As Maltepe University’s Visual Communication Design Department, we would like to organize an international online exhibition in memory of the 50th anniversary of John Berger's Ways of Seeing book, which was first published in 1972 and has still been included in education programs in many different disciplines.
In this valuable book, Berger deals with many works of art from the 15th century to the 20th century, without classifying them, with an ideological, avant-garde, feminist and postmodernist approach. While interpreting how our perception of works has changed, he also draws attention to how art history is used by advertisers to manage consumer perception. However, in his book, John Berger reinterprets the uniqueness and aura of the work of art, which are the important issues of the 20th century, in which photography and printing technologies have been gradually developed, by referring to the publications of Walter Benjamin forty years before him. It brings up the question, from different perspectives, how the fact that works of art that could only be seen in museums or collectors' homes until the 20th century can now be revived in a movie or an advertisement poster, and can be reproduced and transformed into a decoration that can be hung on the wall of everyone's home or even an accessory that we carry in our hands. Ways of Seeing, which inspired feminist artists and writers who have been just looking for new ways out at the time the book was published, has so future-oriented perspective that we have been still inspired by reading today.
Based on the idea that the Ways of Seeing book, which we read every year with our students and find as meaningful as the first day, can inspire professional artists and artist candidates operating in the international arena, and will turn into permanent works of tomorrow's art with the new production styles of today, we will be honored to exhibit your valuable works.