The Art of Migration Contemporary Visual Artists beyond the Boundaries of Turkey

This article explores mobility and migration from Turkey to Europe and its role in the making of trans- and international (artistic) identities. It specifically investigates the articulation and dynamics of hyphenated European-Turkish identities, and new forms of European and diasporic citizenship through the work and biographies of contemporary visual artists originally from Turkey who have left their ‘home’ for various reasons (migration, education, or artist residencies). What makes these artists particularly pertinent for an investigation of new forms of identity, citizenship-making, and belonging in contemporary Europe is that their art cannot exist without either Europe or Turkey. By concentrating on their art, this paper focuses on a new way of thinking about the immigration experience and the politics of belonging through an investigation of how these artistic trajectories are mapped in a transnational context through a number of different cities including Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, and Istanbul.