City, Identity and Art: An Investigation on the Anafartalar Bazaar and the Public Art

Anafartalar Bazaar is one of the buildings which will be demolished within the scope of the Ulus Historical City Project in Ankara as a part of the widespread urban transformation projects in recent years. This article examines primarily the historical transformation of the publicness of the Ulus region and the Anafartalar Bazaar. The bazaar is the product of a period in Ankara when commercial publicness is desired to take the place of political publicness. It is the home for many works of public art belonging to the leading artists of the time. In this sense, the bazaar was designed under the influence of the public art movement that emerged in the 1960s, aiming interaction with all classes of society. The bazaar hosts ceramic art works of the leading Turkish artists. The demolishment of the Anafartalar Bazaar, which is designed as a trade area for especially middle-income and low-income individuals in this framework, will cause one of the rare areas of public art to be abolished. In this sense, this study suggests the urban transformation projects to be planned with a inclusive approach taking into account the urban memory and the public art.