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| Hale Hülya Nurol, “Wings of peace”, 2016, oil on canvas, 50×80 cm. |
NAİF SANATÇILAR “BARIŞ”I RESMETTİLER
September 14 to December 18, 2016
John Lennon’ın “Imagine” şarkısının sözlerini yani “Hayal et bütün insanların hayatı barış içinde yaşadığını…” temasını konu alan, “ImaginaïveS” sergisinde Türkiye’den Hale Hülya Nurol, Şebnem Çamdalı, Sema Çulam ve Gülfidan Hitit Biçer’in eserleri de yer alıyor.
Ü.K.- Dear Jacques Dupont, Musée international d’art naïf de Magog (MIANM) team was working on an exhibition entitled as “ImaginaïveS” for a long time. And now you are ready. Artists are personally invited to create an original painting inspired by the lyrics of John Lennon’s song Imagine: “imagine all the people, living life in peace…”. Why did you choose John Lennon’s “Imagine” Song. Could you tell au about your curatorial method?
J.D.- I’m a volunteer member of the Board of Administrators from the MIANM (Musée international d’art naïf de Magog) since 3 years. Also somehow in charge of communications, computer systems, photography, Public Relations & Advertising, Web & Facebook (more than 4000 likes https://www.facebook.com/naifworld). In 2014, I put together REVIM14 (Rendezvous international à Magog), an international Exhibition, totally organized online. 89 artists submitted their candidacy; an international jury selected thirty of them for the Exhibition. Then we held a contest on Facebook on all the paintings submitted (89). We received short of ten thousand votes. And a Turkish artist, Nebahat Karatas was the winner. Later, I have had the rare opportunity to visit Turkey and meet with Miss Karatas to give her her Prize. I also met other local artists and one rare generous person entirely dedicated to promote the art from Turkey, my now estimated friend Ummuhan Eker Kazanç. A real network was build, ready to be put to task.
One year later, I submitted to our Board a new international project, IMAGINAIVES. Viewing the News every night on Television, I suspected it was about time to revisit the lyrics from John Lennon song. And it was before the refugee crisis! I became commissaire for this special thematic project and worked on it on a semi daily basis since then.
Using our rich network, we invited 36 women artists on a personal basis to execute a new painting freely inspired by Lennon’s words and peace concept.
I am not an expert on art. All my life I worked in some kind of communication related activity, most of it as Director for Film & Television. But I have a unique Museum in my town (Magog, Quebec, Canada) and I wanted to give back some good vibes to my Community.
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| Şebnem Çamdalı, “Eternal Love”, 2016, oil on canvas, 80×60 cm. |
Ü.K.- Why and at what point did you decide to work with women naive artists?
J.D.- Something told me we would have to hear especially from women artists on this subject. A visceral choice and a somehow difficult one to explain, even to some colleagues. But I can see now, with all the paintings hanged on our wall, that it was a wise choice and a rare opportunity to build a homogeneous artistic Collective based on Spirit and Kindness, generously shared by outstanding people who do not know each other but are strangely attuned. Women are healers, by choice or necessity; women artists are beacons of hope. Naive women artists have no fear at all to face the truth, as ugly as it is, and propose the shining light of their fantasy to spare us the worst. I also knew some of their personal whereabouts, just enough to want to know more about their feelings. I’m glad we took the risk. And I love and respect very much all he artists who enroll in the project with enthusiasm and great devotion to their form of art, which is not always truly understood and appreciated for its own specific values and merits, just as it is, outside of any comparison scheme.
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| Sema Çulam, “Dream and Carpe Diem”, 2016, oil on canvas, 45×120 cm. |
Ü.K.- How many women artists will exhibit their Works? Which countries are represented in the exhibition?
J.D.- 34 artists from 18 countries. Only two of the invited artists were unable to participate for Health reasons. Argentina , Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Turkey, UK + one Canadian Artist (Barbara Sala) acting as host and Godmother.
Alexandre, Marion, FR
Amperidou, Sofia, GR
Bersee, Ale, AR
Breedveld, Ada, NL
Bruel-Rupp, Michèle, FR
Caetano, Luiza, PT
Camargo, Fatima, BR
Camdali, Sebnem, TR
Cavin, Nini, FR
Collins, Kate, UK
Çulam, Sema, TR
Dragan, Ana, RO
Fraga-Frénot,Christine, FR
Gutman, Debora, GE
Haize, Maria-Cristina, BR
Hassan, Naneh, IR
Hestu Wahyuni, Erica, ID
Hitit Bicer, Gulfidan, TR
Hulya Nurol, Hale, TR
Ishigami, Yoko, JP
Joaquim, Shila, BR
Jonsson-Harrison, Marie, AU
Kolodziej, Martha, PO
Leonis, Despoena, GR
Loquen, Claudine, FR
Mafucci, Lucilla, IT
Masiero, Alice, BR
Mohamadi, Fatemeh, IR
Papic, Lidia, AR
Sala, Barbara, CA
Souza, Ana-Denise, BR
Tajuddin, Eliza, MY
Tamanini, Everenice, BR
Worsoe, Lene, DK
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| Gülfidan Hitit Biçer, “Come, come whoever you are come”, 2016, oil on canvas, 50×60 cm. |
Ü.K.- Since you have decided to open up an exhibition with “PEACE” theme, things are going terrible in the World especially in Near East. Dou you still believe in PEACE? Isn’t it an UTOPIA that all the people are living in peace?
J.D.- Ideally, I would like to live in Theory, the only country in the World where everything is possible!!!
I’m a pragmatist. Peace begins inside each of us and in our immediate environment. Everything else we don’t control. Oh, not exactly: on some occasions and in some privileged places (Canada is one of them, but Turkey has a grey cloud upon her now) we can also freely vote, ask questions, do crazy things in the street, etc..
“A dream you dream alone is only a dream.A dream you dream together is reality”Yoko Ono Lennon
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| Ada Breedveld, “All children born in freedom”, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 60×80 cm. |
Ü.K.- Could you tell us about Turkish artists represented in the exhibition?
J.D.- Two years ago, I have had the privilege to meet three of them in their own environment: Sebnem Camdali, Nebahat Karatas and Hayal Irtegün. Sema Çulam and Hale Hülya Nurol are only known to me from Facebook or through UEK intermediary (!). I have published some of their works on the Museum Facebook page, within a program of ours intended to let naïve artists from the world be known, even if they do not belong to our Collection. I have even played some intermediary role between one of them and an eventual buyer in Brazil. I can also say that Sebnem is more than a virtual friend, as me and my wife stay in her lovely place for a few days. And then, we really understood the sources of her inspiration and the limitless scope of her imagination. The fields of dream of Sema Çulam are the perfect illustration of a bountiful country, so rich for her Land and her People. The whimsical characters of Hale Nurol hide some serious questioning behind funny settings and a masterful technique. Gulfidan Hitit Bicer from Kuşadası, at a young age, is digging deep and thoroughly into what makes Turkish today, mixing traditions and modernity. A huge task, made easy by a style of her own, authentically naïve and yet surprising from one work to the other. The most evident paradox is that these great Turkish naïve artists are not naïve at all, but have found their own way to make this type of art more respected! Turkey seems to me as a very productive country for naïve art, no longer cornered in remote countryside or practiced by old people rooted to the past.
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Maria-Cristina Haize, “Rêve de femme”, 2016, oil on canvas, 55×46 cm. |
Ü.K.- You have also planned other programmes together with the exhibition. Do you have surprise for art lovers?
J.D.- One activity I’m proud of is made possible with an arrangement with the organization IMAGINEPEACE headed by Yoko Ono, widow of John Lennon. We have been accredited to operate a “Wish Tree (live tree)” inside the Exhibition, where visitors can attach small labels with short Peace Wishes. At the end of the Exhibition, all labels will be sent to New York Yoko’s Office. She then send them to Iceland where she had a special Peace Tower build to receive all messages from the world, accumulated since many years from museums around the world.
Later, during the three months of Exhibition, we will gather messages from Facebook friends and write them down on the tree.
For having now seen real people visiting the Exhibition and mentioning or writing down their feelings, I can tell you that the words EMOTION and SURPRISE comes to the front more frequently. People ask us if Exhibition will travel, here in Canada or abroad. They say it should. They say it should remain an ensemble. It is true that the collective message is strong. We will try to honor the comments. We also witness a broad reassessment of the naïve art concept. Interesting!
ALSO: I have advised our Mayor, Miss Vicky May-Hamm, to become a Mayor for Peace: http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/index.html
She will announce it during the opening, next Sunday.
We will also have a benefit-concert (Cellist, both classic and Pop) inside the Exhibition on October 9, anniversary of John Lennon Birth.
Local News and schools are very much interested by this Exhibition turned multi facet event. We may have some more surprises.
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| Eliza Tajuddin, “Lullabies for peace – Dodoi si Dodoi ala saying”, 2016, oil on canvas, 40×100 cm. |
Ü.K.- My last question is related to politics. Dear Jacques you have been to Turkey. You have many friends from Turkey and Near East. Canada represents PEACE. As a Canadian citizen, could you tell us what Canadian people think about things are going on in Near East?
J.D.- Geopolitical situation of Turkey, as perceived in my country, Canada, is of some uncertainty. There is a feeling that anything can happen, for the best or the worst. There is a big realignment of alliances between countries, nowadays. Everything moves faster than usual. Risks are getting bigger. Populations loose interest or control over their institutions. Turkey is on a rope, balancing her act between East and West, democracy and populism, tolerance or exclusion, and how could she do otherwise with her strategic, geographic, historical, cultural position, so well personified by the Istanbul position. And yet, this position is itself the most promising cradle for her population and the rest of the World. Let it be, hopefully in the hands of Good Will People.
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| Claudine Loquen, “Au café des joues rouges”, 2016, mixed technique, 73×54 cm. |
THE MUSEUM
M.I.A.N.M., (Musée international d’art naïf de Magog), is the sole Canadian Visual Arts Museum dedicated exclusively to national and international Naïve art. It is located in Magog, Quebec, an all-season Tourism Destination, located 45 minutes from Montreal, very near the US border.
In 2014, the institution hosted a successful international exhibition, REVIM14, when 29 artists from the world were selected to exhibit by an international jury, among the 89 artists from 30 countries who entered the contest. All of them, and more, are now part of a rich community of Naïve Artists with whom we keep in touch. This ongoing and rich relationship makes us feel confident that our next international exhibition, ImaginaïveS, will be a new milestone.
FOR FURTHER INFO
info@artnaifmagog.com
www.facebook.com/naifworld
Web: www.artnaifmagog.com
1-819-843-2099
Address: MIANM, 61, rue Merry Nord, Magog, (Quebec), Canada J1X 2E7
Ümmühan Kazanç
