Metal Trail

Ilker Yardimci always appears on Facebook with massive works of art and most of the images come from China. When we enquired, he asked about the dates and confirmed that he was free and that he usually travelled to China in July and August. He also explained that his free time is rather limited because he makes his everyday living teaching at the university in Istanbul. We were pleased when he accepted our invitation, but once again, we had to be patient due to the coronavirus .

He did not have any special requirements, only asked to have certain shapes cut with laser. He only requested slightly unusual fasteners – 300 screws with bolts. Artists usually arrive on Saturday to make time for a tour of the town of Mladá Boleslav on Sunday. Ilker Yardimci was excited, buying souvenirs in each museum we entered – at the castle, in the Temple Palace, in the Škoda Museum and in the Metoděj Vlach Aviation Museum.

On Monday, when everyone started working, Ilker Yardimci also commenced his work, letting everyone he spoke to install one or more of the screws mentioned previously, and the creation of the statue nearly became a community event. As he could see his work progressing faster than he had planned, he started helping others wherever he could.

His calm and friendly manner was received highly positively also by other participants. He joked to be the only environmentally friendly artist present, as he was the only one not using carbon. As he passed the Young Giraffe statue by Niklas Fännick from Sweden on his way from the hotel U Hradu to the premises of the Secondary Industrial School, he noticed that the giraffe had been zinc coated. He asked whether his artwork could be zinc coated too. We agreed, as long as this was technically feasible. However, we could only start with this after the end of the symposium. To avoid the possibility of his artwork being disassembled, he spent the last day welding the screws. His artwork is beautiful as it looks different from every new angle. The artwork was entitled Sun from the East.

It was a sad fact that we presented this artist unknowingly with a photo of an artwork he had created in Ukraine, and this has since been destroyed in the war.