Image Acts

“Image Acts” explores the diffusion of nationalist ideas and fantasies in everyday life practices in Turkey at the end of 2000s. It consists of interviews with shop owners who sell products with national symbols on them, tattoo makers and people being tattooed with national symbols, people who live around the giant Atatürk statue in Izmir and people wearing the mask of the national leader. It investigates how people relate to and are affected by the images of the nation, which inevitably evolves into broader discussions of politics and personal stories. The examples of different performances of national identity, which at times conflict and at other times complement each other, depict a far from homogeneous picture of everyday nationalism in Turkey in the 2000s.

Aylin Kuryel

Aylin Kuryel completed her PhD at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) at the University of Amsterdam. She is the co-editor of “Cultural Activism: Practices, Dilemmas and Possibilities” (Rodopi, 2010) and “Aesthetics and Resistance in the Age of Global Uprisings” (Iletisim Press, 2015). Alongside her academic activities, Kuryel also works as an artist and documentary filmmaker.