The Sublime and Resistance: Aesthetic Intervention in Jacques Rancière’s Conception of Art

Özet

This article posits that the political power of art, as theorized by Jacques Rancière, lies not in its didactic message but in its capacity to reconfigure the “distribution of the sensible” (le partage du sensible). It argues that the aesthetic experience of the sublime functions as a primary mode of political intervention, creating a moment of “dissensus” that disrupts the established “police order.” This aesthetic rupture, often intertwined with the Freudian uncanny—the emergence of the “unfamiliar within the familiar”—challenges the very coordinates of what can be seen, said, and felt. Through a qualitative and interpretative analysis, this thesis is substantiated by examining works from contemporary Turkish art. The photographic deconstructions of Ahmet Elhan and the material interventions of Selim Birsel are presented as forms of silent dissensus that disrupt architectural and institutional orders. Memo Akten’s digital art explores the “technological sublime,” inducing an uncanny experience that critiques the invisible structures of digital surveillance and control. Conversely, Nasan Tur’s reflective works transform the viewer into an “emancipated spectator,” compelling them to perform a political act by confronting their own image within a declaration of resistance. Ultimately, this study reframes the discourse on “crisis” and “resistance” in the Turkish art scene, shifting the focus from a sociological or market-oriented critique to the political potential inherent within the aesthetic event itself. It concludes that genuine political intervention emerges from aesthetic gestures that do not simply represent a political stance but fundamentally alter the sensory fabric of common experience.