This conversation will focus on whether we can move beyond the problems we are currently facing. Issues in the arts, international politics, and societal will be addressed.
Ali Akay (b. 1957, Istanbul) is a curator, writer and critic with a special interest in contemporary art, French philosophy, postmodernism,capitalism and pop culture. He studied at Université Paris 8, where he completed his PhD in Sociology in 1986,and has is teaching at the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul for over 24 years, serving as the head of the Department of Sociology since 2004. He has translated Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.
Akay has written numerous articles on art, sociology and philosophy for publications in Turkey and abroad, includingberlinerpool, Eurozine, The third text; co-author of books: İstanbul Emergeance d’une société civile (autrement Pres 2005); Placing Turkey on the Map of Europe (Boğazici University Press, 2005); Model Turkei, (Wallstein, Verlag, 2006); Postmodernisme,et après ?,(Editions Kimé, 2010), Unleashed (Times and Hudson,2010); Sweet Sixtees (Stenberg Press,2014) . He organize a series of lectures at Jeu de Paume in Paris about the concept of Exilocrates. He has curated and consulted for Istanbul Modern andthe Akbank Center for Culture and the Arts, Şekerbank, Acıkekran New Media Art Center organizing national and international art exhibitions at these and otherinstitutions since 1994. Akay is also an active participant in art talks and conferences (since 9 years about Gilles Deleuze Conferences in İstanbul at Akbank Sanat), notably leading a discussion on the Infinite Folds in the Sculpture of Anish Kapoor at Sakip Sabanci Museum (2013) and author of the book about the work of artists: Seza Paker, Seza Paker, Fluidity reflexive ( Galerist Press, 2012); Büent Şangar, İmage of Tensity (Yapı Kredi Press 2008).
Curated shows include: Abbas Kiarostami, Sarkis, Mounir Fatmi, Alan Sekula, Thierry Kuntzel, Michael Snow, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Claude Leveque, Wang Du, Claude Closky, Laurent Grasso, Societe Realiste, Susan Kleinberg, Ayşe Erkmen, Seza Paker, Füsun Onur, Ali Kazma, İnci Eviner, Serkan Özkaya, Banu Cennetoğlu, İrwin, Nasan Tur, Şener Özmen, Cengiz Tekin, Olga Kiessleva, Ahmet Öğüt, Mohamed Bourouissa, Jalal Toufik, Bouchera Khalili, Ulay, Bruno Serralongue, Brice Dellsperger and Balkan Exhibition in Pera Museum, co-curator of Kuandu Biennale (Taipei) etc…
‘’Unheimlich’’ exhibition in Strasbourg, at Apollonia, 2005; Video Biennale of Santiago of Chili,2005; Passage de Retz, İstanbul Paris (2010); Variations Continues, le Crédac, Paris (2009); and From Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic,Istanbul Modern (2008).
Among Akay’s publications are History of Art: Unusual Disclipline (2011); The ABCs of Postmodernism (2010); Heterogenic Synthesis (2010);Grams of Art (2010); The Conditions of Art (2005); Postmodernism (2005);); The Gift (2000); Capitalism and Pop Culture(2002); Spiritual State of Art and Sociology(2001); The Crise of Sociology and Art( 2000) Minor Policy (1999); Sociological eye of Art (1999); Michel Foucault:Center of Power and resistance (1995);Singular Thought (1991)
He is the founder of Teorik Bakış the sociology review, which was known as Toplumbilim.
