STRUCTURAL LOOKS OF THE CULTURE AND ART AREA IN TURKEY IN THE 1980s

Abstract

There is a dynamic relationship between the culture/art products of societies and their social, political and economic elements. However, certain periods might come to the forefront in the structural change of the abovementioned relationship. As one of the breaking points of the 20th century, the 1980s was a period in which Turkey experienced a paradigm shift along with the world conjuncture. The rupture that was caused by the military intervention of 12 September 1980 not only have impacts in the economic and political field, but also directly affected the cultural and artistic life in Turkey. The military intervention of 1980 became a milestone in Turkey in every respect and everything, from economy to politics, from the street to culture/art products, became known as before and after the 80’s. These developments, which triggered new searches in the field of art and social sciences, were also the source of important changes in art/cultural products and in the production and exhibition of art. In this context, the field of culture/art can be considered among the observation areas where the process of social change can be observed clearly. Structural aspects that came to the fore in culture/art products in this period were depoliticization, individualization and the process of women’s subjectivation. It became a carrier of the economic, political, social and ideological structuring of the liberalization process of cultural/art products ın these years. Although artists/culture producers tried to produce their works focused on individual subjects as much as possible in this period, some of them tried to express themselves with polychrome, polyphonic and various forms after 1980 under the influence of arabesque culture.