Ozen, Tajddin

Turkey, 1955

Sculptures

During his childhood, Tajddin Özen grew up in the Kurdish mountains of Turkey, where he was one with the harmony of nature, so to speak. His backgrounds and memories are expressed through humans and animals in bronze and stone. Also, they are related to mythological stories. From whatever perspective you look at the sculptures, they always tell a different aspect of a story. A life story chronicled in its further development: power, oppression, solidarity, liberation and also a connection between past and present. It is as if humans and animals in his images bear witness to this.

Özen’s sculptures symbolize the spiritual and also physical portrayal of body and mind. Therefore, in his sculptures there are always open and closed parts. In each sculpture the spiritual side is present with the symbol of openness, closed parts symbolize the body. It is simultaneously masculine and feminine. The power of the images is, that they express universal human themes. This universal is also expressed in images of humans and animals that often find a combination in the imagery. The theme of “open and closed” expressed in the images invites the viewer to reflect on them and gives room for their own interpretations.

Özen’s works are composed of bronze and stone, with the stone pedestal adding an extra dimension to the sculpture through its design. The bronze sculptures rest on the pedestal with a connection of substance, as it were. Thus the bronze and stone each add their own accent to each other, while the unity is expressed in both materials. By connecting apparent opposites, something of his own universal nature can be recognized in the theme of his sculptures.