Mapping the fantasmagoria: ‘Wedding topographies’ of Turkey

ABSTRACT

This article will examine ‘Wedding topographies’ that cut through the rigid separation, segmentation, regulation and exclusion that operate in the public domain of Istanbul and Turkey. The discussion will centre around the research project that was presented on the occasion of the ongoing exhibition project ‘De-Regulation With the Work of Kutluğ Ataman’ conceptualized and curated by Irit Rogoff. Based on Freud's notion of ‘fantasy’, the main question arises throughout the discussion: ‘How is it possible to trouble the simplistic differentiation between public identity and private-self?’ The article focuses on wedding ceremonies and wedding photographs in the context of the ‘performativity’ and in reference to Kutlug Ataman's video installation Never My Soul. It is argued that ‘Wedding topographies’ make us realize that Turkey in general and Istanbul in particular juxtaposes multiple and diverse cultural identities, modes of life and forms of appropriating urban space, as opposed to the dominant state ideology that insists on the exclusive representation of the nation state in public space by repressing differences and particularities.

KEYWORDS:

• fantasy
• identity
• identification
• Istanbul
• Performative
• wedding