International Art Exhibition at the ISO Gallery in Beyoğlu/Istanbul with two TC artists Inci Kansu and Emel Samioğlu

By Heidi Trautmann

The artists have just returned from Istanbul where they had participated in the traditional art exhibition ‘Encounters /6’ and as the number suggests it was the sixth in a row.

“Encounters”  Inci Kansu explained to me, “is an idea, an idea of artists who have met somewhere and sometime at one of the workshops or art colonies and/or exhibitions and the organisation makes the round, one day they find together again at another place at another time. Twice we had them in Nicosia, that was in 1999 with ‘Encounters 4’ and in 2012 with ‘Encounters 5’”.

The last one in 2012,  I have witnessed myself and written about it, published in Cyprus Observer, please read the text on my website

http://www.heiditrautmann.com/category.aspx?CID=7862334721#.VR6Jb_yUfg8

The exhibition was then organised by Feridun Isiman (TC) and Ahmet Özel (Turkey), and Ahmet Özel again was the curator of the exhibition in Istanbul.

22 artists met again at ‘Encounters / 6’,  artists from Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Poland, Russia, Macedonia and North Cyprus.

A wide range of different art was shown as can be expected from so many different countries.

Inci Kansu and Emel Samioğlu from North Cyprus are internationally renown artists and are both working with the medium hand made paper, a philosophy and art form that is rapidly increasing around the world and gaining recognition. Both artists are included in my book ‘Art and Creativity in North Cyprus’.

“The idea”, Inci continues, “is to encounter, to exchange ideas, to know what happens in other cultural  regions of our world, for that reason encounters on an international basis are very important.

The artist Ahmet Özel and curator of the exhibition said at the opening of the exhibition  “The most important  role of this exhibition is for the international participants to feel at ease. ENCOUNTERS are the source of the energy of life....” Meeting people, communicating with each other is the basis of society, that is the only truth.

I agree with Inci totally as I also believe that art knows of no borders and can help to tear down prejudices that are born when living in isolation.  I trust that such encounters will continue and grow in numbers.