Presentation of the project
by the Parliamentary Committee
By Heidi Trautmann
Children in schools,
students at universities….. do they know who the first Turkish Cypriot painter
was, the first to hold an art exhibition in Nicosia, the first Turkish Cypriot
art teacher? It is Ismet V. Güney after
whom an exhibition venue in Nicosia is named. Would the tourists who come here
for cultural reasons be told about it? He who designed the Cypriot flag? I have
seen originals at Nilgün Güney’s place, his daughter, and I have seen two
paintings of his at the only Private Ethnographic Museum, entertained by a
private person who since his childhood has started to collect items of culture
and art, Mr. Ergün Pektaş. The same
applies for all the other artists’ works that cannot been seen by the public. There
are Art Museums in the Southern part of Nicosia and it is in one only, the new
CVAR(Centre for Visual Arts and Research), that some Turkish Cypriot artists have found a
niche there, a place where they are shown with respect.
All art works that have been
collected by the ruling governments have been kept in the depots and corridors
of the Parliament and in some ministries. I have seen them there shown around
by Mr Ilseven, artist himself, and I
have seen them in two grand but temporary exhibitions organised by the Cultural
Departments, and also by Dr. Sibel Siber during the last two years the latter
being completely aware of the problem. There have been a series of attempts to go
searching for a convenient building, and some were found but again taken away
by other ministries.
Since I am moving in the
Cyprus art scene I have been a fervent advocate for the realisation of such an
important project and so I was quite excited to learn that two similar projects
were on two tables for the coming year, the one being the Parliamentary
Committee’s and the other the
Presidency’s. On January 26 a large
number of artists, writers, historians and so forth came to a meeting at the
Parliament following the invitation by Dr. Sibel Siber to hear about and be
informed on the plans for an art museum.
Mustafa Hastürk, artist and
former director of the Cultural Department, opened the evening with a short
introduction in his function as art advisor to the committee, Rauf Ersenal, Chair
of the Vakiflar Board, presented the building on screen, a Vakiflar building, a
former hotel near the Lokmaci Crossing, empty and ready to be revamped. It
would be a perfect place, right in the centre of the Old City. Dr. Sibel Siber
explained the project further.
It would be such a very
welcome step of cultural progress all agreed, and I sincerely hope that it can
be realised. Let’s keep fingers crossed.