‘Be silent as a book’ 4th Art Exhibition by Instructors of the Faculty of Communication Near East University at the V.Ismet Güney Art Centre in Nicosia

By Heidi Trautmann

The instructors of the Departments of Visual Communication and Graphic Design have stepped out from beyond the boundaries of the Near East University and have shown their works at the V. Ismet Güney Art Centre in Nicosia. I personally think it is a very good decision to be closer to the normal citizen; already their last exhibition was held away from the university compound at EMAA’s Art Centre.

This year eight instructors – Atila Türk, Eser Keçeci, Fuat Boğaç Evren, Gamze Anil, Gazi Yüksel, Gökçe K. Şekeroğlu, Merve Akgül, Mustafa Ersenal - were working around the theme “Kitap gibi Sessiz ol!” translated roughly: “Be silent as a book” so translated to me by Mehmet Kansu, poet and short story writer.  Ahhh, what a wide field to cover. It is about books,  means of communication, anything written between two hard or also soft covers, results of research, of fantasy, poetry….books that are in danger to be overtaken by their electronic partners….a theme I could dwell upon forever….

However the theme is “Be silent as a book” it is about the individual in society, his attitude in life about relations, observing and learning, amassing values to build up knowledge and understanding; it is about communication in general, to be thinking before one speaks?  My interpretation entirely. It is about the reader and what he reads, it is about the first runes and symbols, the very beginning of recorded events, facts, memories, the first book being the Old Testament as Dr. Atila Türk was commenting to me.

The artists, teachers and lecturers at the NEU, have approached the theme in their own ways, directly or in a philosophical way, as an installation or as a collage, as a sculpture, photograph or as a computer graphic design. It is something worthwhile continuing, as so rightly Dr. Atila Türk says in one of his comments on facebook: …this is only an appetizer…but in my opinion a very delicious one.

I would have appreciated a sort of introduction for the viewer, be it with words of speech or be it as a written foreword to the catalogue, it would make communication easier, the road between artist and unprepared viewer, as it is about a definite theme, a very deep and serious one. Also, I would have liked to read the CVs of the artists in English and looking up the website of the university I did not find any translated.

The exhibition is still on until 31 May from 8:00 to 15:00 hrs and on Thursday until 18:00 hrs. and I recommend it highly to the students of the arts.