Prof. Dr. Zeynep Sayın

An-Archive

11 October 2017

Studio X

“Reflections on archive/ arche/ an-arche/ margin of archive/ album/ atlas/ martyrdom/ art”

A professor of visual studies and literary criticism, Zeynep Sayın talks about the ontology of archive. Through the history of archiving, her talk focuses on the complicated relationship between archive and power. In light of examples from art history, Sayın discusses how art deals with occurences that can not be documented/archived. In the center of her argument lies the expression “an-archive”; a term that negates the traditional concept of archive. Drawing on cases of genocide such as Auschwitz, Sayın also investigates the source of evil involved in them.

About Prof. Zeynep Sayın:

Born in Istanbul, Prof. Zeynep Sayın lectures on visual studies and literary criticism. She has teached extensively in different disciplines at several universities in Turkey including Istanbul University, Marmara University, Mardin Artuklu University and Bilgi University. Currently she is a visiting professor at HGB Leipzig. Sayın was the co-editor of the influential literary magazine Defter. Her publications include Mithat Şen ve Beden Yazısı:1 (2003), İmgenin Pornografisi (2015), Kötülük Cemaatleri (2016) and Ölüm Terbiyesi (2018)