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2013: the year of the Gezi miracle

December 30, 2013December 30, 2013 Sabine Küper

In 2013 Istanbul got the centre of a miracle that spreaded across whole Turkey. The urban transformation policy of the government caused a political uprising that turned to massdemonstrations, massive police violence and detentions. But more then all it made Turkey one of the spots with the most creative civilian resistance movement on earth. Viva Gezi!

Inenart featured the highlights of the protests but also the artists contributions prior and during the uprisings. We focused on the rapid and dramatic transformation of the urban landscape of Istanbul and organised a three-sided Football game in solidarity with the Gei protests in the frame of the parallell events of the 13th art Biennial in Istanbul.

In the beginning of 2014 we will have been online for one year now. 2013 was a stormu year for Turkey. The Gezi Protests starting end of May shifted the political culture of Turkey sustainable. We want to continue to be a part of this.

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Chapulling (Turkish: çapuling) is a neologism originating in the 2013 protests in Turkey, coined from Prime Minister Erdoğan's use of the term çapulcu (roughly translated to "looters") to describe the protestors.

The protests started with the occupation of the Istanbul Gezi Park by a small group protesting against the demolition of a symbolic park in the center of the City, finally it became a mass demonstration with a general strike on June 17th 2013.

The word Çapuling quickly caught on, adopted by the demonstrators and online activists, and became a viral video.

Many took the concept further by integrating the unique nature of the demonstrations and defined it as "to act towards taking the democracy of a nation to the next step by reminding governments of their reason for existence in a peaceful and humorous manner."

The Çapuling section of InEnArt describes and reflects the visual culture, humor and irony of the peaceful protestors (the Çapulcu) as it developed in many forms in Turkey during 2013.

The authors of InEnArt will publish regular one phenomen of the Çapuling Culture: e.g. the Duran Adam (Standing Man), the penguin, gas festival, the woman in red...

Read also: Why Turks are good in protesting!