Visionary Representation as an Anomaly: Indeterminate Trajectories in Early Republican Turkey’s Art and Architecture Environment

Abstract

This study aims to discuss the Turkish context of the critical-creative visionary/avant-garde attitude, which is handled through various approaches, productions, actors and discourses in the literature of art and architecture theory. It explores through which local representations the idea of the future and the new, possible intercultural interaction, can be read. Within this extensive proposition, "indeterminate trajectories" built on a set of assumptions/intuitions rather than a top-down approach can make potential relationships and interactions visible regarding the concepts and context at the center of the discussion; It is suggested that the definition of the visionary at a general dimension, together with the role of representation and criticism, can open up some discussions regarding the Turkish context in particular. The content and method of the research are constructed as a whole, and the points taken by the themes shaped by the predicted interactions and associations are mapped. This text has been constructed as a part of a large research/“area of concentration”, and within the context in question, "avant-garde", another concept which the concept of "visionary" interacts, is considered as the scope of this study. In this context, together with the avant-garde theme, the Early Republican Period, the contemporaneous of the historical avant-garde in Europe, defines a temporal trajectory for the discussion, while the booklet Güzelleşen İstanbul (Beautifying istanbul) presents a visual-imaginary trajectory.