I didn't have the heart to go back
to the old club, theatre of so many dashed hopes. I didn't
even try to contact L. or any of the rest of the old crowd
that frequented the club. It was time to forget all that
and get started on a new life. I decided to contact a professor
in a fine arts academy in Venice who spoke to me of a possible
transfer to his school if I was enrolled in an academy with
equivalent standards. It so happens that I had done just
that in previous days after having spoken to
Professor Wolfgang Hutter,
head of the department of painting at the "Hocheschule
fur Angewandte Kunst" in Vienna. After that I planned
to go to Italy and request the transfer.I left my two pictures
(Nu-11) and (N-12) in Prof. W. Hutter's workshop.
During my registration at the
Viennese academy, I was required to deposit a small sum for
materials used in the studios. For that, I had to go to the
academy's treasurer's office and stand in line with dozens
of other new students. At the window, I presented my new student
card and, at the request of the cashier, my shiny new Turkish
passport. She
says me to await a little. I sat on a bench.
A few moments later, she returned, but not alone. Behind
me, "Police" was shouted in
my ear and as the frigid handcuffs were pinched my wrists
I was told that I was under arrest. Nothing would ever
surprise me again in Vienna! I was dragged down the hallowed
halls of this institute of high culture of like a dog in chains. 1982
will remain the cursed year in my memory. I returned in the
same year for the third time in prison.
I
decided that jail would be different this time. I
was lucky to have a 500-page notebook on me, pencils,
pens and money. Instead of counting the days, I
went to work. Not since my days as a youngster in Tatvan
had I worked with such efficiency and diligence. The more
prison life became insufferable, the more I worked as
drawing and writing became my sole reason for being, my
only salvation from the cold embrace of those stone walls
the
drawings that you see in "GALERY
III" and many more belong to this period. |
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