“So we, artists, decided to bring some art to the place,” he explains in an interview with Today's Zaman, adding that the first experience of this kind was initiated by artist Mustafa Horasan last year with the placing of paintings on the jetty on the port side of the village, which inspired the idea of organizing a symposium on visual arts.Karaburun has a very rich mythological and historical past. According to Greek mythology, Mimas, one of the giant sons of Gaia, lived and died in the region. In the Ottoman period, the village was evacuated after all of the supporters of the rebellious Sheikh Bedrettin were executed. And, during the republican era, the village's Greek inhabitants, who made up a majority of the residents there, were forced to emigrate as part of the population exchange between Turkey and Greece.
Today, due to Turkey's economic dynamics, the young population of the village is living in urban areas and mostly only elderly residents reside there now. Thus, the theme of the symposium was chosen to be “Lonely Giants,” aiming to discuss the problems of loneliness through art.
The event, organized by the İzmir Development Agency, will bring together artists such as Reyhan Abacıoğlu, Seyhan Boztepe, Antonio Cosentino, Tülay Çelikel, Demir, Horasan, Selahattin Kara, Burcu Pelvanoğlu, Selahattin Yıldırım and Erdoğan Zümrütoğlu. Throughout the 21-day event, these artists will produce artwork, lead workshops and discuss the symposium's theme in various panels. The artwork produced during the event will subsequently be showcased as an open-air exhibition. There will also be festivals and field trips as part of the symposium.
Demir explains that Bozköy is a lonely village because the elderly population cannot make its voice heard. “Even though it is only one-and-a-half hours away from İzmir, the village is moving backward both socially and economically. Due to the lack of agricultural land and job opportunities, the young population is migrating to the cities. The only way for the residents to support themselves is to grow daffodils and hyacinths, which only bring in revenue for two months each year,” he says, adding that more and more elderly residents are dying every year because they have to work on wet fields during the winter.
Still, it is possible to revive this village through a public institution that initiates cultural and artistic events, Demir emphasizes. The Bozköy Cultural and Social Development Foundation was founded to conduct the Bozköy Art Project, and it is hoped that it will contribute to the lives of the residents of this village through art.
