Traditional Turkish handcraft workshops to begin in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG

The Yunus Emre Institute in South Africa said it will bring the Turkish art experience closer to the continent next week when it starts workshops to teach those interested in producing traditional Turkish handcrafts.

“Students have shown great interest and started registration on June 1 for our first workshop commencing next week,” coordinator Gokhan Kahraman in Johannesburg told Anadolu Agency.

Kahraman said for the first time the institute will conduct workshops to teach Turkish tile and ceramic art, mosaic art, woodcarving and ebru marbling.

The institute, which also teaches the Turkish language and promotes cultural relations, previously taught only Ottoman Turkish calligraphy as an art form but it has expanded with five new art courses.

“Calligraphy is the foundation for most of our art courses because after learning it you can do all forms of art much easier,” institute art teacher Refik Carikci told Anadolu Agency.

The engineer by profession who moved to South Africa more than 10 years ago, has practiced calligraphy for 37 years and teaches at the cultural center.

The passionate artist said when one learns calligraphy, it teaches patience while doing other forms of art such as woodcarving.

He said calligraphy gives an artist a flexible hand.

It is the artistic practice of handwriting using alphabets of Islamic heritage countries, including Arabic, Ottoman and Persian calligraphy.

The development of Islamic calligraphy is strongly tied to chapters in the Quran and excerpts from the Muslim holy book.

As a practitioner and teacher, Carıkcı stressed the inexplicable connection between the revealed word in the Quran and its written form.

He said learning the courses can open opportunities for a student to earn an income as an artist or designer but some take the courses as a form of relaxation.

“You know art is like therapy and one can find themselves or their purpose and direction through art,” he said.