“The Other Face of Turkey”, Lviv-Ukraine

Opening in Dzyga Art Gallery started with speechs of curators Alp Aslan, Orhan Özçalık & Dzyga Art Director Volodymyr Kaufman, then it continued with tango show by Müge Azizoğlu & Nitti Palermo (Tango teacher from Barrio de Palermo in Lviv).

“After recent trade agreements between Ukraine and Turkey, many entrepreneurs from Turkey began to flow in Ukraine. Concordantly tourist flow between two countries has also increased considerably. Many private airline companies, particularly Turkish Airlines, provide reciprocal flights to various cities in Ukraine and Turkey.

These pleasant developments on the commercial and economic side, unfortunately, lack of cultural aspect. Therefore, this deficiency paves the way for questions in the minds of the Ukrainian people and leaves a certain stereotype about Turkish citizens visiting Ukraine. This creates a negative image for both Turkey and Turkish citizens. If this issue is not resolved and if this image remains, this negative situation will be reflected in the image of Turkey, which has established economic and commercial relations in Ukraine. Turkish brands and Turkish entrepreneurs in the near future will also carry this burden. In the history, as we have seen there were periods of severe political tensions among countries however these tensions are not affected by tourism or trade relations so much because of their strength of cultural ties.

As Helikon Art Center, we are continuing to recognize the other face of Turkey, the other Turks, especially Ukrainian artists, through the international “I: O Art Residence Bahçecik” which we have continued with the Ukrainian Contemporary Art Institute since 2014. The purpose of this project is to organize joint cultural and artistic events with Ukrainian artists who are not far from the artistic and cultural life of Turkey, together with the Turkish artists who will introduce the cultural face of Turkey in Ukraine, thus contributing to the change of this negative image.”

Participants: Krolikowski Art, Vladimir Gulich, Ahmet Raşit Karkın,  Taras Popovich, Merve Armağan, Nastya  Layko, Ezgi Ecem Okşin, Bilge Artuç, Olexandra Pavlovska, Gamze Tosun , Yarema Ostrovski, Nurcan Çevik, Valeria Tarasenko, Damla Sari, Türkan Yılmaz