Bireysel ve Kolektif Bellek Aralığında Sanatta Kimlik Okumaları

Abstract

The widespread use of the notion of memory in contemporary art creates a fresh language that arises from the artist's need to read about individualistic and societal needs. Using individual an collective memory as a point of reference, the artist tends to act as a chronograph, an archaeologist, or sometimes an anthropologist while producing artwork for the meaning of the past. In this way, the artist shows a more sincere attitude by putting the narrative, the archive and the material at the center of his production. This tendency creates an image of artist who is exploring the common traces of the individual and collective experiences. Collective learning has become integral parts of everyday life by getting into our blood and minds. So much so that, the family, the micro-habitat home, and the city, have been expressed as bearers of the cultural values of society. This acceptance, which has leaked into every living space of the individual, has been regarded as a constructor of his identity. However, it has been revealed that identity is open to change and to reshape by time. The fact that the memory is always re-constructible has made the frame of identity changeable. For this reason, the identity, expressed as a continuous study, is defined by the metaphor of a library that continues to expand. The memory is the memory store of this library. Art has utilized this rich store to produce works in different mediums by incorporating the oral history into it. It has tried to create a field of foresight for mankind by conveying the past knowledge that it bears in the present, to the future. Individual and collective narratives have moved the desire of the artist for exploring identity narratives through memory. Thus, the artist found himself in an effort to reach the roots of the identity among the past images. Sometimes even the individual narrative of the artist has become the cause of production. It has acted as a balancer between past, present and future by carrying the information leaked from the cracks of our image of past into the art field. That's why the artist has been searching for an answer for the questioni, ‘who our secret story turned us into’ while tracing the narratives in the back rooms of our minds. Searching for the answers to this question today with the language of art has opened channels that emphasize the importance and necessity of the inward-looking experience. The art tries to show us all the precious tips about who we are, what we are and what we will be by wide-opening its view finder.

Key Words: Individual memory, Collective memory, Identity, Art.