False memory: The concept of false memory in the context of the relationship between space and memory in visual arts

This thesis focuses on looking at the concept of false memory through the relationship between space and memory. The reconstructive property of memory is considered in the context of the relationship it establishes with space within the scope of the thesis. A corridor has been created with the sections intended to carry the reader to the concept of false memory, which is a cultural construction in autobiographical narrative, and its working mechanism. Parallel to Halbwachs' thought that "collective memory is what constitutes individual memory", a narrative path from general to specific, from collective to individual has been adopted. In the first part of the study, the relationship between space and memory has been approached from a historical perspective, and how false memories in the collective memory transform the space are examined with examples of artworks. In the second part of the thesis, the role of space in the formation of identity is mentioned, and how imagination can change memory and space, and the position of the perceiving body in the relationship between space and memory are shed light with examples of works. In the third chapter, the idea of objects creating space is explained with both visual and literary examples, and works in which objects are used as a trigger of memories are included. The restructuring feature of both the collective memory and the autobiographical memory of the contact between the object and the human, which Szeemann describes as "personal mythologies", has been mentioned with the artworks. In the fourth chapter, a wide area has been opened to the concept of false memory in the related literature and it is aimed to make it easier for the reader to recognize the concept in terms of its relationship with other titles. In the same section, how false memories are formed in autobiographical memory is examined on the axis of imagination and dream and associated with the concepts of Surrealist Manifesto and Freud's Screen Memories. The last section includes the author's artistic practices. The artworks included in the study are discussed on the axis of the concept of "false memory" and aim to share with the reader the question marks about how false memories create and transform space and memory in an autobiographical sense. Keywords: False Memory, Memory, Space, Fictional Spaces, Collective Memory, Autobiographical Memory, Visual Arts, Psychogeography, Screen Memories