Extraordinary Conditions and Art

We are always faced with ups and downs in our lives, and there will always be. This extraordinary process that we are experiencing on a global scale these days is just one of them. Art in overcoming difficulties allows us to give a break, take a breathe, and take us away from these difficulties for a while and regenerate. But art has a much more important feature than that: It is also an important tool for understanding and interpret complex problems with its multidimensional and global structure...  Art can be much more motivating than statistics, graphs, and data to question the sustainability of our habitual lifestyles.

Throughout history, various cultures and artists have manifested these struggles with art when faced with many periodic problems such as wars, riots, disasters and epidemics. Art can go beyond data and clarify the blurred areas that are difficult to understand. It has the power to create a powerful dialog and inspire society to act by blending both rational and emotional expression. In addition, these days, we need this power maybe more than ever. We will get through these days somehow, and then what?

Sustainability and Role of Art

At a time when our agenda and priorities are changing rapidly, we may find it difficult to think about tomorrow and take action on the sustainability of the future. But we know that with 2020, we have entered the Action Decade to take action to solve our complex global problems gathered under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Maybe it is time for us to act with new kinds of actions. Beyond the data/statistics that we always encounter, art has the power to open people's hearts, minds and imaginations, as it makes the emotions, pain and contradictions that underlie SDG visible. Therefore, it has been and will continue to be one of the most important universal communication tools that can contribute to our action for a sustainable future. Cultura21 is one of the major art focuses working on this issue.  One of the leading figures of the formation, Dr. Sacha Kagan notes that to solve the problem of unsustainability, it is necessary to see the different dimensions of this problem and the brutal cycles in which we are trapped. In the forthcoming period, we will need these predictions and intuition more than we thought, as our existing forms of life, stereotyped cultural structures are destroyed, and a new sustainable socio-cultural atmosphere is formed.

ÖzÜ Uni-Art Collection

Given these circumstances, Özyeğin University Art Collection also has a special meaning, both on personal and corporate level. This collection of 152 works, which we often pass by without noticing, is an important place in terms of providing a discussion platform that will develop our sense and thinking structure. Based on the school collection and various works of art from the world, this is perhaps a very good opportunity for us to realize the renewing and developing power of art and to be backed by it during this period when we are in our homes…

As Ozu SP, we began our work to get to know and understand Özyeğin University Uni-Art collection more thoroughly in order to be backed by the renewing and critical power of art in our work for a sustainable future. We interpret the works in our Uni-Art collection and different examples from the world on our Instagram account @ozu_yaklas within the framework of Sustainable Development Goals, taking into account this global problem we are experiencing. We hope that this collective Art Movement, to be improved with our contributions, will create a new opportunity for dialog among us through art. 

'' Art has been created during pandemics throughout history - to entertain, relax and be a voice for those previously unheard. ''     -Heather O'Neill