The story of Faek Rasul

The story of Faek Rasul

„The traces will hurt as long as you don’t speak about them”

Rengîn had the luck to meet one of the most well known famous artists and curators Faek Rasul.

Faek Rasul is born in year 1955 in Kirkuk Kurdistan/Irak. In year 1980 he got his Diplom in the Institute of Fine Arts in Bagdad.

He captures the human as a whole with all of its dreams, hopes, fears, desires and passions. For him people become the synonym of being. He unveils powers, which lie behind the visible reality. Here one cannot talk about dismembered bodies or disintegrated spaces any more, but about the „total act“ and the „total picture“.

“When I feel the need to speak I paint” – Faek Rasul

Faek Rasul’s paintings  are in four different phases of development (Black and White, Violet Acts, Gravestone, Myth) They remind us of things, which he cannot or doesn’t want to express through the spoken words.

Not only words also numbers and scripts are his way the express himself. The numbers are derived from a mathematical whole and are developed into an aesthetic structure; and the writings, originating from a collective memory, are transformed into an individual memory.

“The life you are seeking you will never find” – Faek Rasul

 

The Origin of Faek Rasul’s paintings and technique is comprised of a number of personal experiences, which are for example his imprisonment in Irak because of his membership in kurdish resistance against Saddam Hussein. However, Faek Rasul’s employment for literature and painting leads to an inner disruption of his identity. Time in prison prompts his decision to paint and simultaneously prompts yet another point of refrence for his artistic creations.

Traces, remembrances or talismans are what Faek Rasul calls his paintings. He creates minimalistic, reduced works, like evocations and approaches to the irreducible, incalculable openness and unpredictability of human life and the future with the focus and sensitive use of his materials using mostly sand, color and employing hermetic signs:  “Sand as Emblem of Transience, Beauty from Oriental Tradition and the Aesthetics of every day life”

In 1987, the year the political persecution of Kurds in Iraq escalated to finally end in genocide, he succeeded to flee to Austria from Iran. In over 25 years of artistic work in Austria, Faek Rasul created an array of picture series in varying stiles which he presented in numerous exhibitions in Europe, Eastern Asia and South America.

Since over 20 years he also works as a curator and since year 2000 as a gallery manager. At this time he manages the “Kleine Galerie” in Vienna. He has exhibited  a line-up of some of the most important international artists.

Faek Rasul never ceased to paint; he dedicated his life to art.  To the question “What do you think about being Kurdish and a Kurdish artist he says: “After over 25 years in Exile he says that “if you live somewhere else for 20 years than you are a part of it. – I always say that I am a Viennese.”

Faek Rasul  is still active as  a painter and curator and his future plans are to curate a big international Exhibition this year with international artists all over the world.

 

Thanks for the interview!

Website : http://www.faekrasul.com

 

Interview by Dilan Tas

 

The story of Hoessain Kakayi

Kakayi is born in Kirkuk 1959 Southern of Kurdistan. Is s a painter, photographer and a master calligrapher in different styles. He lives since 1988 in Belgium and studied graphic at the Academy of fine Art -Belgium . The artist comes from an artist family: “I grow up loving painting and colors”

The discipline with Kakayi attracts the most attention as an artist is Calligraphy. While in Eastern cultures calligraphy is more tradition it is quite unknown to us and so little practiced Friday. The calligraphy is with us as what the art of beautiful writing.

Kakayi’s works are full of expressions. He loves to discover feelings and different themes like as humanity, peace, tragedy and nature.  He loves to experiment with everything he encounters and uses acrylic colours, ink and all kind of techniques.

 

“I love to ask questions and like to be in search of answers. The language of Art  is for me silence . It tells everything but then nothing “Kakayi to Rengîn 2018

Kakayi had a lot of exhibitions during his artistic career. The artist is happily married to Avin Kaki and works as a translator in Belgium. His future plans are to do more exhibitions and publish a book with his works.

And our last question to Kakayi:

What means to be Kurdish for you? What means to be a Kurdish artist for you?

“I am proud to be Kurdish but art has nothing to do with nationality. To  be Kurdish means to search peace and freedom.”

 

Website kakayi.webs.com/

 

 

The story of Walid Siti

 

Walid Siti investigates aspects of collective memory, cultural identity and personal experience amid changing socio-political realities. His paintings, drawings, and sculptures are subtle yet politically charged reflections on forced migration, exile, war and political paradoxes. His work developed in response to the ongoing upheaval of conflict and processes of transformation prevalent in the Middle East. Siti takes inspiration from the cultural heritage of his native land that is crisscrossed with militarized borders and waves of migration.

 

Born in Iraqi Kurdistan, Siti lived in the former Yugoslavia before seeking political asylum in London during increasing aggression against those opposed to Iraq’s Ba’athist regime. Based in London since then, Siti’s experience of exile feeds off his work, which at times can be read as a poetic observation of the rapid changes in Erbil after its stagnation from years of war.

 

Walid Siti (1954, Duhok) has exhibited internationally. He represented Iraq at the 54th Venice Biennale. His work has recently been included in important group exhibitions at Sharjah Biennial 13 (Sharjah, U.A.E., 2017), Iran Pavillion (56th Venice Biennial, Venice, 2015); Asia Society in New York, NY; and Hajj: Journey to Mecca (Museum of Islamic Art, Doha/Qatar, 2015). His work is in prestigious collections, including The British Museum, London; The Metropolitan Museum Of Arts, NY; The Imperial War Museum, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Barjeel Art Foundation, Jordan; The World Bank, Washington, DC; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, U.A.E. He recently received the Sharjah Biennial 2017 award.

 

Website: http://walidsiti.com/

The story of Yasar Kemal

“ I don’t write about issues, I don’t write for an audience, I don’t even write for myself. I just write. ”

The artist was a turkish writer and human rights activist of kurdish as the origin. He was one of Turkey’s leading writers. He received 38 awards during his lifetime and had been a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature on the strength of Memed, My Hawk

Yaşar Kemal, died in the age of 91, found fame after the publication of his first novel, Ince Memed (1955), translated into English as Memed, My Hawk (1961). It became known around the world in other translations, the first Turkish novel to make a big impact internationally. Kemal was then working as a journalist in Istanbul, but the story dealt with the harsh life of farmers and ordinary people in the Çukurova plain and Taurus mountains around Adana in southern Turkey.

Memed, “ My Hawk „is a sort of Robin Hood tale, rich in autobiographical elements. Its hero, Memed, grows up in a village cut off from the rest of the world and owned by an oppressive landowner, Abdi Agha, who viciously exploits the farmers and their families. A feud springs up between Memed and Abdi: Memed, accompanied by the young woman he loves, Hatche, is driven into the mountains as a bandit and eventually kills Abdi, though only after Hatche has been killed and he himself betrayed.

It is an extraordinarily violent story, told with great vividness and simplicity in language that not only brings the luckless villagers to life but also evokes very strongly the sounds, smells, and colours of Turkey’s Taurus region. The message is clear – the oppressed need to stand up firmly against oppression and fight injustice rather than endure it uncomplainingly. The novel became a classic, even though some Turkish readers do not think it is necessarily Kemal’s best.

Not everyone approved. When a leading Hollywood producer contemplated a film version, he was warned that the Turkish authorities considered Kemal to be a communist and he backed off. It was not until 1984 that Peter Ustinov directed and starred (as Abdi) in a film version of Memed My Hawk. Even then Ustinov was denied permission to film in Turkey.

Kemal was born in the village of Hemite (now renamed Gökçedam) a couple of weeks before the demise of the Ottoman Empire and the declaration of the Republic of Turkey. He was named Kemal Sadık, after his father, and in 1934 the family took the surname of Gökçeli. His parents, Sadık and Nigâr, were Kurdish peasant farmers who had escaped from the first world war by trekking a few years earlier from their home on the shores of Lake Van to live in what is now Turkey’s Osmaniye province, near the north-east corner of the Mediterranean. The only Kurdish family in the village, they spoke Kurdish at home and Turkish with their neighbours.

A childhood knife accident left Kemal blind in one eye, and when he was five years old his father was murdered.His interest in literature began with folksongs. Unable to play the saz – the Turkish long-necked lute – well, he became interested in the world of ballads, and their stories of bandits and protests. Working part-time as a casual labourer in the cotton fields around Adana, he put himself through some secondary schooling but was forced to leave in his mid-teens.
In 1943, he published a book of folk ballads locally, and while doing his military service in Ankara a year later his first short story. For the next few years he combined working as a labourer with offering his services as a public letter writer, moving gradually into journalism and in 1950 served a short spell in prison for alleged communist activities.

A year later, on the advice of several of Turkey’s leading leftist writers, he went to Istanbul and was given a job as a reporter on Cumhuriyet newspaper. It was at this point that he adopted the pen name of Yaşar Kemal.

From then onwards his life was a story of high-profile success: three travel books based on his work as a reporter, and more than 20 novels between 1955 and 2013, continuing to deal with the people of the southern Turkish countryside whom he had known in his earlier life and their sufferings and feuds. He won a stream of Turkish and international awards, though he seems to have been more appreciated outside the English-speaking countries. He was particularly liked in France, becoming in 2011 a grand officier of the Légion d’Honneur. But though nominated for the Nobel prize in 1973, he never won it.

Kemal’s lifelong passion for social justice led him to join the newly legalised Workers’ Party of Turkey in 1962. He also always publicly affirmed his Kurdish identity even when tensions between Ankara and the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ party, were at their height.

In the late 1970s he moved temporarily to Sweden at a time when there was a spate of political assassinations in Turkey. In 1996 he was sentenced to 20 months for an article he wrote for Index on Censorship, but although he asked the court not to suspend it, he did not actually go to jail.

Kemal married his first wife, Thilda Serrero, in 1952, and they had a son, Rasit. Thilda died in 2001, and the following year he married Ayşe Semiha Baban. She and Rasit survive him.

• Yaşar Kemal (Kemal Gökçeli), writer, born 6 October 1923; died 28 February 2015

The story of Amang Mardokhy

The story of AMANG MARDOKHY

Amang Kamal also known as Amang Mardokhy, was born in Kurdistan, where he was trained as an artist. He graduated with a BA in Fine Arts, from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2012 and was awarded the Ken Billany prize for his outstanding work.

His passion for art began when he was 7 years old:

“I am in love with colors. I remember, when I was because my mother gifted me magic pens when I did well at school that year. Every time I draw with those pens, I feel like I’m a little kid again”, Amang to Rengîn 2018

The Kurdish artist took his inspirations at the beginning by some Kurdish artists, especially from Ali Latif and some other realistic Impressionists and abstract artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Goya, Picasso, Kandinsky, Miró, and Pollock.

At first, he started to do realistic works and then headed towards expressionism and Symbolistic styles. His works were affected by the Kurdish struggle and the messages were the significance had mostly a connotation to independence and humanity. After he graduated he moved to live in the UK. After finishing his studies he chose the abstract direction of his works

“I use the abstract language, to talk about the effects war had on my life, and today’s current destructions against all humans, animals and environment and all these are carried out in the name of peace, democracy and human rights”

A big part of his work shows his love towards nature and its beauty retailed with abstract language. I mainly work with acrylic paints, however I do also use other mixed materials.

“My dialogue and perspective with life, which I discover and built up, is my main inspiration for my art work. These interactions are sometimes calmful and other times I express my anger, against those powers, that are much bigger than my abilities and I can’t change. However, it’s through my art in which I can express and pass my messages across to the audience”

Do you draw to find answers or to find questions?

“I can say both, the surroundings and my own questions both interact and build an atmosphere that create continuous searching for a few vague and obvious questions and answers of which lead to the last stage of the artworks. However, with time, place and continuous changes, we do get some of the answers we look for, but then we start to ask new questions and that’s why I live with the artworks”

Amang is the chair of the Kurdistan Art and Culture group. His private exhibitions include: exhibition, 1991, Kurdistan Azadi exhibition, 1996, Kurdistan exhibition, 1996, Canada Amang Mardokhy Exhibition year 2008 -2009 – 2010 -2011 in Gallery of Marple library. Amang Mardokhy Exhibition in kurdistan 2010 exhibitin of Amang Mardokhy, 2011, Canada-Vancouver He has also participated in several group art exhibitions and activities Kurdish art exhibition, 1989- 2002 Political Poster exhibition, the Kurds genocide, (ANFAL), 1996, Iran The Kurdish artists’group movement exhibition,1991- 2002, Europe Halabja Chemical bombardment day, 2005, Manchester Art for Peace exhibition, Stockport,Vernon mill Gallery 2005 Hallabja Kurdish artists exhibition in Zion centre, Manchester, 2007 Anfal Kurdish artists group,Media culture Centre, 2007 Anfal Festival 2010

What does it mean to be a Kurdish artist for you?

I am proud to be Kurdish, although it’s created many obstacles in my life. However, being Kurdish, I’ve learned to appreciate and respect the value of liberty, justice, love, and humanity. Being an artist means you have the duty of defending women’s rights of freedom and equality, the same as men. Seeing those brave women, who sacrificed their lives in Kobani to defend all of us, they’ve recorded a new page in history for all the Kurdish women in the Middle East and the world.

The artist is happily married to Chinar Najib and has 3 children. He currently works with dementia patients, in a nursing home in Stockport. At the moment, he works for a project about art and music performance, which will show the different effects that music has on art and vice versa, and the audience will act as an integral third part in this art of work. This project will start in April with the participation of three musicians from UK, Iran and Kurdistan. This work should create a modern art communication through the artistic language and contemporary art interactions.

“I’m very pleased to hear about Ronahî Magazine. Thanks for giving me this chance, to talk about my works. Ronahî means Light! So, it means hope and hopefully with your Magazine’s light our hopes and dreams will be brighter”

Art and Photos by Amang Mardokhy

Interview by Dilan Tas

#kurdish #art #magazine #based #in #vienna #austria #support #follow #like #ronahi

The story of Avin Kaki

Avin Kaki was born in year 1979 in Kirkuk Iraqi. She comes from an artist’s family and graduated in Humaniura (Iraq). Since her childhood she loves to paint. Until 19 she lived in Iraq and moved then 1998 to Belgium to study graphic art and is married the painter Hoessain Kakayi. Since 2005 she lives in the province of Flanders and speaks Dutch, Arabic, Kurdish and English.

In her work she shows the difficulties of the Kurdish culture and the injustice between the cultures, human rights. She also treats the themes equality between women and men and the prejudices about women. Her works are mostly abstract paintings. She uses different techniques to express the themes; such as woodcut, silkscreen, polymer, oil, acryl colors and ceramic materials.

Do you draw to ask questions or to find answers?
I draw to ask question and to find answers. I am always in search of answers. I hope for a world without war without hunger and injustice. So I try to paint my thoughts and question the world

Avin Kaki’s last exhibition was in Brakel in September 2017. The artist lives right now in Gent. She has 2 sons who also make art.

What means to be a female Kurdish artist for you?

„It is not easy to be a Kurdish artist and especially a female Kurdish artist. It is more difficult. It means you must fight your whole live for it because you will not have enough support from Kurdish people in general and people will not take you serious. That’s why we need to fight for it and never give up.“

The artist’s future plans are to do work more as an artist and to open one art education institute about graphic art in Kurdistan so people learn more about graphic- , ceramic- techniques and drawing techniques because there is not so much opportunity to do this kind of art.

What means light for you and your art?

“Light is life. Humans and animals need light to live. Light is hope. Hope you hold to in darkness to find your way. It is also an important element in successful art works”, Avin Kaki to Ronahî 2018

Artist Avin Kaki
Website: avinkaki.webs.com
Photos and Art by Avin Kaki
Interview by Dilan Tas

The story of Ako Kamal

The Story of the artist Ako Kamal « I paint sooner to find answers; Answers that are sometimes untraceable, as I paint with feelings. »

The artist was born 2.8.1982 in Suleimanî, in southern Kurdistan (Iraq) started studying in year 1999 plastic arts / fine arts (painting) in Su at the Institute of Fine Arts, then from 2008 he started studying painting at the Faculty of Art of Su University. In 2013-2015 he completed the first and second Master Degree in Fine Arts and Fine Arts at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Ako Kamal who lives in France is mainly known as a contemporary self- portrait artist. The themes that he uses in his works are the self-portrait, the self-image, the image of identity, the face, the narcissism,the distortion. The main axis of his work revolves around the position of self- portraits in painting in the context of contemporary art. In fact, in contemporary art practice (it) is renewed in various forms. Ako Kamal’s aim is to bring his own practice of pictorial self-portraits in painting back into the context of art in order to question this practice in the light of the concepts associated with it.

« My self-portraits are an attempt to express one’s own image as a substitute for one’s own identity; I try to symbolize my own traits in it. The complex question of the representation of the self, of identity in relation to the external world, also poses the existential question of narcissism. The image of the self is a fascinating illusion that you want to materialize at any cost. Hence the real need to produce self-portraits, to have the feeling of controlling this fleeting image, which loses itself over time, and to fix it in a context where the multiplication of images robs them of any coherence / consistency. I would like to rediscover this consistency / „essence“.Through the self-portrait, I search for myself, I explore in the features of my face my own individuality, and I strive to find them. So too are various techniques that I use in my work to understand: they are different angles, from which I try to control this image of myself, to learn and to integrate, before I come back to painting, the basis of my operation. » Ako Kamal about his Selfportraits to Rengîn 2018 .

The place of self-portraits in painting in contemporary art, and the way in which self-portrait becomes a form of self-reformation for him. An act of self-recognition, of self-recognition through the image of the face, that is, through the portrait of the body.

« I’m interested in the psychological view: the face you have becomes a viewed object, and we become the viewer of our own image. My self-portraits will be the product of this process of looking at yourself in the mirror or in a photograph. The strangest part of it is the feeling that it is the physical and logical self that I do not feel alone in this exchange, as if there is somebody else in front of me. » What does Painting mean for you ? I’m doing more defacing art and I use painting in two ways: as the foundation and beginning of my artistic experience, which as such can be quite restrictive, and today more oriented towards the liberation of my own expression, in the context of the present. This can also be reflected in a reflection on the process of art history, which also goes to a freer mode of expression, escaping their rules; and in dealing with the concept of identity, whether personal, social, or cultural, in the sense that it is about appropriating one’s own image. Martistic inspirations are the way of picturing an expression, a feeling in painting. In his series of self-portraits, he tries to rebuild himself, to re-create through myself, and through the materials and choice of presentation, for we know that the face is the first medium we can use to catch the other. He also wants to introduce a mental duality into his work, to speak of what „I“ is and what is „not me“.

What does it mean to be a kurdish artist for you ? „Being a Kurdish artist does not mean much to me. I could say it means feeling vulnerable, without identity, misjudged“ The artist whose martistic inspirations are the way of picturing an expression, a feeling in painting. He had his last exhibition in June 2017 in the Galery Nîshtîmany ‚Êmne sureke in Suleimanî. At the moment he lives in Paris , works as an artist in many voluntary several clubs .

His plans for the future are to work and create more. He is also preparing a new oeuvre to attend a joint exhibition in the moment.

Interview by Dilan Tas

Translated by Nathalie Frickey

The story of Mehmet Uzun

Mehmet Uzun pioneer of the Kurdish novel in Turkey, will be best remembered on the international stage for the controversy surrounding his novel Roni mina Evine, Tari mina Mirine („Light as love, Dark as death“), an allegorical treatment of the situation of the Kurds in Turkey published in 1988, which features a passionate love affair between a young female guerrilla fighter and a high-ranking army officer who embarks on a search for his own origins. Translated into Turkish, the book was reprinted 10 times and sold some 20,000 copies.

However, in 2001 Uzun was accused by the Istanbul State Security Court of „having supported terrorism and incited rebellion leading to separatism“. These accusations evoked strong protests worldwide; an appeal made to the Turkish high authorities on Uzun’s behalf was signed by Nobel Prize winners such as Nadine Gordimer, Günter Grass and Elie Wiesel, and members of the Royal Academy of Denmark and the Swedish Royal Academy en masse.

Uzun was also supported by the government of Sweden, where he had long lived in exile; Anna Lindh, the foreign minister, publicly reproached Turkey for bringing a case against Uzun because of his writings. Uzun himself always maintained that the novel was a love story, with nothing to do with terrorism or separatism.

On 4 April 2001, Uzun stood trial. Before an international audience which included Yashar Kemal, Orhan Pamuk, Akin Birdal and representatives of PEN, he delivered a speech defending human rights and the right of writing Kurdish in Turkey. Despite the gravity of the accusations, Uzun and his publisher, Hasan Öztoprak, were acquitted.

For the people of the Kurdish region of Turkey, Uzun represented far more. He was the first person from Turkey to write novels in Kurmanji Kurdish, a language forbidden for most of the 20th century in Turkey, and which even now has no official presence in the state education system, and is often decried as a „patois“, a farrago of mutually incomprehensible subdialects. Uzun’s books celebrated Kurdish culture and focused on such themes as love, conflict, political struggle, statelessness and democracy, and memory and forgetting, always suffused with the nostalgia of exile. His protagonists were for the most part the Kurdish intellectual activists who had devoted their life to the revival of their nation. Uzun’s books were banned in Turkey for many years.

In April 2000 the State Security Court in Diyarbekir confiscated four of his titles from all bookshops. This was cancelled after the application of international pressure, especially a press conference by Uzun in Stockholm in which many Swedish writers and cultural activists took part.

Mehmed Uzun was born in the town of Siverek, in Turkish Kurdistan, in 1953. After graduating from the local high school, he continued his studies in Ankara. In 1972 he was arrested and condemned to two years‘ imprisonment. In 1976, after issuing the Kurdish journal Rizgari („Liberty“), he was arrested again, imprisoned and released after six months. In 1977 he went to Sweden as a political refugee; there he remained until 2006, writing six novels and a number of other books about Kurdish literature, in Kurdish, Turkish, and Swedish. He was also active as a journalist and chief editor of the Kurdish journals Rizgariya Kurdistan („Liberty of Kurdistan“), Hevi („Hope“) and Kurmanji. From 1989 until 1992, he was on the editorial board of the Swedish literary journal 90-tal (The 90s).

In 2000 he was elected to the International Parliament of Writers, a worldwide organisation for freedom of speech founded by Salman Rushdie. In 2001 he received the freedom of expression prize from the Turkish Association of Publishers.
Upon learning in 2006 that he was suffering from incurable cancer, Uzun decided to go back home, and was received by the people of Diyarbakir as a hero.

The story of Murat Yazar

The Kurdish artist Murat YAZAR was born in Şanlıurfa in Turkey. Murat YAZAR who studied Tourism at Harran University, in Turkey, started in year 2006 to focus more on his real passion: Photography. Since 2006 he is working and living mainly as a photographer.

What does it mean for you to be a photographer and a Kurdish artist?

„For me being a photographer means to tell a story and reproduce a moment in the past. Those who really deal with photography often want to send a message, show their own style and much like I do present themselves as Kurdish artists no matter in which country they live. This is not about nationalism. This is just about identity – who we are – so why shouldn’t we tell this? We are an suppressed society and this is why I like to introduce myself strictly as a Kurd in all of Europe and especially in Turkey. Yes, there might be some Kurdish artists who don’t mind this but I think it is important point to be open about your roots. Even though this can affect you even in a negative way as it did in the past and still does nowadays. I say: “This is me, I am a Kurdish photographer, no nationality or religion just Kurdish”.

Murat Yazar, who prefers to take human-themed, street- life based photos has been making documentary-based works in recent years. He works as a journalistic and street photographer. He presented his works in many one-man and collective exhibitions in different cities like Paris, Bordeaux, Berlin, Rome, etc..

He spent 8 years of his childhood in a boarding school apart from his family. The experiences he made during this time influenced his person, his art and changed his view to the world.

“We are a suppressed culture and I had to learn how to assimilate myself. The experiences I had and the stories I heard about mistreated and discriminated people changed me. So I had the desire to share the stories I heard and spectated. This began to be my philosophy of life. I tried to reproduce the fate and feelings of middle east humans.”

Murat Yazar is a well known photographer in the Kurdish art scene. He loves to inspire people and get inspired by others. His centrals of life and work are in Urfa and Rome. He is the chief executive of the photography and film association, MEFSAD and gives workshops and basic, intermediate, and advanced photography classes in different cities in Turkey.

Does the eye take the picture or the camera?
I always say photography is the language of the feelings and the camera is just the tool. The eyes are the important instruments.

Do you shoot analog or digital?
Both. Sometimes it is better to shoot analog to explain and emphasize some situations and feelings. Film has its own magic. It is more expressive and I like to develop it by myself. But digital cameras have their advantages that for example photographers can benefit from too.

Do you shoot more in black and white or in color? What is the difference for you?
“I do shoot in both spectrums. There are some photos and moments that have to be shot and reproduced in color. It depends on the subject you shoot I think. Like for example in my project in Kafkasya, I shot in colors, because the colors were fantastic like in a painting. But I prefer mostly to shoot in black and white. I think colors can sometimes be like a wall for moments and feelings. In black and white I can present the scenes like “naked”.

What are your tips to young photographer?
Well, I would say: Lose yourself. Don’t think too much and let yourself get inspired. But in the moment you release the shutter let everything beside and tell your own story. Don’t copy other photographer’s stories.

What does light mean for you?
Light is a magic thing – “A secret of beauty”. I am from Mesopotamia and so light has a personal meaning for me too. And of course as a photographer it is also an important instrument. If you use it right you can use it to strengthen your messages within your pictures.

His plan for the future is to publish three books of his photography projects: ‘Shadow of Kurdistan’, ‘Kafkasya’, ‘Story of Iran’. And he hopes also to do more exhibitions, especially one in Vienna.

Photos by Murat Yazar (c)
website: www. muratyazar.org
Interview by Dilan Tas

The story of OSSO

Osso, born 1982 is a Kurdish from Rojava, Syria. The Artist grew up in Al Hasaka in a family of artists: “I had luck; I was surrounded since my childhood by painters and artists who gave me a shot of inspiration”

“One day in an art lesson in school, when I was a child, the art teacher asked all the pupils to draw the october war between Syria and Israel. We had to paint the details of the battle, with its tanks and bleeding soldiers but I didn’t like to draw the war like that. I liked to draw the war in my own way, even though I knew that I will be punished probably. So I drew a pile of black smoke. The war from the outside”, Osso (2017 ) .

Motivated of learning more about his passion, he moved to Damascus at the age of 16 to study there at the Art University for 2 years. After he finished his studies, he did a number of exhibitions in Damascus, Homs and Aleppo between 1997 and 1999. In this time he began to focus more on drawing elder men and Kurdish women. But because of difficult political and societal systems there, he decided to move on to Beirut, where he believed to find more liberty. In Beirut he found again the motivation to study and started graduated with distinction after 2 years from the Art University in Beirut.

Between 2000 and 2003 he held also exhibitions in Beirut, but that didn’t give him the freedom he was looking for. There were still restrictions on art, as the Syrian regime was technically in power in Lebanon at that time, so it internally he didn’t feel being away from Syria.

His desire for artistic freedom made him escape to Europe. His journey led him to Ukraine before he arrived in Vienna. But after getting in touch with the inspirational atmosphere in Vienna, he felt that he had finally “arrived”. Even it was not easy to make a new beginning, because of residence permits and financial independence, he didn’t give up and all these experiences made him stronger and after 8 months he had his first exhibition in Vienna.

Do you draw to ask questions or to find answers?

“I don’t often know what I draw; I am often at the search to find it. When I was a young lad living in Syria, I used to paint and draw the lush nature of Europe, with its red houses and green mountains. Now that I am in Europe, I long to paint houses in my hometown, those small cozy houses and those colorful traditional fabrics. ”

Osso’s works are not directly political but they still deal often with extraordinary types of androgynous beings and role models from the background of different cultures and socio-political discourses. In his pictures you get access to the existing longing and passion. . Dimensions of emotions with grief are expressed as well as poetic ecstasy and vitality. His work is a (re)search, an exploration a persistence almost bursting with energy a detection of color and form with a focuse on the narrow view about women and sexual harassment by the society and how it should be changed

What means being a Kurd for you? What does it mean to be a free Kurdish artist for you?

“Sadly I never could learn my mother language totally. This always made me sad. I always wanted to say I am a Kurd and nothing else. No religion, no culture. Just a Kurdish artist. It’s difficult to say I am an artist generally but it is more difficult to say I am a Kurdish artist. I am glad; I can say it here now. “

What are your future wishes/plans?

“I hope I can carry on with my art and go one day as a free and independent Kurdish artist to my hometown to see my family, my friends and my hometown again“
Ronahî means light. What means light for you and your art?

“Ronahî is a beautiful Kurdish name. Light has a really important place in my life and placed always a big role in my work. Light is hope. “

Artist Osso Website: http://www.osso-art.com

Photos and Interview by Dilan Tas