“Our Che”: The Transformation of Guerrillero Heroico in Turkey

In conjunction to the exhibition “Narrative of a Portrait: Korda’s Che from Revolution to Icon”, Fahri Aral, Yılmaz Aysan and Bülent Somay discussed Che’s portrait by Alberto Korda Diaz entitled Guerrillero Heroico(Heroic Guerrilla) and dated to 1960 in terms of its political, sociological and visual transformation in Turkey. Fahri Aral, Director of İstanbul Bilgi University Publications; Yılmaz Aysan, author of the recently published ‘68 Afişleri. ODTÜ Devrimci Afiş Atölyesinin Öyküsü (Posters of ‘68. The Story of the METU Revolutionary Poster Atelier), and Bülent Somay, instructor at İstanbul Bilgi University, talked about the transformation of Che’s image beginning with the 1960s, Che’s influence on the ’68 generation and reflections of Che’s thinking and image in Turkey to date. Prior to the conference, an interview shot at Brussels with Doğan Özgüden and İnci Tuğsavul Özgüden, founders of the Ant Publications which published Korda’s photograph in the 1960s in Turkey, was screened.