Abstract:

Abstract Postwar period can be recognized as a turning point through the introduction of new patterns and new typologies in design activities, which were actually the result of current demands. Although there was a partial commitment to the fundamental benchmarks of modernism, this period revealed to have a critical stance on modernism and it aspired for an adaptable solution for the current needs of the postwar era. In addition to these, the alleged relation of architecture with the plastic arts also began to be re-evaluated and rethought in order to go beyond the impasse, which modern architecture was encountering. Integration of arts to architecture suggested a suitable recipe against the oscillation between the local and the global. This approach was also remarkable in the sense that it brought along a public meaning to the buildings as a modern impulse of the day. The aim of this paper is to discuss the artworks in NATO Paris headquarters (1954-60) but mainly concentrate on Turkish mosaic. The study will trace the journey of Turkish mosaic performed by Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu) from Paris to Belgium headquarters through its spatial relations. By this means the discussion of the afterlife of this artwork will be the focal point when trying to uncover the changed meaning of it. The building of an international institution, like NATO headquarters, is supposed to be filled up with many layers and connotations. Therefore Paris headquarters was seen as the political and administrative center of the alliance. By means of this role, the integration of the artworks brought different ethos to the structure, particular to different cultures participated in the alliance. So the study questions this new layers of meaning, where it also embodies and promotes the alliance itself. The Paris headquarters eventually became a place, as the paper argues, where the alliance of art and architecture, and of the local and the global exist. Apart from this discussion, the main intention is to scrutinize the new meaning and/or function that a site-specific artwork Turkish mosaic would attain, when it is relocated. Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, who had many collaborations with architects in Turkey, designed this mosaic panel (1959-60) for a specific location at Paris headquarters and performed the artwork in situ contrary to the other artworks donated to NATO building. So when considering the journey of this piece, the paper will try to understand whether it evolved to a new form of representation and lost its aura as defined by Walter Benjamin, or not. When an artwork is highly attached to a structure and a part of a spatial vision, it can be argued that it is re-identified with its new surroundings, which may allude to something else. This various modes of being is interpreted and critically analyzed through the concepts of sense of place and reproduction, glocalization and art of exhibitionality. In this example, in terms of the contextuality, when it is relocated, the artwork is situated in the non-place. And while it preserves its object-entity, the artwork-entity seems to be shattered. Thus, moving the artwork from a place where it is thematically compatible breaks off the artwork from its origin. This eventually brings the artwork a new point where it is reproduced.

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