Of Celebrities and Landmarks: Space, State and the Making of "cosmopolitan" Turkey

Abstract

This paper analyses the (re)production of Turkey's liminal-hybrid representations through a combination of sports and music celebrity interventions on a specific landmark. It shows that a country's representations can be reinforced and reaffirmed with the help of celebrities performing their talent on landmarks such as the Bosphorus Bridge and (in some cases) placing another landmark - Ortakoy Mosque - in the backdrop. Combined with the role of celebrities, these two landmarks that have come to symbolise Turkey's liminality and hybridity visually, in a very mundane manner, aim to add a cosmopolitan component, a banal one though, to the national identity. This further shows that national identity is not always made and shaped by the citizens of that country, but rather foreigners can actively contribute to certain elements of an identity. The paper also draws attention to the role of the states in the making of celebrity politics, refocusing the attention from politician celebrity interaction to state and celebrity interaction.