The exhibition “The Hero’s Endless Exile” met with art lovers at the Cemil Pasha Mansion in the Sur district of Amed. Signed by specialist psychologist and artist Gülsüme Oğuz, the exhibition draws attention by conveying, through the language of art, the memories, resistance, and inner journeys of women who were affected by war and displaced from their homes.
Speaking to ANF about her exhibition, Gülsüme Oğuz said: “The name of my exhibition is ‘The Hero’s Endless Exile.’ My main purpose in opening this exhibition was to express what women experience in wars and conflicts. Between 2014 and 2016, I worked voluntarily with Yazidi and Rojava women in refugee camps and provided them with psychological support services. In fact, even before that, I had been providing therapy for many years to individuals who had been subjected to torture.
What especially caught my attention while working with women who managed to survive by fleeing the war is that wars began with the history of masculinity, and historians usually narrate masculinity. But we do not have historical data that tells the story of women. There is no data on how women are affected by war. In every war, women lose their lives.
Another major threat is violence against women’s bodies and sexuality. The latest example is the attacks by ISIS on Yazidi women, during which many women were taken captive, tortured, and raped. Along with this, an ethnic genocide was attempted.”
‘I wanted to make women’s pain visible’
Stating that she wanted to make women’s suffering visible through her work, Gülsüme Oğuz said, “I wanted to give women the courage to express what they have gone through. I think I succeeded in this. These works boosted women’s morale and made them happy. By looking at the artwork, it became much easier even to talk about what women have experienced, the difficulties of daily life, the obstacles, and harassment.
Thanks to exhibitions like this, women can express themselves more freely. In general, I wanted to reveal how terrible war is and the pain it causes women. I created my works so that this suffering might come to an end.”
‘Women served life, not war’
Speaking about the main idea behind the exhibition, Gülsüme Oğuz said: “Because of wars, people are displaced. While it is men who cause women to be displaced, it is women who rebuild life. Throughout history, women have been exiled. Men decided on war, and women were forcibly displaced.
I found it appropriate to call women ‘heroes,’ because they make it possible to build a civilization of peace. That is how the exhibition came about. We women served life, not war.”