Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Self-determination

For some time now self-determination as a subject has been at the centre of my interest. In any event, this subject has, in some way, always been present in my engravings. My interest in a subject which is par excellence political is a conscious choice.

At first sight, the acceptance of self-determination seems self-evident. Moreover, one of the first articles of the United Nations Charter deals with the right to self-determination of peoples.

But it’s another matter that all peoples do not have this right and it is not implemented every-where. So often this right, sacrificed on the altar of profit and self-interest, is lost completely. Everyone, nations and peoples, should be able to determine their ‘fate’ and their future as they themselves want-even at an individual level: freedom of thought and self-determination of the individual.

But all these self-evident things are forbidden for very many peoples: from Kurdistan to Tibet and Chechnya, and in many other countries. The wealth of the subsoil, such as oil, has become a chain of slavery and has been fitted to the neck of the Kurds by the four occupying states. The cause of the occupation and annexation of Tibet by China is the same. And the same is true of Chechnya.
Serhad Bapir, September 2007.

From catalogue “Greek Printmaking Today”, 2007.

Kurdistan, Chechenia, Tibet..., 2003, coloured engraving, linoleum, 70x100 cm.


''Shengal 2007'', 2007, collagraph, 32x32 cm.



Defeating forgetfulness…

The approach of the past in a lost place and time is a difficult project. The art is able to play an important role in what we call memory. Instead of facing the past of a person or even of a whole nation as a constant wound, it is a wish to turn it into a source of experience, ideas and knowledge.

Memory is what we need to understand the today. It is as an arrow on the arch, the more you push it back , the further it reaches the today and the future.

This kind of approach of the lost past in the art of engraving for a political refugee from Kurdistan is the practicing of the memory, against forgetfulness, it is a confirmation about today and a searching field for tomorrow. In this way the art becomes part of his psychological resistance and it functions as a cure.

September 2008
Serhad

Renaissance, 2005, collagraph, 32x32 cm



Monday, December 29, 2008

Captivity, 2005, Engraving on plexiglas and linoleum, 102x82 cm.









Serhad Bapir: A Short Biography

Serhad Bapir was born in 1964 in Tetwan in Northern Kurdistan. During his years at grammarschool he participated in the Kurdish liberation movement. From 1983 he was persecuted and later was wanted by the military forces in Turkey because of his political involvement.

In 1984 he had no other choice but to leave the country and seek political asylum in Greece. Between 1987 and 1992 he studied at the School of Visual and Applied Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Aristotheles in Salonika. He studied painting under Prof. Vangelis Dimireas and Dimitris Kondos, and graphic art under Prof. Yiorgios Milios. From 2001 to 2007 he studied graphic arts under Prof. X. Sahinis at the University of Aristotheles in Salonika.
During 1995-97 he worked as an art teacher at the Cultural Centre of Stavrupolis in Salonika. Since 1997 he has been employed as a teacher at the secondary school in the same town. He became a member of Association of Visual Artists in Northern Greece in 1993, since 1994 has been a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts in Greece and 2005 since Greek Engravers Association. He has been settled in Salonika since 1985.
His paintings and graphic works are found among others in the Art Gallery of the Association for Macedonian Studies, in collection of The Macedonian Arts Society (”TEXNI”) in the town of Kilkis, in the collection of the Kurdish Institute in Paris, the kurdish review NÛDEM in Sweden, in the collection of Sotiris Tsukalis and in several other individual collections.

One-man exhibitions:
1997: Cultural Centre of Stravrupolis, Salonika, Greece
1998: “TEHNI” The Macedonian Arts Society, Kilkis, Greece
1999: ”IL Rifugio d‘artista”, Giannitsa, Greece
2001: Kurdish Library, Stockholm, Sweden.
2002: Peristyle of the Aristotle theatre / cinema, Municipality of Thessaloniki, Greece.
2008: TEHNOHOROS, Athens, Greece.
2009: Vafopouleio Cultural Centre, Municipality of Thessaloniki, Greece.
2019: Vafopouleio Cultural Centre, Municipality of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Selection from main group/co-exhibitions:
1992: Exhibition by graduates of the School of Fine Arts, Thessaloniki Port Organisation, Thessaloniki, Greece.
1995: Demetria, Society for Macedonian Studies, Thessaloniki, Greece.
1998: Cultural Capital of Europe, The First international Mini Art Biennale, Vasby, Stockholm, Sweden.
2000: Triennale of Greek Engraving, Pierides Gallery, Athens. 1999: Egypt International Triennale, Cairo, Egypt.
2001: Month of Visual Arts, Technopolis, Municipality of Athens, Panhellenic Exhibition of Small-Scale Art, Vafopouleio Cultural Centre, Thessaloniki, Greece.
2002: Five Young Engravers, Eirmos, Thessaloniki, Greece.
2004: 99+1 Artists, State Museum of Contemporary Art – Thessaloniki Port Organisation, Thessaloniki, Greece.
2005: Art at the Side of SE Asia, State Museum of Contemporary Art – Thessaloniki Port Organisation, Thessaloniki, Greece.
2007: Averoff Museum, Metsovo. Exhibition by graduates of the School of Fine Arts, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art – Thessaloniki, Greece.

Press cuttings:
· The Graphic Works of Serhad, the catalogue of exhibition, 1997, Stravrupolis, Salonika.
· Kastas Laxas, author and painter, foreword to the catologue of 1997s exhibition.
· "The Kurdish graphic artist broke his silence", I Avriani (daily), 29 March 1997, Salonika.
· Armanc (Kurdish periodical), nr 177, May 1997, Sweden.
· NÛDEM (Kurdish quarterly), nr 23, Autumn 1997, an interview published in this literary and art periodical, along with an album including 26 graphic works in the same number, Sweden.
· "Expressions of art from Kurdistan, visual and graphic art exhibition of the Kurdish artist Serhad", Nea Poria (newspaper), 16 January 1998, Kilkis.
· "Kurdish Serhad in TEHNI- showing us his art works", IDISIS (daily), 21 January 1998, Kilkis.
· "A Kurdish artist in Kilkis", I AVGI (daily), 21 January 1998, Athens.
· "Lifes stubbornness", Angelioforos (daily), 21 January 1998, Salonika.
· "Graphic art exhibition-Serhad, picture, painting, Kurdistan", KRONOS (daily), 30 January 1998, Kilkis.
· The Graphic Works of Serhad, the catalogue of exhibition, 1998, "TEXNI" The Macedonian Arts Society, Kilkis.
· "Serhad, engraving pictures of struggle ", NEA MAKEDONIA (daily), Interview of the week, interviewed by Mrs Smaro Xristidou, 1 February 1998.
· NÛDEM (Kurdish quarterly), nr 28, Winter 1998, "Some new graphic works of Serhad Bapir", Sweden.
· "The way to the close one is far away", Documentary from the state-owned Greek Tv, ET3, 1998.
· Katia Kilesopulu, art historian, catalogue of "Graphic artists from Northern Greece", 15 years after establishment of Association of Visual Artists in Northern Greece, IANOS publishing house, January 2000, Salonika.
· Jiyana Rewşen (Kurdish periodical), nr 38, February 2000, Istanbul, Turkey.
· The catalogue of the 1st Greek Graphic Art Trienniale, The Gallery of Pieridi, 2001, Athens.
· "TEHNI", the collection of the Macedonian Arts Society, the Gallery of Vafopulio, April 2001, Kilkis.