By Heidi Trautmann
Nilgün Güney and her studio art group are always mindful to
follow social tendencies, social problems, also after-effects of political
decisions which they feel is the duty of an artist and which is also my own
belief. We have to raise our hands and bring awareness to people in a visionary
way.
The exhibition which was opened on June 21 at the Ismet Güney
Art Centre (Nilgün’s father by the way, first Turkish Cypriot artist and
teacher in the TRNC, i.e. in modern arts). Prime Minister Hüseyin Özgürgün had
the pleasure to open the exhibition and with him were the president of the
local Drug Prevention Comity (Uyuşturucuyla Mücadele Komisyonu) Mr. Hasan
Karaokçu and psychologist Mr. Teyfide and also the 2nd president of the commission
Ms Yeşim Gürçınar. The comity is connected directly to the Presidency. I was
promised by Yeşim Gürçınar some more information regarding the current drug
situation which she called very bad; schools and universities are cross roads
for drug trafficking on an international basis.
Nilgün Güney took the guests around the two halls to explain
the art works done by Nilgün herself, Ateş Kozal (video installation), Aydan
Lisaniler, Eda Gökçe, Pervin Öznergiz, Saadet Alpar, Zeynep Uzun, all very
thought provoking.
The
event makes part of the International Day of Drugabuse and Illicit Trafficking
on June 26, 2016. More should be done to this effect. Thank you to Nilgün and
her art group for taking on this problematic theme. According to people I spoke
to during the exhibition, children from the age of ten years are approached in
front of schools to buy drugs and consequently become ‘hooked’ on them. It is
so sad that not enough is done to protect children and young people from this
peril.