oxford University Press.
4. Alfredo Jaar Studio. (2023 / 2024, Kasım 15). One million German passports. https://alfredojaar.net/projects/2023/one-million-german-passports/
5. Barakeh, K. (2023, Ekim 29). Khaled Barakeh. https://www.khaledbarakeh.com/biography
6. Barakeh, K. & Dreesen, I. (2020). The untitled images. Spiritual Care, 9(4), 299-302.
7. Baroody, M. (2021). Circulating images of death: Festival films and the Syrian refugee crisis. Jacob F., Wallenbrock N. B. (Ed.), Migrants’ Perspectives, Migrants in Perspective: World Cinema içinde (230-255. ss.), Edinburgh University Press.
8. Behiery, V. (2021). Migrants and refugees in moving image contemporary art: Ghazel’s “home (stories)” (2008) and Bouchra Khalili’s “the mapping journey project” (2008-11). F. Jacob, N. B. Wallenbrock (Ed.), Migrants’ Perspectives, Migrants in Perspective: World Cinema içinde (13-45. ss.), Edinburgh University Press.

9. Berggren, E. (2019). Representation, victimization or identification negotiating power and powerlessness in art on migration. Journal of Mediterranean Knowledge-JMK, 4(2), 113-136.
10. Camus, A. (1961). Resistance, rebellion and death. Knopf.
11. Design Museum. (2024, Şubat 15). The Refugee Nation Flag. https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/beazley-designs-of-the-year/graphics-20xx/the-refugee-nation-flag
12. Dlugosz-Acton, S. K. (2017, Aralık 21). The refugee nation Yara Said. https://kcai.edu/hr-block-artspace/project-well/the-refugee-nation/
13. Drüeke, R., Klaus, E., Moser, A. (2021). Spaces of identity in the context of media images and artistic representations of refugees and migration in Austria. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 24(1), 160-183.
14. e-flux. (2023, Nisan 10). Alfredo Jaar: one million German passports. https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/531130/alfredo-jaarone-million-german-passports/
15. Eyerman, R. & Jamison, A. (1998). Music and social movements: mobilizing traditions in the twentieth century. Cambridge University Press.
16. Fischer, H. (2023, Haziran 21). A great artist on migration and refugees – the creation of Issam Kourbaj’s “precarious passage”. https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/great-artist-migration-and-refugees-creation-issam-kourbajs-precarious-passage
17. Gablik, S. (1995). The reenchantment of art. Thames & Hudson.
18. Harris, G. (2022, Haziran 16). Ai Weiwei’s cage sculpture in Stockholm takes on new meaning following war in Ukraine. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/06/16/ai-weiweis-cage-sculpture-in-stockholm-takes-on-new-meaning-following-war-in-ukraine
19. Hollifield, J. (2023, Temmuz 27). Migration, forced displacement, and human development. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/migration-forced-displacement-and-human-development
20. Jennstål, J. & Öberg, P.O. (2019). The ethics of deliberative activism: in search of reasonableness and dialogic responsiveness in provocative art exhibitions. Policy Studies, 40(6), 648-661.
21. Khalili, B. (2024, Mayıs 15). The mapping journey project. https://www.bouchrakhalili.com/the-mapping-journey-project/
22. Kkona, C. (2017). Politics and aesthetics of suspension: Gazes on migrant borders. U-topias, (13), 133-139.
23. Lippard, L. R. (1984). Trojan horses: activist art and power. New Museum.
24. Martin, B. (2007). Activism, social and political. L. Gary, G. Anderson, K. G. Herr (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice içinde (19-27. ss.), Sage.
25. Marxen, E. (2018). Artistic practices and the artistic dispositif - a critical review. Antípoda. Revista de Antropología y Arqueología, (33), 37-60.
26. Mendes, A. C. & Weiwei, A. (2022). The world as a readymade: a conversation with Ai Weiwei. Transnational Screens, 13(2), 157-175.
27. Mouffe, C. (2013). Agonistics thinking the world politically. Verso.
28. Nicholls, W. J. & Uitermark, J. (2015). Giving voice: the ambivalent roles of specific intellectuals in immigrant and lgbt movements. Amsterdam University Press.
29. Ranciere, J. (2006). The politics of aesthetics: the distribution of the sensible. Continuum International Publishing Group.
30. Ranciere, J. & Rockhill, G. (2012). The politics of aesthetics: the distribution of the sensible. Bloomsbury Academic.
31. Said, Y. (2024, Ocak 28). The refugee nation flag. https://yara-said.com/The-Refugee-Nation-Flag
32. Silva, V. P. (2020). The mapping journey project by Bouchra Khalili: making maps speak. Artes e Política, 26(39), 11-25.
33. Şiray, M. (2019). Jacques Rancière’in imge felsefesi: estetik imgenin diyalektiği. Kaygı, 18(2), 549-566.
34. Weiwei, A. (2020). Human flow. Princeton University Press.
35. Zimanyi, E. (2022). Interrogating the limits of humanitarian art: The uncomfortable invitations of Ai Weiwei. Transnational Screens, 13(2), 141-156.