Finally, Baki Boğaç made it! For more than two years now, Baki has worked for his new exhibition and I have personally seen the development of his work.
The opening evening will be on 12 October at 18:30 at his art studio “Pygmalion” in Famagusta. The exhibition will run until November 13.
I would like to include here some passages of an interview I have led in 2005 to show his way of thinking.
Bogac, Baki
sculptor and architect
born in Larnaka in 1951
Light from the Heart
“When you want to achieve something, whatever it is, you need to hold in your hands this one formula which starts with S – Sevgi – Saygi – Samimiyet, which is love – respect and confidence. Love for the work you do, respect for yourself and others, respect for the material you use, the job ahead of you and confidence in your abilities. These three words do away with all doubts, barriers, create a basis of openness and are finally the key to success.”
In the old heart of Famagusta, I had found my way to the Pygmalion Sculpture Studio being led by Baki Bogac's description, “My studio is the only original part of a palace used by the Lusignans and Venetians and renovated by me.” There I stood in the open doorway looking into a beautiful serene High Gothic stone building at the end of which the figure of Baki Bogac sat in a pool of light coming through an open side window, where he was working on a new project. He must have felt my silent presence and as he looked up and came to meet me, I stepped forward into a wondrous world of sculpted forms, of key thoughts touching my awareness with kind and soft whispers. “I know you” they seemed to say......................
What does he do for balancing his life? “I go swimming. I swim several hours a day and thus I keep my mind and vision clear.” A cleansing process, yes, when you are distraught by problems there is no better way than to wash them off; I understand. “Once I met a sea turtle on my way through the waves and we looked at each other in the eyes for almost half an hour. I had made contact with another living being. I had sent out a message and I felt understood. This is also the basic idea of my new project for my new exhibition end of this year. The energy or light a person sends out or receives, the sending or receiving agent being the heart. When you send or receive you have to be open; you must not have a wall set up; even a glass partition will reflect the light others send out. The light you give off will cause other people to open their heart, and this is the message I want to send out.”...........................
We come to the conclusion that there are and there always will be people of light and people of shadow. But there must be a way to change that. “For me there are five categories of humans, from the man who uses his energy only for food and sex to reproduce himself, the next using a glass for his drink; the third putting a table cloth under his dish and thinking of variations in his diet; the fourth meditating about what he does, and finally the fifth extending his brain towards the stars. Education is the key, in't it? For some time I worked with very young children and I was amazed to find their imagination so deep, so fully receptive. Already in that early age they must find their own identity, so we should not try to deform the young plants. A human individual with its own identity will find the way to harmony and humanity; the experiences in life doing the shaping of a human soul like a rock falling down from a mountain, losing the edges on the way into the sea and left to the waves to smoothen the roughness and polish the surface to a shining and harmonious pebble still keeping its character as a stone.”
Baki Bogac has used the keywords identity, harmony, humanity and balance throughout his life, his personal life and in his work as a sculptor and architect, in his love for his country, and also for his beloved hometown of Famagusta, when advising and planning for the future.
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I am one of us, the world. I don't speak many languages, but there is the light of my heart to shine and to reach out for my neighbours, and today I have many friends among the Greek artists.
(Published in Cyprus Times on June 8, 2005)