Beautiful Fair Town: Demet Durdu, ceramist & glass artist

In October 2021, we organized the second edition of the art exhibition: Beautiful Fair Town - Orașul Târgu Frumos. The event reunited 5 artists from Basque Country, Ireland, Latvia and Turkey, under Arts Lab 3.0, a project funded by European Solidarity Corps of European Union. The art works represent the beauty of Târgu Frumos, in the eyes of the 5 artists involved in a local 8-month volunteering program.

How does an international group of artists perceive Târgu Frumos? What and where is the beauty of this small town? Here is the artwork of Demet Durdu, from Antalya, Turkey. 

I am a ceramic and glass artist. Dealing with mud and glass allows me to embark on my inner journey. I am completely alone with myself and I use two wonderful materials, glass, and ceramics, to express my interior world. For Beautiful Fair Town exhibition, I got inspired by the Cucuteni patterns. You can see my minimal form works that I made with the sgrafitto technique. But besides the art works, Târgu Frumos inspired me; I promote collaborative work that is worth your hand. Ceramic is a part of Târgu Frumos cultural heritage.

Demet art works are named Silence.  

I woke up in a cold, sunny autumn morning in Târgu Frumos. I felt silence inside me, I could listen the peace. Here I am in a context where I can explore a purely inner journey. In this silence, I can hear the birds better. I can watch the perfection of the leaves in their natural cycle in autumn. I started to feel everything more deeply. Sometimes I get lost in my thoughts, sometimes I can say, yes, I am right here. I feel the beauty of this town, I watch, I listen. Sometimes I watch people pass in horse-drawn carriages. I see their smiles, their faces. I witness how peaceful they seem in the difficult life they are struggling with. Sometimes I sit on a bench in the street and listen to the town ambiance. I do this from time to time because, with the intensity of life, there are things that we overlook and don't realize. Watching the environment with an outside eye makes me feel alive.