Or: A possible solution for peace

 By Heidi Trautmann

Emin Çizenel means what he shows, and when we try to seek the highly intellectual twist we are on the wrong road. When I read his introduction to the exhibition I stumbled over his mentioning the adventures of Gulliver, the fantastic adventures I was fascinated by when a kid. Emin’s mind works in the same way: he makes the impossible possible by inventing and writing down a fairy tale solution for Cyprus.  I would say with a child’s mind, the direct way. There is the Cyprus Problem which occupies our minds now for over 40 years with many forces involved – I have often heard saying by Cypriots ‘if they would leave us alone we would have solved it long ago’ – as inspite of all efforts no solution has been found.

Now Emin Çizenel – my interpretation  – thought of a possible solution and that is quite simple:  we remove the object of problem from the sight and manipulation of others.

A secret mission .... and Emin Çizenel selects Nobel prize winning Swedish UN peace-keeping soldiers having worked in Cyprus and the same number of terracotta soldiers from the antique era who have (been) emigrated to Stockholm to carry out the mission.

 The island, loaded with its unhappy history, is metamorphosed into a floating ship and is being rowed by oarsmen to a new position in the West through the entire Mediterranean.  With no stops on the way so far,  they decide to unload all weapons of British origin  in Malta to fullfill the conditions of the ‘gun-free soldier concept’ and continue to pass through the Straits of Gibraltar into the free ocean and there....

Emin Çizenel says here:

....She (the ship) is now anchoring at her new spot (map no 5 shows the spot), with nobody looking for her or asking about her; she will pick up new habits in no time. The story ends here, ...... it has become a contemporary art project and also assigned as a candidate for the Nobel prize.

 The work was on show for the first time at Avesta Art in 2010 and there Emin Çizenel said:

“The challenge with art is to overcome all boundaries – to stretch beyond the spoken word, across national frontiers and different epochs”, and as a conclusion it is said in a review that ‘heroes who cross cultures are necessary in this complex world’.

 A touching fairy tale, carried out in Emin Çizenel’s so typical way of making notes along the road of the process. But why should it not happen, it is about time to think about a way to make the impossible possible.

*) Centre of Visual Arts and Research in Nicosia