Sirius descends, Goldelse flickers: German-Turkish debts of becoming and flickering migrations as remedies

Aykan Safoglu

Exposition

Sirius descends, Goldelse flickers: German-Turkish debts of becoming and flickering migrations as remedies (2025)

Aykan Safoglu

open exposition

About this exposition

My PhD project explores the aesthetic and affective codes of a particular notion of indebtedness, a 'feeling of indebtedness,' as an outcome of German educational efforts institutionalized in Istanbul over the course of the 20th century. I interrogate this feeling through the lens of affect theory as a pedagogical 'genre,' by bringing my research closer to Black studies and critical migration studies. My high school, the İstanbul Erkek Lisesi [Istanbul High School for Boys, also known as Istanbul High School], which is housed in the former headquarters of a 20th-century European credit institution named the Düyûn-ı Umûmiye [Ottoman Public Debt Administration, OPDA] becomes the imaginative site for 'desire-based research,' as Eve Tuck suggests. If this German school abroad were a credit institution, a time machine, how could it inform me about the historical processes through which a 'feeling of indebtedness' educates collective desires conforming to German labor, emancipation, and citizenship models? Keeping Lauren Berlant’s concept of 'cruel optimism' dear to my research, I question whether the German pedagogical promises in Asia Minor pose an obstacle to the flourishing of migrant subjects desirous of German education. Thus, I critique the violent histories along the modern German-Turkish industrial complexes of labor, culture, and military. I lean on intergovernmental agreements and familial biographies of labor, migration, and conversion. In pursuit of affective remedies for such histories' violence, I depart from 'redemptive migrant images' of my solo exhibition 'Teneffüs' [Recess], which opened at Salt Galata (Istanbul, 2022) in the former headquarters of the Bank-ı Osmanî-i Şahane [Imperial Ottoman Bank]. Employing my methodology of 'flickering migrations,' I hope that it inspires a thriving culture of memory and accountability.

type	research exposition
keywords	queer, migration, education, Debt, affect, optics, Naturalization, transdiciplinarity
date	04/09/2025
published	04/09/2025
last modified	04/09/2025
status	published
affiliation	Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
copyright	Aykan Safoğlu
license	All rights reserved
language	English
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2319283/2319284
doi	https://doi.org/10.22501/abkw.2319283
published in	Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
portal issue	1. PhD in Practice \| Artistic Research Works
connected to	Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Copyrights

name	Çeşme [The Fountain]
copyright	Melis Balcı, Vardal Caniş, İnci Furni, Mertcan Mertbilek, Mustafa Kınalı, Yaz Taşçı, Yasemin Yasu, and Aykan Safoğlu
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Off_White_Tulips_Still_Image_1
copyright	Aykan Safoğlu
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Kayhan_Kaygusuz_15
copyright	Kayhan Kaygusuz
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan Safoglu_Istanbul_Highschool_1
copyright	Aykan Safoğlu
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan Safoglu_Yearbook_1
copyright	Aykan Safoğlu
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Hundsstern_steigt_ab_Still_Image_3
copyright	Aykan Safoğlu
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Kayhan_Kaygusuz_16
copyright	Kayhan Kaygusuz
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Kayhan_Kaygusuz_17
copyright	Kayhan Kaygusuz
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Kayhan_Kaygusuz_18
copyright	Kayhan Kaygusuz
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Kayhan_Kaygusuz_04
copyright	Kayhan Kaygusuz
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Kayhan_Kaygusuz_01
copyright	Kayhan Kaygusuz
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Kayhan_Kaygusuz_02
copyright	Kayhan Kaygusuz
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Kayhan_Kaygusuz_12
copyright	Kayhan Kaygusuz
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Mustafa_Hazneci_1
copyright	SALT/Mustafa Hazneci
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Kayhan_Kaygusuz_13
copyright	Kayhan Kaygusuz
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Kayhan_Kaygusuz_05
copyright	Kayhan Kaygusuz
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan Safoglu_Hüseyin_Safoglu_1
copyright	Aykan Safoğlu
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Hundsstern_steigt_ab_Still_Image_2
copyright	Aykan Safoğlu
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Kayhan_Kaygusuz_08
copyright	Kayhan Kaygusuz
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Kayhan_Kaygusuz_10
copyright	Kayhan Kaygusuz
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Kayhan_Kaygusuz_09
copyright	Kayhan Kaygusuz
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan Safoglu_Ottoman_German_Army_Training_1
copyright	Aykan Safoğlu
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan_Safoglu_Recess_SALT_Galata_Mustafa_Hazneci_2
copyright	SALT/Mustafa Hazneci
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Aykan Safoglu_German_Notebook_2
copyright	Aykan Safoğlu
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

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Sirius descends, Goldelse flickers: German-Turkish debts of becoming and flickering migrations as remedies (2025)

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