{"id":106428,"date":"2011-06-16T18:14:39","date_gmt":"2011-06-16T13:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=106428"},"modified":"2011-06-16T18:14:39","modified_gmt":"2011-06-16T13:14:39","slug":"cheese-and-fruit-instead-of-armenia-turkey-friendship-monument-kinky-statues-around-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2011\/06\/16\/cheese-and-fruit-instead-of-armenia-turkey-friendship-monument-kinky-statues-around-turkey.html","title":{"rendered":"Cheese and Fruit Instead of Armenia-Turkey Friendship Monument. Kinky Statues Around Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

A giant brain pouring water on all sides, a large cat wearing a Turkish traditional costume, giant fruits like watermelon, pomegranate, strawberries, tomatoes, a giant bunch of grapes; animals such as a giant red elephant, storks, hens and roosters, shy flamingos that have fallen in love; Turkey\u2019s Van Lake\u2019s Beast, airplanes, a NASA astronaut standing by the seaside, Nasreddin Hodja \u2014 the Anatolian humorist who lived in the 13th century in Konya \u2014 riding his donkey backwards, whirling dervishes \u2026 There is little but one thing that can bring all these things together in Turkey: Being the subjects of a sculpture, reports the H\u00fcrriyet Daily News & Economic Review<\/span><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Sculptures say the first words about a city to unknown visitors, according to city planner Meltem Parlak, who founded the blog \u201cSpektak\u00fcler \u015eehir Heykelleri<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u201d (Spectacular City Sculpture), where images of city sculptures or monuments from all over Turkey are displayed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSculptures are good indicators about the city they inhabit. Large sculptures built carelessly are usually located in cities where the education, healthcare, real estate and infrastructure systems are also carelessly built,\u201d Parlak told the H\u00fcrriyet Daily News in an email interview. Pavements where disabled people would be unable to pass, streets that end suddenly, those designed without thinking of the pedestrians and in-mesh houses lacking a certain shape, are also the product of the same approach, she added.<\/p>\n

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Sculptures can explain much about the city in which they are located only if they are made properly, however, the sculptures in Turkish city\u2019s were strongly related to Kemalism and works portraying the founder of Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk, rather than being related to the cities they pertained to according to Ferit \u00d6z\u015fen, a renowned Turkish sculptor and professor at Istanbul\u2019s Mimar Sinan University.<\/p>\n

There are \u201cunfortunately\u201d no policies regarding urban artwork for cities in Turkey, according to \u00d6z\u015fen. \u201cThere are very few such works that have been implemented in the framework of a project, such as the Atat\u00fcrk monument in [Istanbul\u2019s] Taksim Square or Ankara\u2019s An\u0131tka Bir Monument.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tuesday marked the day when the demolishment of the \u201cMonument for Humanity,\u201d in the eastern border province of Kars, was finalized. The demolition started on April 26, following the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan\u2019s remarks that the monument was \u201cfreakish,\u201d during his visit to Kars in January this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings should not have reached this point. The artist had done a serious piece and had almost finished it. [The demolishment] is shameful. Now they will do a \u2018honey and stager [cheese]\u2019 sculpture, I heard. It is so saddening; I cannot find words to describe my sorrow,\u201d \u00d6z\u015fen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemolishing the Monument to Humanity indicates we live in a country where things we do not like can be destroyed, one that has serious problems with the freedom of expression,\u201d Parlak said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSculptures are good indicators about the city they inhabit. Large sculptures built carelessly are usually located in..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[16375,21117,28372,10222],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}