GENDER TROUBLE
Some photos from the "Gender Trouble" exhibition
Curated by Ebru Beyza
The artists:
Batuhan Yaldızkum, Burhan Kum, Dicle Çiftçi, Elçin Acun, Emine Kürkçü, Erhan Us, Kemal Kahveci, Leyla Almufti, Meltem Sarıkaya, Mert Çağıl Türkay, Ömer Kosbatar, Özge Yağcı, Serkan Türk
"...In the dominant discourse of my childhood, causing trouble was something that should never be done because it would get you into trouble. Rebellion and rebuke seemed stuck in the same conditions, leading to my first critical understanding of the covert trick of power: The prevailing law threatened people with trouble, even becoming the source of trouble, all in the name of keeping them out of trouble..."
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble
Butler continues by arguing that encountering trouble is inevitable, and the best way to deal with it is to create new trouble. As mentioned above, it is understandable that family and power share the same dominant discourse; the traditional family structure is the fundamental representation of power and the most important mechanism of socialization. It is based on a hierarchical and heterosexual gender model. Gender, developing on the same plane as the traditional family structure and power, constructs bodies identified with feminine/masculine molds as a cultural result of the binary gender system. Being feminine/masculine was a condition inherent to female/male bodies and created various molds. While the category of "women" as the subject of feminism was questioned in the 90s, it is also seen that the foundations of queer theory were laid during the same period. A "trouble" argument against the body politics of power can be developed with a queer-feminist attitude.
While "Sex" and "Gender" inherently encompass a cultural and historical process, they categorize us as "female-male." From the moment we are born in our bodies assigned as female or male, we grow up with the normative molds of society. Individuals who are "contrary" to biological sex are subjected to attacks with the same mindset as racism, speciesism, and sexism. Today, the subject of feminism is not only women but all beings exploited and subjected to inequality: men, queer individuals, animals...
In this entire context, many issues that can be based on gender, such as femicide, male violence, LGBT+ murders, animal killings, censorship, and the bias of the legal system, are evident in the society we live in. To create "trouble" against the domination of power, especially body and identity politics, women, men, those who do not identify as female or male, critics, resisters, and artists who pursue their desires, excitement, and passions, free from gender and identities, will come together in "Gender Trouble."
Ebru Beyza
