The Project…Its Beginning

As a child, I began to create art works before I knew how to write and read… I didn't know what art was or what it was to be an artist.  And as I became a teenager, I was still creating art works and I knew my dream was to have a personal exhibition of my work. I wanted this more than anything.  I did not want this because of my career or for the future of my art.  I was just my dream to have an exhibition of my work in my lifetime.  It did not happen easily.   There were thousands of barricades in front of me, trying to stop me, but I went on creating new art works and my brushes never left my hands.  And after the first exhibition there was another and another...

Success came one by one…

There were so many people telling me that what I was creating was not art.  Others said that I was an incredibly talented artist. But I didn’t want to listen to anything other than what I wanted to do and so I went on and I was successful.  Everyone around me in art was in a fight.  A fight for what? “I am much better than you”?   This was the main reason for the fights.  I always kept myself away from these fights.  They did not understand what I knew very well: any artist is not much better than any others. The artist was worse or much better only by comparing within himself/herself.  Every artist was running down in his/her own river as muddy, fast, slow or brilliant.. What I mean is the fight was without meaning.

I participated in the 2003 The Florence International Biennale of Contemporary Arts and 2005 The Arad International Biennale of Contemporary Art.  For me and for my art and for my life experiences, they were very succesful Biennales. The first idea to create The Adana International Biennale of Contemporary Arts appeared in my mind in Arad City.  When I returned back to Turkey, I proposed a Project on this subject.  And then, Ass.Prf. Berrin Sirel, Ass.Prf. Muzaffer Tire, Art Historian Nermin Tamburoglu and me began to work on this Project as a committee..

And now,

We are ready to welcome all the international artists in Adana City…

Safa Bute

International Project Director