ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Imprisoned during a crackdown following the failed 2016 military coup, Kurdish artist and journalist Zehra Dogan has travelled the world displaying the art that landed her in jail.
Dogan, 30, was arrested on July 12, 2016 for a painting depicting devastation in the predominantly Kurdish town of Nusaybin, southeastern Turkey, following clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish insurgents.
The drawing shows Turkish tanks deployed to a neighborhood in Nusaybin. She had published the painting on social media along with a news story quoting a 10-year-old's diary of the bombings in the city.
Accused of spreading "terrorist propaganda", Dogan then spent 600 days in prisons in Diyarbakir and Tarsus.
"I faced many real challenges in prison. I eventually accepted the fate that was quite unbearable to me," in the first place, Dogan told Rudaw on Monday.
"I learnt many lessons in prison. Had I not spent sometime in prison, I might not have learned or made my artwork."
She attributes her ending up in Turkish prison to her artwork, not "taking part in demonstrations or having a political stance or affiliation."
"But I did not give up and wanted to send out the message that despite the pressures I was facing, I managed to paint in all circumstances," she added.
Since she left prison, Dogan has held 20 different exhibitions in the UK and Europe.
In March 2019, she launched an exhibition at London's Tate Modern. Another exhibition by Dogan will be held at the same museum from January 23.
Her latest exhibition in Santa Giulia Beach museum in Brescia, Italy, has been extended by two months.
"At Santa Guilia Beach, which is one of the most important museums of Italy, I have displayed 70 paintings, attracting the attention of visitors and art lovers of Italy," Doga said.
Italian Sakura House Publishing has decided to cover the cost of printing the catalog of the exhibition.
Dogan added that she has been pleasantly surprised by the warm reception of both her work and Kurdish culture as a whole.
"I never imagined that my paintings would receive such a warm welcome," she said. "Artists, politicians, academics and ministers pay a lot of attention to the exhibition. I realized how much Italians are interested in Kurdish culture."
"The majority of the paintings that are on display were drawn in prison," Dogan said. "Some of the paintings tell the story of those women whom I knew at Nusaybin prison. Others depict my experiences."
Though deprived of her art materials "multiple times", she continued to draw in secret and smuggle them out of the jail.
Her paintings were sketched on t-shirts and towels and painted on pillow cases using brushes made from the hair of her fellow inmates. Paints were made from parsley, potato peel, turmeric, tomato paste and tea.
"I would obtain materials in two ways with some of them ending up confiscated by them [prison guards]. I would secretly draw my paintings during nighttime, and sometimes I would turn to some materials that were far from drawing standards."
With her work popular among Italians, state outlet Rai2TV held a 20 minute-long interview with Dogan on her story and the history of the Kurds.
"Before the interview was held, the TV presented a report on the history of Kurds and the four parts of Kurdistan telling of the sufferings of Kurds," she added.
Now in Europe, Dogan is afraid to return to Turkey.
She says she has not forgotten the Kurdistan Region and has plans to open an exhibition in March this year.
Translation by Zhelwan Z. Wali
