Three exhi­bi­tions are end­ing, anoth­er one is upcom­ing in Paris. Each time, Zehra Doğan’s free and col­lec­tive words hit the mark as the free part of her speaks out from her prison.

The works exhib­it­ed in her absence have led, in the coun­try sur­round­ing Mor­laix, in Angers or in Graul­het (Tarn) to a strong rais­ing of aware­ness of what is going on at the doors of a busi­ness-based Europe.

Draw­ing, paint­ing the unspeak­able, with eyes wide open, giv­en Zehra’s tal­ent, is not speechi­fy­ing, but touch­ing the inti­mate part with­in, the area still sen­si­tive under a shell of indif­fer­ence or indi­vid­u­al­ism going so far as to deny reality.

And since we must do an assess­ment, we may as well give our read­ers the ben­e­fit of some details.

These three exhi­bi­tions which drew some 3 000 peo­ple in Angers, in the coun­try of Mor­laix or in the Tarn, were accom­pa­nied by films, round tables and debates. And the book “Les yeux grands ouverts”, which sold some 300 copies dur­ing these Jan­u­ary events, allowed for fur­ther doc­u­men­ta­tion yet on the con­text for this sol­i­dar­i­ty campaign. 

This was also the oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet Kedis­tan read­ers, of course. Many of them.

Our exchanges, dur­ing the “guid­ed tours” for instance, showed us how Zehra pro­vides doc­u­men­ta­tion and archives, so to speak, for the peri­od of mas­sacres that runs from 2015 to mid 2017 in Turkey. The news­pa­pers she some­times uses as can­vas are a tes­ti­mo­ny to this, and Zehra’s artis­tic pow­er does the rest, with­out pure dis­course ever tak­ing over, and with­out ten­der­ness and pro­found human­i­ty ever being absent. She prompts us to under­stand, become informed and act. Her tes­ti­mo­ny is impor­tant, in this peri­od when Erdoğan is bomb­ing Roja­va in a cli­mate of inter­na­tion­al indif­fer­ence and cynicism.

It is this human­i­ty that touch­es the vis­i­tor, rais­ing ques­tions and lead­ing to a con­fronta­tion with one’s own dis­in­for­ma­tion, a con­fronta­tion with brute real­i­ty, laid down in urgent strokes, and under­lined by col­or or by blacks and reds.

And when a vis­i­tor takes plea­sure in rec­og­niz­ing a ref­er­ences to draw­ings, paint­ings or mem­o­ries of read­ings, Picas­so, Cha­gall, Munch, very quick­ly this com­plic­i­ty fades at the sight of the pain in anoth­er stroke, call­ing atten­tion back to the urgency of ongo­ing massacres.

Zehra’s words on can­vas lead back to mul­ti­ple and col­lec­tive ques­tion­nings. And ris­ing out of the sim­ple empa­thy for the defense of “free­dom of expres­sion”, tongues loosen and ques­tion the inhu­man­i­ty at the ser­vice of pow­er­ful ends, and of a glob­al­iza­tion all end up by nam­ing as the tri­umph of a cap­i­tal­ism act­ing as a plan­e­tary preda­tor of all com­mon life. And then, each and every one takes stock, often aston­ished to have gone so far, under Zehra’s caged smile.

A but­ter­fly drops in on Zehra, in the mid­dle of winter…

Exhibit­ing Zehra’s work is a pro­found­ly polit­i­cal act, as well as pro­vid­ing an archive of the recent his­to­ry of Turkey and of the Kur­dish people.

But it is also a way of giv­ing access to see­ing and hear­ing the strength and artis­tic tal­ent of a 28 year old resis­tant. And of a true artist.

The exhi­bi­tion in Paris is now con­firmed. It will take place from March 20 to April 15 2018 in the cul­tur­al cen­ter of the “Mai­son des Métallos”.

Here is the pro­gram, still being finalized:

Over 70 orig­i­nal works will be pre­sent­ed to the pub­lic. Those of the peri­od known as “clan­des­tine”, the “escaped works” as well as some from the cur­rent jail peri­od, also done in clan­des­tin­i­ty with pre­car­i­ous means under con­di­tions of impris­on­ment, at the risk of inces­sant reprisals.

Sev­er­al ini­ta­tives, still being final­ized, will accom­pa­ny this presentation:

Round tables… deal­ing with jour­nal­ism, the wom­en’s strug­gle, the roots of con­tem­po­rary Turkey, Roja­va, sup­port networks…

A film… videos…

A sol­idary musi­cal show…

The pre­sen­ta­tion of the book, les yeux grands ouverts which, from Zehra’s log­book to the escape of her works, accom­pa­nies the exhi­bi­tions and tells the gen­e­sis of the sup­port cam­paign (also con­tain­ing the descrip­tion and visu­als of the works, whether on exhi­bi­tion or not).

And, of course, guid­ed tours of the exhi­bi­tion, with vis­its aimed at school groups…

A strong aware­ness cam­paign con­cern­ing the con­di­tions imposed on the many polit­i­cal hostages in Turk­ish jails, and on the dis­in­for­ma­tion since 2015 on the mas­sacres com­mit­ed in Turk­ish Kur­dis­tan, an analy­sis of con­di­tions in Turkey, on Erdo­gan and pre­ced­ing Kemal­ist regimes, a reflec­tion ofn the polit­i­cal project in Roja­va which the Turk­ish offen­sive aims to destroy… So many con­tex­tu­al ele­ments that cir­cu­late with these exhi­bi­tions, like a but­ter­fly effect.

It is clear that these exhi­bi­tions pro­vide Zehra some inter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion, and, by ric­o­chet, to all of her co-detainees as well. They allow infor­ma­tion to cir­cu­late con­cern­ing the sit­u­a­tion of all hostages behind bars in Turkey, or placed under con­straint by the regime.

But these exhi­bi­tions also make known an artist, more than a bud­ding one who, at 28, faces a prob­a­ble future in exile…when she leaves jail, an out­come for which we are fighting.

Once again, a huge thank you to the team greet­ing us at Mai­son des Métal­los, as well as to PEN Club Inter­na­tion­al whose sec­tions now cham­pi­on Zehra, to the few jour­nal­ists who com­mit them­selves at her side, to the Amnesty sec­tions and oth­er asso­ci­a­tions sup­port­ing her

In order to envi­sion an opti­mistic out­come, we count on a grow­ing inter­na­tion­al move­ment of sup­port through the shar­ing of this cam­paign on social media and through your orga­niz­ing, espe­cial­ly through asso­ci­a­tions, sol­i­dar­i­ty ini­tia­tives to which Kedis­tan will glady pro­vide logis­ti­cal sup­port. See HERE* for how to do so. (* in eng­lish soon)

Zehra Doğan speaks in every­one’s names and, as oth­ers before her, she resists in every­one’s name also to the arbi­trari­ness and fascis­tic meth­ods of the regime. Let’s free her!

Page Facebook Free Zehra Doğan | Twitter de Zehra @zehradoganjinha
Zehra dedicated Website | Special Zehra Doğan dossier on Kedistan 

Last minute: The “La Maison des Métallos” cultural center did not deign pursue the project, its management finding it in the end too “sensitive” to their liking for a cultural venue. It is therefore canceled …


Zehra Doğan s’ex­pose à Paris en mars et avril  Cliquez pour lire
Zehra Doğan expone en París esta pri­mav­era Haga clic para leer

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