An exhibition of godly sculptures and the launch of a
book
By
Heidi Trautmann
„I who was born in these lands, Erol, son of Refik,
ask thee oh mother of my initial mother and father…Who was here long before we
were? My initial mother and father who carved the first flint stone, armed
himself and hunted the first wild boar, to feed their first born…..”
….thus starts the catalogue in English and Turkish to
accompany the exhibition by Erol Refikoğlu, Erol, son of Refik.
On May 17, Erol Refikoğlu opened his exhibition of
over 35 sculptures to the public because he has something to say to us apart
from what he has been giving us on stage by his art of acting; he tells us
about it in this poetic book in English and Turkish, it is a sort of summary of
thoughts he shares with us, his thoughts about the world from its very
beginning to today and he takes the mythical world of Mediterranean Gods as
intermediary to tell his story.
The gods, semi gods and heroes were weak, they had
their long lists of misdeeds and were falling prey to temptations; they stand model for the people in power
today. Erol wants to show how these gods and heroes were playing with mortals,
throwing them into the hell of wars and misery, making them suffer. Scars
remain and scars have remained with Erol, with all of us.
Yaşar Ersoy, his friend and colleague, held the
opening speech with heartfelt words about Erol, brother and friend for over 40 years of
theatre. “We fought together, produced, created together and shared with the
community….Erol, he said, Erol is an actor in this unappreciative,
life-crushing country. He is an intuitive actor with a powerful aura but also a
labourer with gifted hands, a man of the theatre with many talents….Mythology
by Erol=MythEROLogy , his voyage and his story of ‘the tyrants and the
underdogs’…Mytherology is the dialectic togetherness of reality and fiction; of
what dominating gods of the Greek and Roman mythology had done to mortals and
what capitalist-imperial gods of the 21st century had done to
humanity, to people….” Strong words, words of friendship and respect.
The sculptures are built up with clay in a sort of
cosmos, part of the earth, underworld, sea or air, depending on the site of
action; walking around them discloses fine details of the individual story, the
details of it to be read in the catalogue of the same name. It is a mise-en-scène
as one can expect from a theatre man.
The scenes are rough, cruel in its truthful presentation. You recognize
the love Erol Refikoğlu has invested in creating these worlds. The first
species of men, apelike, crawling and defensive; Aphrodite aged with sagging
breasts after having served as the idol of love for so long; Zeus on winged
Pegasus about to punish offenders; Hermes, the protector of crooks and thieves,
still believed valid today; Heracles, the hero who ‘hinders the hinderer’ of
our every interest; Prometheus who dared to steal the fire from the Gods to
give us knowledge; war sites such as Troy and many more scenes that Erol
believes are still valid today.
I do hope that Erol Refikoğlu will show his sculptures
in other places such as Kyrenia and Famagusta for more people to learn about
MythEROLogy.