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“His dream was to bring his ship to the Mediterranean…But he thought that it would be difficult to find eight people for the journey that would take a whole year,” said Turkish artist Behcet Sefa in an interview talking about the wish of the world famous Turkish sculptor Ilhan Koman to set “M/S Hulda” on sail. It was the vessel that Koman made his home and workshop for years in Stockholm.
Now that dream has become true. “M/S Hulda” is en route to the Mediterranean visiting European ports as a sailing exhibition and her journey will end up in Istanbul in September of 2010, the year when the city will be the Cultural Capital of Europe.
Those who have visited Istanbul Bilgi University’s Santralistanbul campus could not have missed the works of Ilhan Koman that have been exhibited at the museum. Actually there is a replica of his famous work ‘To Infinity’ between the museum and the parking lot. His other famous sculpture called “Mediterranean” that depicts a woman consisting of 112 metal strips probably expressing the waves and breezes of that sea which has been the cradle of civilizations. Despite its 4 tons, the sculpture gives a very light impression to the beholding eye.
Who is Ilhan Koman
orn in 1921 in Edirne-Turkey, Ilhan Koman studied at the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts. After his graduation in 1946 he went to Paris where he worked in l’Académie Julian and l’Ecole du Louvre (1947-1950) and opened his first solo exhibition. He produced his first iron works in Istanbul between 1951 and 1958 at the Academy’s sculpture department and workshop of which he was the co-founding professor. In 1958 he was invited to the Brussels World Fair to represent Turkey. In 1959 he moved to Stockholm where he took a professorship at the Swedish School of Arts Crafts and Design, Konstfackskolan, and lived here until his death in 1986.
Ilhan Koman’s work is influenced not only by artists such as Rodin, Giacometti, Brancusi but also by the principles of scientific disciplines as he has written to art critic Kristian Romare: “The content I expect to see in a work of art must be part of a chain, the last link of which is always open to welcome the newcomer. Just like concepts of science. All in all, I would like to be able to make an art of ‘the enabling link’.”
His work that spans a great variety of innovative materials and methodologies are presently found in the collections of Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Museo J. Battle, Montevideo; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; National Museum for Painting and Sculpture, Istanbul; Palais International des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle; santralistanbul, Istanbul. Most of his later works are designed as projects to be actualized in monumental scale.
“M/S Hulda”
After Koman moved to Stockholm in 1959 he rented a house and as a person habitually inclined to improve things, he slowly improved his living quarters. The landlady seeing the improvement, asked for an increase in the rent. This made Koman buy a 1905-built, 2-mast schooner moored in Stockholm and turn it into his home and workshop where he and his family lived and worked for 20 years.
Hulda Festival
Koman’s family and sponsors decided this year to make his dream come true and renovated the Hulda for the trip.
Ilhan Koman’s creativity has combined arts with sciences, making him a representative of a universal approach that descends from Leonardo da Vinci. For the Hulda Festival, Koman’s artworks embark aboard the Hulda, visitors are welcome to play with the artists’ most interesting pieces to better apprehend their scientific properties and artistic qualities.
The vessel sailed out of Stockholm in April and already visited Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium and now she is on her way to Bordeaux, France. After Bordeaux her itinerary will take her to Lisbon, Barcelona, Naples, Valetta and Salonica. In September 2010 she will dock in the port of Istanbul.
Activities
Workshops on board are held for young people at the ports of call. At these workshops artistic and scientific disciplines are brought together for a better understanding of Koman’s work. Topics include,
“Sculpture & Aerodynamics”, “Creating the Nautical Charts of the Middle-Ages”, “Art and Alternative Energies” etc.
In Istanbul, there will be additional activities like a free concert on the Bosporus; an exhibition displaying photos and movies about the adventurous journey of Hulda along the coasts of Europe; a conference bringing all the organizers of the Hulda Festival together with the Turkish public, journalists, professionals of the artistic and scientific worlds, to debate on the highlights of the Hulda Festival.
After 2010, Hulda will remain open to new projects as a sailing cultural centre operating from Turkey.
