Public space is the place for assembly of people, empowerment of persons. It is the hub of democracy as well as the manifestation of state power. PubliCdemoS Project explores the ways in which new forms of public agency extends politics to everyday life experiences, opening up avenues of artistic expressions and aesthetic forms. The core aim of this project is to renew democratic agendas by politics of performative citizenship and public making in multicultural settings.

Argument

Public sphere has been conceptualized as a discursive realm, enlightened sphere of ideas, opinions and rational debate in a national context. In the contemporary era, cultural heterogeneity and global connections challenge the unity of national communities and its norms. Art participates to the agonistic dimension of the public sphere, challenges dominant norms and becomes part of controversies. Visual culture mobilizes affects, accelerates (mis)communications across the national boundaries in the construction of multicultural settings. We will explore the ways in which plurality of perspectives emerge and help to open up  the emancipatory potential of the public sphere and its culture.

Program

9.00 Welcoming Coffee

09.30 Nilüfer Göle, General introduction

10.00 Roundtable 1: Urban space for appearance, resistance and experience

•  10.00 Judit Carrera, Artistic interventions for democratizing city life
• 10.30 Sarah Dornhof, Public art and everyday resistance: Case of the monument installation in Dresden
• 11.00 Mustafa Diktas, Public space and hybrid spirituality: Aya Yorgi in Istanbul
• 11.30 Sencer Vardarman, Image archive of Gezi protests

12.00 General discussion

12.30 Lunch Break

13.30 Roundtable 2: Art in tension with national norms

• 13.30 Marina Repezza, The Mosque: Contemporary Art and the Question of Separation. Analysis of a controversy at the 56th Venice Biennale
• 14.00 Asmaa Soliman, Emerging Counterpublics: German Muslim Female Artists Challenging the Public Sphere
• 14.30 Peter Ronald deSouza, From celebrated artist to villain: The paintings of MF Husain
• 15.00 Pénélope Larzillière, Artistic testimony and commitment: Perspectives on political art in the Middle East
• 15.30 Sarp Kerem Yavuz, Daddy Issues & Middle Eastern Politics

16.00 General discussion

16.15 Coffee Break

16.30 Roundtable 3: Public controversies: Religious and secular fantasies, affects and critics

• 16.30 Camil Ungureanu, Nihilism, religious fantasy, and humor in Michel Houellebecq’s “Submission”
• 17.00 Nadia Fadil, Why we (need to) condemn. Investigating the calls for ‘auto critique’ after the Paris and Brussels attacks
• 17.30 Nur Yasemin Ural, Law and affective order: Entanglements of religious feelings and secular affects

18.00 General discussion  & Conclusion  

Project Directed by Nilüfer Göle EHESS/NOMIS

Team members

• Warda Hadjab
• Zeynep Uğur
• Gökçe Tuncel 

Registrations via publicdemosgroups@gmail.com