Reflection of heterotopias on contemporary art from the perspective of foucault

The concept heterotopia, which is originally a medical term and introduced to social sciences by Foucault, refers to spaces, with the power to arrange-organize the place, where incompatible worlds come side by side or overlap each other, and the otherness is experienced. The concept heterotopia, as well as heterogeneity and otherness, which are put forward as liberating forces by the postmodern theory, has also an important place in the field of art. The ability of heterotopias to isolate and penetrate creates gateways opening to the otherness by allowing for a social encounter for inclusion and seclusion practices. In inclusion practices in the modern age, the subject is fixed in a form of panoptic discipline based on the norm-centred separation and differentiation system. The reduction of the subject to the form of knowledge in inclusion practices through practices such as categorization, separation and differentiation are the basic feature that creates the otherness in inclusion practices. In this period, as it was understood that inclusion practices became costly for creating the productive population needed by capitalism, panoptism, which was a new form of discipline, was preferred and the instillation of the idea immanent power was prioritized by liberating the subject rather than fixing it. Panoptism not only created productive-obedient selves but also facilitated the acceptance of inclusion practices. Within the heterogonous, fragmented, chaotic urban landscape of the postmodern era, inclusion practices infiltrated into the public space and turned into a mechanism where subjects controlled and limited themselves without any external force by means of liberty phantasmagoria. Inclusion and seclusion practices are now reflected in the modern art and create areas of experience where the otherness is presented in daily encounter forms and negotiated. In the present study, the concept heterotopia and inclusion-seclusion practices are examined in their historical development process, and reflections of heterotopias on the modern art are analysed on the artworks studied.