By Heidi Trautmann

For more than 55 years the historical building of the Electric Trafo Station,  put into service in 1938 and out of it in 1960, was left to rot away until the Girne Municipality with its Mayor Nidai Güngördü decided to restore it and put it back into public service as an Art Gallery. The result is beautiful; outside it carries its old face but inside it has been changed into a great venue for art activities, art exhibitions. The building is situated in the Sanayi of Girne among craftsman ateliers, small cafés and restaurants, in the street approximately opposite the Round Tower, in Cengizhanlı Road.

…”The unifying power of art will now deliver human energy instead of electricity to our people, unity and peace, and from here worldwide”….said the Mayor in his opening and welcoming speech. And, he continued, he knows that art centres and museums that host cultural and artistic activities contribute to raising the quality of life and cultural level of people in a city.

Dr. Sibel Siber, Speaker of Parliament confirmed the above said and that the demolishing of historical buildings causes the loss of a city’s soul.

A symbol of unity was created by handing around a red thread to the hands of artists and people in the audience with the words ‘Together we can’ or similar, …. my own philosophy.

Set up by İpek Denizli Karagöz, the first exhibition of the Trafo Art Gallery showed art work by Bahar Çıralı, Batu Gündal, Bedia Kale, Canan Aksoy, Cumhur Deliceirmak, Erman Karagöz, Fatma Özok, Hasan Eminağa, İpek Denizli Karagöz, Menteş Korucan , Mümine Özdemirag Yağlı, Oktay Aksoy, Rauf Ersenal, Salih Mustafa Çizel, Selen Selışık, Şenol Özdevrim, Serhat Selışık, Serkan İlseven, Sevcan Cerkez, Sevim Erdal and Zülal Karlıova.

Paintings of very different genres were on display, from very conventional to very abstract and a wide range of ceramic art works were shown, from archaic pieces, sculptures to modern ideas.

It was said that national and international artists and art events are welcome in the future.  It is now up to the initiators’ management to carefully develop the destiny of this beautiful and charming place of art in order to show the richness and diversity of the island’s art and culture.

The present exhibition is open to the public until 02 December 2017. Viewing times are Mon-Fri during governmental working hours plus Saturday 10:00 – 15:00 hrs.

I will keep you updated. 

PS: I cannot upload all art work, there are many more....