IN-PERSON ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

Istanbul has a long history of public street art, striking the aesthetic curiosity of locals and visitors alike. During contentious times, the city’s street art scene amplifies, with some art becoming shorthand for those hoping to transform public spaces. Istanbul’s street art scene demonstrates both its interconnectedness with the global for receiving and re-attuning street art to local Turkish contexts (as in the case of Banksy’s flower thrower mural) and the city’s status as an innovator in street art that is remade and revised around the world. As such, Istanbul’s street artists demonstrate an ability to connect with city locals and those across Turkey, but also those around the globe. This is due to the prominence of the city’s street art, the cleverness of the city’s artists, and the interconnectedness of Istanbul as a city–visitors encounter street art everywhere around the city, and it speaks to feelings and situations prevalent globally–often without using words, only images. Istanbul’s street art is often studied only in its local contexts (Gruber, 2018; Aytekin, 2017; Tulke, 2020), but this research argues that it has international power. As such, this public speaks to situations that are becoming universal, doing so with wit, cleverness, and humanity that are communicative globally as well as locally.