sculptor Archives

Erdoğan’s through Turkish sculptor Aksoy 56 month in Jail. for Building statue symbolizing goodwill between Armenia & Turkey

June 22, 2015 By administrator

Mehmet Aksoy, the sculptor

Mehmet Aksoy, the sculptor who was awarded TRY 10,000 (USD 3,750) in damages by a court in March after President Erdoğan had his sculpture torn down, is now on trial for 4 years, 8 months in prison over insulting Erdoğan after having described the money he was paid as ‘dirty money.’

Asked on what he would be spending the TRY 10,000 (USD 3,750) in damages he was to be paid by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during an interview, sculptor Mehmet Aksoy responded: “I would never make a sculpture with dirty money.”

In retaliation to Aksoy’s comment, Erdoğan has filed a criminal complaint against the sculptor on the grounds that he insulted the president. The indictment prepared by the Press Crimes Bureau states that Aksoy implied that the president’s earnings were illegitimate and demands a prison sentence of up to 4 years, 8 months for the sculptor.

In his defense testimony, Aksoy claimed that the point of his statement had not been to insult the president, “Throughout my professional career I have sculpted nearly 10 tons of stone. What I do is very labor-intensive. My words were not meant to insult the president. I meant that this money just fell in my lap and was not money earned through any toil and sweat.”

In March a court had awarded Aksoy TRY 10,000 (USD 3,750) in damages for an insult case he had launched against President Erdoğan demanding TRY 100,000. The court had found Erdoğan guilty of insulting the sculptor Mehmet Aksoy over an incident in 2011 when the president called Aksoy’s statue symbolizing goodwill between Turkey and Armenia a “monstrosity.”

The comments by Erdoğan, then prime minister, came during a visit to the northeastern city of Kars. “They put a monstrosity there, next to the tomb of [scholar] Hasan Harakani,” Erdoğan had said during his January 2011 visit, “It is impossible to think that such a thing should exist next to a true work of art.”

Former Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay had defended Erdoğan at the time, saying that the prime minister had not used monstrosity in reference to the statue, which Erdoğan denied, “No, I meant it in reference to the statue.”

Erdoğan went on to express his hope that the mayor of Kars, also hailing from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), would “do what is necessary” before the prime minister’s next visit. The statue was taken down on June 14, 2011 by the Kars Municipality.

Sculptor Aksoy strongly criticized Erdoğan’s comments, saying his work carried a message of peace and friendship, and filed a lawsuit against Erdoğan for his insult to the statue.

In an unorthodox move last year, the Turkish Language Association (TDK), the official governing body of the Turkish language, declared that the word “monstrosity” (ucube) was not an insult and did not have negative connotations.

Report BGNNews.com | Istanbul

Erdoğan to pay sculptor compensation over ‘monstrosity’ comment “symbolize Turkish-Armenian friendship”

March 3, 2015 By administrator

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

symbolize Turkish-Armenian friendship

A court has ordered President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to pay 10,000 Turkish Liras to the artist responsible for a sculpture in the northeastern province of Kars, which he had demanded the removal of and described as a “monstrosity.”

During a Jan. 8, 2011 visit to Kars, then Prime Minister Erdoğan slammed the city’s new 35-meter-tall “Monument to Humanity,” created by sculptor Mehmet Aksoy.

An Istanbul court ruled on March 3 for Erdoğan to pay 10,000 liras in moral indemnities to Aksoy, partially accepting the 100,000 liras case Aksoy had filed against Erdoğan.

While Aksoy’s attorney defended their 100,000 liras case by saying that labeling the sculpture a “monstrosity” was an insult to Aksoy, Erdoğan’s attorney claimed that it was not as an insult, but rather a critique.

The sculpture debate entered Kars’ agenda in 2005 when then Mayor Naif Alibeyoğlu, of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), tasked Aksoy with building a monument that would symbolize Turkish-Armenian friendship. The project included two figures facing each other, with an open hand facing them.

Alibeyoğlu, however, decided in 2008 to switch ranks and join the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). While the monument was still under construction that year, the Council of Monuments decided to stop its installation, arguing that the monument’s ground was actually a historical site. The monument was dismantled in the subsequent years, as its site was declared a protected area.

Art can be political’ – sculptor of Snowden-Assange-Manning monument

November 8, 2014 By administrator

Art is important when it gives the possibility for people to grow up, Italian sculptor Davide Dormino told RT. He has launched a campaign to raise money to erect a “monument to courage” – a statue of three whistleblowers, Assange, Manning, and Snowden.

The founder of the Frontline Club, Vaughan Smith, and his team were inspired to create the monument after Smith got to know Julian Assange, and “got to see some of the documents that he was releasing from Bradley Manning.”

“I felt that is very important that the public do something to support. The reality is that these whistleblowers are our friends… whistleblowers are sustaining democracies by providing us with accurate information that we are not getting from our rulers,” Smith told RT.

The sculptor, Dormino said that it is going to be a public art project, and in his view art can be political.

“I think it is very important for people to learn from art. Art is important when it gives the possibility to people to grow up,” he said.

The idea of the project – which was developed by Dormino together with American journalist Charles Glass first popped up about a year ago, he said.

The life-size bronze statues of Assange, Snowden, and Manning standing on chairs almost as if they were speaking out will also have an empty fourth chair.

“That is empty for reason,” said Smith. “We are hoping that a member of the public can stand on that … it is a manner in which we can participate in it,” he added. The monument is Dormino’s vision and it is really “a way for public involvement.”

Smith believes that we are living in the “PR century” that is why “we have so much reliance on these whistleblowers.”

“These whistleblowers have ruined their lives for us and I think it is time for us to respond and the world is full of people who wish to respond and to support them,” said the journalist.

He argues that the project will be welcomed by people who support whistleblowers and appreciate what they have done for them.

Dormino said that anyone happy to share the idea should give money. “We also are using crowd funding and people give money for this. I think that they will be happy because everyone of us wants to be courageous and courage is contagious. People need to do something different if we want to have something different,” he told RT.

Smith claims that the project is going well. He said that if they continue to get support they will confidently reach the £100,000 they need. “We have had a good start but there is more to do. We need people to continue supporting it,” he told RT.

“I think people are a little bit angry. People see that we are getting such poor information from our ruling classes. There are a lot of people out there who want to support, who want to stand on the chair and be counted,” he added.

He believes that it is a way we can communicate with whistleblowers and they are not going to be forgotten.

“We have about £7000 at the moment. We need £100,000,” said Dormino. He also claims that nobody in the team will be paid for their work. “We do this because we believe in an idea,” he added.