“The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself,” said John Wesley Powell, an American soldier, geologist, explorer and professor. Still, artists throughout history have continually sought to capture nature’s astounding beauty, perhaps paying tribute to the stunning gift it has provided us without expecting reciprocity. The Grand Canyon and the stunning landscape of Turkey’s Cappadocia look like they may have been cousins in a past life. Both dazzle with panoramic views punctuated by alternating valleys and peaks, quilts of geological wonder. Serbian artist Artez painted his latest mural, titled “Let It Fly”, in Izmir, Turkey to pay homage to the country’s region of renowned natural features.
Turkey’s Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia are included in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites. The website explains, “in a spectacular landscape, entirely sculpted by erosion, the Göreme valley and its surroundings contain rock-hewn sanctuaries that provide unique evidence of Byzantine art in the post-Iconoclastic period. Dwellings, troglodyte villages and underground towns – the remains of a traditional human habitat dating back to the 4th century – can also be seen there.” Features like Fairy Chimneys epitomize the scene’s magic with their entanglement of human and natural construction. Smithsonian Magazine summarizes their story by stating, “nature built them, but humans made them their own.”
“Let It Fly” acknowledges another manner in which humans continue to make the space their own. The artist’s statement for the mural says the scene it depicts “is inspired by beautiful [the] landscape of Cappadocia and [the] balloons that became trademark of its panorama!” Hot air ballon tours are an essential part of touring the site, offering bird’s eye views of its glory.
Here, familiar symbols native to work by Artez serve as the vehicle for a stunning mural unique to Turkey’s history. A girl rolls her bike along, while dreamy hillside landscapes and mountains set the backdrop. There is an innocence to the young girl, whose bike still uses training wheels. Hot air balloons float on dreamily above the horizon line, and one has attached itself to her back wheel, helping her along in her journey. The mural seems to emphasize an atmosphere of kinship, as the fixes her gaze towards the balloon in a coy thankfulness. We are all in this together, humans and nature, balloons and children, trying to make the most of this mysterious life.
Artez completed “Let It Fly” as part of “International Izmir Mural Art Workshop” festival. His “sketch for this wall was chosen trough a competition, [and] was selected as one of 8 winning solutions among more than 90 other proposals. In creating “Let it Fly”, the statement says, “it took 7 days to paint this mural with a total surface of more than 300 square meters. Main challenges were the weather (cold and raining) and small problems with the machine on the first day.” The themes of connection and camaraderie present in the artist’s most recent work also touched his experience painting it, as he concludes, “fortunately, amazing Turkish food and hospitality made these problems insignificant.”
