Olive Festival – Exhibition of the 2nd International Cartoon Contest Prize Winners

In the official programme for the Olive Festival  in Zeytinlik the exhibition tent is not mentioned!!!

In this tent there is the Cartoon exhibition including the prize winners of this year’s contest!

(Also exhibited in the tent is a photograph show and art and crafts over the entire duration of the festival!)

I met Musa Kayra, the President of the North Cyprus Cartoon Association and he proudly gave me the new Cartoon Album 2008 containing all the winners of last year's International Cartoon Contest plus a collection of the cartoons handed in. What a fascinating collection.

He was not at all happy about the procedures of this year's contest. The winners were invited to come to Kyrenia and receive their prizes during a proper festival act but not this year, the invitation and presentation was cancelled; the association could not keep their obligation as hosts and they are very sorry about it. Caricatures and cartoons are a very important asset in a country's cultural heritage and especially when the contest is made out in the name of the Olive Festival.

It remains to be seen if the outcome of the contest will at least be published in another cartoon album 2009?

In my archive I have a photo of 1986 when the young caricaturists of North Cyprus were exhibiting their work on washing lines along the Girne Road in Lefkosa. They have come a long way.

The new Cartoon magazine YENI AKREP is online. Please refer to Art News No 73 in my website.

Copyright Heidi Trautmann 2009