According Jennifer Hattam from Hyperallergic, the presiden of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government, known for persecuting artists and cultural figures, is being accused of “artwashing” ahead of critical elections.
Jennifer Hattam / Hyperallergic
More than three decades after the last tenants moved out of Istanbul’s first Art Nouveau building, the doors of the long-neglected Botter Apartment were flung wide open again last month after a lengthy restoration. Crowds lined up outside its newly gleaming façade to enter what was once the atelier of Jean Botter, official tailor to the court of Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II, and to see the contemporary art exhibition Reveries, Truths that had been installed there for the grand reopening.
The revival of Casa Botter is part of a larger initiative by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality to convert pieces of Istanbul’s history — ranging from a former fez hat factory to a late-19th-century gasworks — into new cultural hubs for the city of 16 million people. It is also symbolic of a broader struggle over political influence in the world of art and culture as Turkey heads toward critical national elections on May 14.
“It is a clear fact that today, the most powerful weapons of those who manage the global system are the tools of culture,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared in a speech in late 2021. Better known for banning, pressuring, and even arresting artists and other cultural figures, his government has also sought to supplant what the autocratic leader has lamented as the “monopoly” over culture long held by his political opponents.
In recent years, Erdoğan has presided over the rebuilding of the landmark Atatürk Cultural Center, personally commissioning the first opera performed there; the conversion of an Ottoman army barracks into the massive Rami Library; and the inauguration of the Yeditepe Biennial, a would-be competitor to the Istanbul Biennial that aimed to highlight classical Turkish arts.
The president’s political adversaries have decried such projects as attempts “not to support culture, but to direct it and dominate it,” as Mahir Polat, the deputy secretary general of the opposition-run Istanbul Municipality, put it at a press briefing in November. A former museum director, Polat said the municipality has “a duty to create new cultural spaces that serve free expression.” In the last six months alone, he has spearheaded the opening of contemporary art venues in an old pumping station, a trio of historic houses, a water cistern, and an office building, in addition to Casa Botter.
The municipality’s projects have generally drawn a warmer response from Istanbul’s arts community than those promoted by the central government. “But at heart, I feel their understanding of the role of culture is not very different from one another,” artist Zeyno Pekünlü told Hyperallergic. “They are all seeing culture largely as part of the touristification and promotion of the city.”
Since taking power in 2002, Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party has accelerated neoliberal policies that have led to increased privatization across all sectors, including the arts. One result has been the “exclusion of politically engaged women and queer artists,” as well as Kurdish artists, from both private and state institutions, said Esra Yıldız, an associate professor at Istanbul Bilgi University’s Department of Arts and Cultural Management.
Funding for major art institutions and events in Turkey is dominated by large holding companies, and Istanbul art venues are increasingly migrating to quasi-public spaces these corporations control, including the Bomontiada entertainment complex, the Piyalepaşa İstanbul luxury housing development, and the Galataport shopping complex, where the flagship Istanbul Modern museum reopened this week.
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