Landscape, 2015, charcoal and soft pastel, 70x100 cm

In Vafopouleio in Thessaloniki the 8th individual exhibition by Serhad Bapir (TV100-27 / 03/19)

His eighth individual exhibition presents, in the Vapofoulio Cultural Center of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, the art artist, Serhad Bapir. The painter came to Greece from Kurdistan in 1984 as a political refugee and immediately began his studies at the School of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University, where he graduated with excellent degree. In his new collection, the works focus on the concepts of freedom and democracy.

Reportage: Diogenis Mariolas

Camera: Sakis Sonis

They speak: Serhad Bapir (Visual),

Thalia Stefanidou (Art Historian),

Petros Dimitrakopoulos (Chairman of the Vapofouliou Election Commission)

Conversation of the artist Serhad Bapir with the art historian Thalia Stefanidou at the Vaophoopoulos Cultural Center.

On March 20, 2019, the Historical Art Speech was held at the Vafopouleio Cultural Center. Thalia Stefanidou for the work and exhibition of Serhad Bapir. A fruitful dialogue has developed between Ms. Thalia Stefanidou and the artist in front of the audience.

Snapshots from the conversation of Serhad Bapir with the art historian Thalia Stephanidou at the Vaophoopoulos Cultural Center. The artist in two large halls of Vapofoulio presents 172 paintings and one installation.

Serhad Bapir and Art Historian Ms. Thalea Stefanidou

March 6, 2019, from the inauguration of the painting exhibition by Serhad Bapir at the Vafopouloi Cultural Center in Thessaloniki.

I thank my friends, all my fellow artists and the art lovers who honored me with their presence. Be well.

Photos: Nikos Bendilas

Serhad Bapir painting exhibition at Vafopouleio Cultural Center of the Municipality of Thessaloniki

  The following text and the biography of Serhad Bapir are included in the two-fold handout which was printed and distributed during his exhibition (March 6-29, 2019) at the Vafopoulio Intellectual Centre, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Our real homeland is said to be our childhood. By childhood we mean the life we have experienced in a place, where our parents’ home, our hometown, the place where we were born and raised, plays the main role.

In the early 19^th century the big, powerful countries divided and shared the world to their own benefit, without considering the people’s needs, their national and religious distinctiveness. People of many nations were initially partitioned and found themselves in the various colonies of the big and powerful countries only to consist, later on, the independent countries. Unfortunately, the Kurds were deprived of their indisputable right in self-determination, in a free and independent Kurdistan.

Some people are born in a free nation/country; some others are born as children of a subjected nation, of a religious or a national minority. No one can either select his parents or decide whether to be born in an independent, democratic, flourishing country or a country separated in 4 pieces and divided with barbed wire and mine fields, occupied by four countries, where the teaching of their mother tongue is forbidden, as in the case of the Kurds and Kurdistan. No one can choose where to be born, however he can fight for all the above. This is what the Kurds do, just like so many people in other countries.

In this fight for dignity and the indisputable right of self-determination, dozens of Kurdish towns, like Kobani, Şıngal, Sûr, Cızir, Xurmatû, Εfrin and thousands of villages have been torn down by ISIS and the Turkish and Iranian countries within the last four years. Millions of people have been uprooted from their ancestral hearth.

It is said that borders divide people, and that sounds good. Those who think of it bear in mind the boundaries of independent nations-countries and seem to disregard the case of people who have not accomplished to create their own country yet. In this case, the lack of national boundaries makes things tragic.

  

I’m talking about the case of the Kurds and Kurdistan. Though there are historical, demographic and natural boundaries, Kurdistan is occupied and divided in four parts, among four dictatorships (Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria). That’s the reason why there are no official boundaries between Kurdistan and other neighbouring countries. On the contrary, the boundaries of those neighbours have been placed upon the body of Kurdistan and have split the Kurds themselves.

The Kurds, who fight for their freedom, are often chased; even chemical weapons are used against them, they often trespass these unfair boundaries, which divide their country, and are forced to become refugees in their own fatherland.

This section of my work is focused on this issue: to depict the Kurds who fight. Moreover to depict borders preventing Kurds from acquiring their national unity; inhabited areas which are being destroyed, military outposts on borders watching this outrage, whereas far away, across the skyline the sea, and old ships are waiting to lead some people down to their “wet grave” or an unknown future as refugees 6/3/2019

Serhad Bapir

Serhad Bapir was born in 1964 in Tetwan, Kurdistan. In 1984 he escaped to Greece, where he stayed as a political refugee. He received a scholarship from  Institute Kurde De Paris for his studies from 1985 to 1992. From 1987 to 1992 he studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and attended the workshops of professors D. Kontos and V. Demetrea. From 2001 to 2007 he also studied evgraving (second degree) at the same Faculty with professor X. Sahinis.

He has been working in the Secondary Education since 1997. He has been a member of the Greek Chamber of Arts as well as the Fine Arts artists Association of Northern Greece and the Association of Greek engravers. He has carried out 8 individual exhibitions in Greece and Sweden and has also participated in more than 100 team exhibitions in Greece and abroad. His artworks are in public and private collections in Greece and abroad.
The exhibition will run until March 29, 2019.

Days - Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 17.00 - 21.00
                                                                    Saturday: 9.00 - 14.00

Vafopouleio Cultural Center: 3, G. Vapopoulou street, 546 46 Thessaloniki, tel .: 2310 424 132-3