Dr. Ambra D’Antone (The Warburg Institute – School of Advanced Study – University of London)

The Persistence of Memory: Revivalism and Nationalism in Turkey and Greater Syria.

At the intersection of the historiography of Surrealism and modern art, this project charts the emergence of key linguistic themes and critical terms that are found to be recurring in art historical writings in Turkey, Lebanon and Syria between 1930-1960. A particularly persistent notion was ‘the surreal’: a critical term translated from Surrealist discourses,  ‘the surreal’ in the art historiography of this region bestowed upon artworks the power to go beyond their present historical circumstances, extending into the past or the future and across geographical borders, connecting diverse individuals and artworks under shared aesthetic and philosophical aims. The surreal, in these quarters, complicated a univocal relationship between art making and rationalist epistemes and was employed by art historians in projects that sought to ‘rewrite’, revive or otherwise recircuit their national art production in writing, motivated by political and nationalist debates. Across different outputs, the project’s case studies include: the articulation of a Surrealist vocabulary through scientific methodologies in 1940s Syria; the writings on shadow theatre in 1940s Turkey by Ismayıl Hakkı Baltacıoğlu (1886-1978); the formulation of a Turkish ‘Kulturgeschichte’ in the writings of Mazhar Şevket İpşiroğlu (1908-1985).

Dr Ambra D’Antone is a historian of Surrealism and Modernism, with a particular focus on early to mid-twentieth century historiography of Turkey and Greater Syria. She is currently working as Research Associate of Bilderfahrzeuge International Research Project, based at The Warburg Institute in London, conducted in cooperation with the Max Weber Foundation. Recent publications include “Looking Past: Turkish Surrealism in Translation”, in Surrealism in North Africa and Western Asia: Crossings and Encounters, edited by Monique Bellan and Julia Drost (Ergon, 2021) and “Taking Time: Fateh Moudarres’ Works on Paper and Syrian Chronology between Modernity and Contemporaneity”, in Hiwar: Sense and Intuition. Edited by Mouna Atassi and Shireen Atassi (Kaph Books, 2022). Dr. D’Antone is currently a Gerald D. Feldman postdoctoral research fellow at the Orient-Institut Istanbul.

By Kıvanç from İstanbul, Turkey – İstanbul Toys Museum ( Karagöz And Hacivat), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4092519