The Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre, a multi-functional contemporary art and culture centre located in the Artillery Arsenal building (1833) of the Daugavpils Fortress, Latvia, is hosting a group of Turkish artists this summer for the exhibition Cilicia Breeze.
Anatolia, especially the ancient Roman province of Cilica at the eastern end of Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, is a colourful geography full of lights, which hosts different languages and beliefs and is made up of diverse cultures. It is both gloomy and exuberant. It is both far away and very close. It is a meeting place for diverse cultures. While art is being globalised on one hand, on the other it makes it possible to push the limits to leave room for new experiences. The artists in this exhibition, all of whom work and teach at Çukurova University in Adana, share the colours, scents and forms they have experienced and observed.
For an insight into Rough Cilicia, the untouched craggy hill country of ancient Cilicia, see Francis Russell’s Road to Ruins in Cornucopia 59.
The artists include Mustafa Okan, Minet Keser, Burnur Eraldemir, Suat Karaaslan, Özgür Aktaş, Cem Demir, Sevgi Arı, Handan Narin, Kerem Atar, Ömer Erdem, Tayfun Akdemir, Semiha Yıldırım, Merve Özcan and Belgin Boran.
Issue 66, December 2023
Turkey’s Centenary Issue
