AMED – Stating that the war has also negatively affected art, “We artists have a responsibility in socialising the process,” said Lisa Calan, one of the founders of the Art for Freedom Initiative. 

 

With the “Call for Peace and Democratic Society” announced by Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan on 27 February, a new process of the resolution of the Kurdish issue has begun. The call, which was embraced by all segments of society, also received support from many countries around the world. 

 

Many groups supported call of Abdullah Öcalan with their statements and demanded the government to take steps. One of these groups was the Art for Freedom Inıtiative. The initiative states that the field of art has a great role to play in socialising the process and ensuring lasting peace.

 

We talked to Lisa Çalan, one of the founders of the Art for Freedom Initiative, about the responsibility of artists in the context of the "Call for Peace and Democratic Society".

 

Stating that this process provides an opportunity to rebuild a democratic society and that art and artists should lead this contruction she noted that art is a field that is socially relevant. "We artists and the initiative have a great role and responsibility in the socialisation of the process. We have seen in our discussions that many segments are not ready for peace. However, artists should be the first to realise such processes so that they can explain them to the society," Lisa Calan said. 

 

ART IN THE SHADOW OF WAR

 

Expressing that they have never experienced peace as a society, Lisa Calan said: “It is very difficult to describe something we have never experienced. In a meeting we held, we said that we have no films about peace and we do not even have a subject. In Kurdistan, you cannot find a motif for peace. They are all orientated towards war. Because there is a heavy war waged for the last 50 years. Our whole understanding of art was based on expressing this war and the pain caused by this war. Today we realise that we have never been able to talk about peace and we have not been able to work on it in art. This already shows the damage caused by the war."

 

KURDISH CINEMA RESISTED

 

Lisa Calan underlined that war, borders, language, women, children, poverty and assimilation policies are the main issues Kurdish artists deal with in their works: "Our memory is built only by war and struggle. This is why we call Kurdish cinema 'Resist cinema'. It is resisting, trying to exist itself. This was also the case on the Turkish front. This has never changed. Because war does not only affect one section of society, it spreads to the whole society and affects all societies. In other words, whether you like it or not, your art is shaped under that influence.”

 

EXPRESSING PEACE THROUGH ART...

 

Stating that there is a way to overcome all these events and that they will express peace through art, Lisa Calan said that this is to organise. Noting that it is necessary to create a new self around the discourse of peace, she added: "In the last 10 years, even the discourse of peace has been criminalised so much that people have become unable to even use the word peace. This is reflected in the field of art. There is only one way out of here and that is to face it. Especially on the Turkish front, it is necessary to face this. After you confront it, you can come together again and re-establish a promise.”

 

MA / Heval Onkol