Postyapısalcı ve feminist teori ışığında Türkiye'de performans sanatı

The goal of this master thesis is to analyze the performative works of Nil Yalter, Şükran Moral and Nezaket Ekici, three artist who were pioneers in the performance art field in Turkey, in the light of post-structuralist and feminist theories. In our thesis, the focus is on three artists, who are the first representatives of performance art, which started to appear in Turkey, only in the 90s, but which was a conceptual form of art, whose first examples were based on action painting (the start of 20th century). Our research, in order to follow the trail of the performance art in Turkey, focused on the video performances performed by Nil Yalter in 1970s in France, and the works of Şükran Moral and NezaketEkici performed in Turkey in the 90s. The study was designed in order to gather the clues of post structuralist and feminist criticism of postmodern period and thought, in the performances of these three artists, and their works are analyzed with this ideological background. If we would briefly mention performance art and feminist criticism subjects: Performance art, in its first forms, is sprouted from the societal opposition in the 60s. In the performances focusing on body, generally, the body, against hierarchic superiority attributed to culture in the duality of culture and nature (mind and body), and the experience of overcoming societal norms with the unlimited possibility of body were prioritized.The artists, who follow this theme, in order to live a real experience, and to destroy the limits between the artist and the spectator, realized many performances that are highly forcible on the body. However, the body cannot become the subject of these limit experiences in order to question these dualities.In the performances realized after 1960, the problematization of body was studied under various titles. The fact that feminist artists used performance art as their primary tool of expression since the 60s, forms the development vessels of the performance art.Feminist art, which was born as an opposite attitude against the male dominant art perspective, starting from its opinions that women were not represented sufficiently and correctly in art, art history, art institutions and museums, that women were excluded, marginalized and ignored, in addition to being an aesthetic approach,also included a reformative political attitude which consisted activism.Therefore, most performance art practices which were developed with strong ties with feminist art, included criticism of art history, and the criticisms against the masculine identity of societal history as the source of marginalization.There are a few reasons that we focused on the three artists mentioned in our research thesis. First of all, it is possible to see that post structuralist feminist perspective mostly forms the conceptual background of the performative works of all three artists.On the other hand, they are the pioneers of this field which has limited examples in Turkey. Also, In Europe, the effects of post-modernism which was grew more powerful after 1968, greatly influenced these three artists, who got their art educations in Germany, France and Italy. So, the performative works of these artists were examined with the content analysis method, by forming a connection between the effects of post-modern era and the post-structuralist theories. Within the context of the study, basically with the content analysis method, visual elements are analyzed. The artist's performative works are accessed in video formats that were used to present them again, or as in Nil Yalter's works, in their original forms which include various disciplines such as video art and installation. Retrospective exhibitions about the artists, and the books on these exhibitions are the other resources we used about the works of art. In the establishment of the sociological frame of the study, in the first chapter, we focused on studies which refer to the transition from modern world to the post modern era in the societal ideology, and the studies where we can find the traces of ideological change. In the second chapter, the post structuralist ideology which will form the theoretical frame is examined. We focused more on the relations between body and power, the subject theory which puts the societal establishment of body with tools of power, and post structuralist feminist ideology to form the theoretical frame. In this context, Faucaldian ideology and post structuralist feminist ideology are examined. In the third chapter, in the light of post structuralist criticism, Nil Yalter, Şükran Moral and Nezaket Ekici's performative works are studied under various topics. On a more detailed look; in the first chapter, we followed the traces of cultural change around the "society of spectacle" concept of Guy Debord, which suggests that the societal life turned into a spectacle and a sum of images, and "simulacra" concept of Baudrillard, which he used to explain the system of images which replaced social reality, and which means that original reality no longer exists, that it is a copy of a copy. Hence, performance turned to a pile of images, and was born as a criticism to the stagnation of modern art where reproductions, not new products, were dominant. With performance art, the two dimensional, constant works of art were replaced by a new kind, which body is used as a material, and focuses on action. Performance art, which was born as a criticism against the pile of works of art which became spatial, constant, and with its other aspect, which became high commercialized, was born as a criticism from inside the art, in the cultural and ideological setting which we mentioned above. In the second part of this section, we put emphasis on post structuralist theories which largely appeared in 1960s, and focused on the subject of the body, to societal gender and the socio political establishment of body. In this chapter, Foucault's disciplinary society, we focused on the relation between subject and power, the taming of body with techniques of power, to policies based on body, to the bio politics concept, and the transformation of subjectivization practices. The transition from the disciplinary society, which focus power mechanic is made up of close systems (prison, military camp, school, factory, etc). As we will examine the works of the artists who focus on areas of confinement such as prison, brothel and harem, in this chapter, Foucault's "disciplinary society" theory, the taming of bodies and bio politics concepts found place. In the third part of this section, we focused on second wave feminism, which appeared after 1960s, and which added the complete rejection of linear time and "the study of giving voice to intersubjective or bodily experiences which were rendered mute in the past by the culture" to the societal and political identity demands of the first wave. Post structuralist feminist writers, H. Cixous, L. Irigaray and J. Kristeva criticizes psychoanalysis, and the problematic or deficient existence of women in the symbolic order. They do not just criticize structuralism, but the whole phallocentric and logocentric Western ideology, and they put an emphasis on body. While Cixous rejects psychoanalysis as it relates the gender difference to anatomy, L. Irigaray put forth important criticisms for Freudian psychoanalysis. Kristeva emphasizes, in Freud and Lacan's theories, the problematic existence of the woman role, and that women were marginalized from the symbolic order. These three writers' claims, which they put forth to save women from their historical imprisonment, and from the phallus and logos centered culture, and their women's writing theory which is originated from body, and which expresses a bodily uprising, were studied in detail. In the second chapter, under the titles, "masculine domination at art history: performative criticism of art history", « women's writing or bodily literature, "activist body as resistance against the closing or passification of body", Nil Yalter, Şükran Moral and Nezaket Ekici's performative works which were positioned around these themes are analyzed. These artists generally used their own bodies during their performances, here, body is the agent of action or performance. So, a unique, esthetic resistance of body, which was passified by societal processes and mechanisms of power, is realized. Therefore, if we would quote Foucault, in this study, the "oppression" concept should always be considered along with the "resistance" concept. Performance art is included in this study, with its examples against the masculine dominance which was established in societal relations and art history (and generally to history), which developed after 1970s, under the influence of feminist and post structuralist theory. In the whole chapter, by using the theoretical frame formed in the first two chapters, the artists' works are analyzed in detail. In the section titled "masculine domination at art history: performative criticism of art history", the works of art which focused on the subjects that became basic problems of modern art with the influence of feminist art, such as the masculine establishment of art history, the myth of Great Artists, the problem that Great Artists are always men, and the degradation of women to a passive object of regard for art spectators were examined. In this section, the parts from various chapters of Nil Yalter's approximately one hour long video performance, Harem, performed in 1980, which could be discussed under this title, were evaluated. Then, Şükran Moral's works, Artist (1994), Sanat Tarihine Güvenmeyiniz (1995) and Speculum (1997), where she criticizes the Great Artist myth, and the passified position of women in front of the spectator are analyzed. Lastly, in Nezaket Ekici's works, Form It Able (2010), Fontaine (2003), Blind (2007) and Upside Down (2009), the elements of criticism against the masculine establishment of art history are studied. In the "women's writing or bodily literature" section, within the Ecriture féminine theory, three works of art are examined. Firstly, Nil Yalter's La femme sans tête ou la dance du ventre (1974), where she writes a text around her navel, accompanied by oriental music, she quoted from René Nelli's, Erotique et Civilisation, an ethnographic work on female circumcision, is analyzed. In addition, Nezaket Ekici's works, Lifting a Secret (2007) and Emotion in Motion (2000) are examined. In these performances, we focused on the use of body in relation with writing, performative interruption of the masculine dominance on body and writing, and therefore, the relation of women's writing theory with artistic criticism. In the section titled "activist body as resistance against the closing or pacification of body", the performative works which create a field of resistance against confinement, pacification and marginalization, which could be evaluated in regards to Discipline and Supervision Society analyses, and in the frame of bio politics concept and subject theory are analyzed. Firstly, Nil Yalter's Harem (1980), where she approaches metaphorically, the harem, which was the section where women were confined in Ottoman palaces, where she establishes it as a disciplinary confinement area by focusing on the "organization of the area", and turns this area in to a field of resistance is analyzed. Then, the artist's video performance, La Roquette, prison de femmes (1974), which is about the first women's prison, La Roquette, that was built in 1830 with a panoptical architecture, and which focused on the experiences of prisoners is examined. Lastly, Nezaket Ekici's Atropos (2006) performance, where she experienced both imprisonment and freedom, which focused on bodily pain, where she performed in Sinop Prison, was examined in this context. As a result, this study attempted to understand performance art as a sum of historical societal relations where body is central, and to set forth that we are facing an art discipline which is much more socialized than ever because of the impossibility of an art discipline independent of the spirit of the era, and even so, because of the transformation of art. In this context, we emphasized also the function of performance are to create an area of societal uprising. Finally, in regards to analyzing the centralization in performance art of the "body" concept, which was focused on with the societal and ideological change after 1960, and its transformation to an artistic societal field of action, this study attempted to form a methodical and sociological basis for artistic and sociological researches which focus on the body. Keywords : Performance art, post-modernism, post-structuralism, feminism, gender, feminist critique of art history, artistic deconstruction, women's writing, taming of body, bodily resistance.