My Easter Art Installation and Lecture at ISPESCONGRESS 2019 at #PrivateBeachLife! Thanks Turkey!

The Art Installation and The Academic Lecture:

Over Easter 2019, I was invited to Lecture at the ISPESCONGRESS 2019 hosted by Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University. It was a wonderful experience as the conference was an intimidate gathering of about 40 academics and professors with interests and specialization in Global Sustainability as it applies to Sports, Entertainments, Performing Arts and Culture. There were international speakers as well as national speakers. It was hosted at the Asia Beach Resort and Spa. It was fantastic Intellectual Value!

Thank you to all the Professors, Directors and Lecturers that made this Easter Conference in a seaside resort in Turkey informative, laid back and authentic; connecting good hearts and sharp minds. Thank you for inviting me as a Keynote speaker to the Sustainability Culture Salon and Panel.

For info about ISPES Congress see http://www.ispescongress.com/en/

This is a summary of what my lecture was about:

2019 we will explore the implementation of Global Sustainability in the Context of Silk Roads 3 showing :

• That beyond the concepts by UNFCC, ICH was instrumental in the Trade routes and Cultural Renaissance in human history, before any western academics defined it on a United Nations level.
• Artists & Athletes are the Creators of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and historically they co-created the ideals of Silk Road 2. ICH transcends concepts of Nation State.
• How the role of sports and arts can bring a universality that is a cure to the rise of Far Right Neo Nazism that HINDERS the growth of Silk Road 3 Trade Routes.

Art (c) Kel1st.com & CeciliaYu.com , Photo (c) CeciliaYu.com 2019

The talk is part of an Arts Salon featuring a Light & Art Installation titled: “Kel1st & Yu : Preliminary Sketches for Silk Road 3 ”. The evolution of ICH in our East-West art experiment heralds the challenges of Silk Road 3. Kel1st & Yu is in its 6^th years of development where the 6000 years old Chinese Calligraphic Art is “challenged” to consider New World Graffiti Art which is only 50 yrs old. ICH and Silk Road 3 can be explored as a microcosm via the Artistic; co-creating a Visionary Global history Beyond Borders as ONE Human Race via Culture, Science and Trade.

The Location in Alanya, Turkey: I feel humbled to see the relics of past empires from Cleopatra’s (the real one) summer holiday spot to Caesar’s Roman Temple, Ottoman Empire Battle Forts to Ataturk’s legacy…the place itself is an educational venue full of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Empires rise and fall, human cultural connections are eternal. Alanya and Antalya is a place of great beauty and have so much Intangible Cultural Heritage that it was very hard to see everything in only a few days. I was honored that I was given a private session to view the Ottoman Calligraphy at the small blue Mosque by the sea. It is wonderful to see Calligraphic Art in their original settings, just as the creator intended it when he or she first designed the composition!

The Sightseeing: I Really Loved the diversity of experience in #Turkey! In one day, I breakfasted at a Sultan style Chocolatier with some amazing recipes, shopped in markets, sat on the beach watching a Volleyball game, then went to a local restaurant celebrating #Ataturk ‘s Children Day, then arranged a private view of some #ottomanempire #ottomanart calligraphy at the gorgeous little blue mosque. They were so kind to give me a dolphin Sarong to cover my hair as I forgot my scarf and turned on the crystal chandelier for me so I can take photos, then out to the Vegas style hotel strip for dinner, drinks, cocktails and late night shopping!!! I liked that the secular and the spiritual coexist here. Best of #ancient and #modern #privatebeachlife

Sunset at the private beach and pier was truly mesmerizing as I saw a young man, in silhouette, practiced his martial arts as the sun set on the hilltop castle and I took a moment to remember the rise of the Ottoman, and the fall of the Byzantine empire…..

The Private Beach Resort & Spa: As for the Gorgeous Asia Beach Resort & Spa Hotel: Special Thank you to all the Resort Technicians who hooked up my Art Light Installation till 2am!!!! Thank you for your diligence. The staff, management and the technicians were brilliant. Everything was brilliant and attentive! The Buffet was just amazing and it took me the first 2 meals to realize that apart from the Huge Buffet, I also had to try the fresh grill, the fresh bakery and the fresh omelette breakfast bar!

It was very hard to try everything because as soon as one thing finished, another part of the hotel is set up for more snack bars, food, drinks galore. We found the late night open restaurant where you can do a light soup, salads and a little bit of a hot meal useful as often after the conference was done, a few of us still had informal meetings.

So overall, thank you so much for making my stay and the conference a great success. Thank you for the wonderful staff at reception. The night manager and also all the technicians that stayed up till 2 am hooking up my art installation. Then had to get back by 7 am to do the IT for other conference keynote speakers!

It was an amazing location. Thank you to cleaning staff for making sure my minibar containing free drinks and mineral water, was always topped up.

I went to the spa on the very last day. They were so diligent in trying to give me the quality of massage and Turkish bath experience in spite of some language problem. I want to thank all of them. Being turned into a Human Cappucino with a Turkish Hammam coffee exfoliation rub and then a frothy Foam Bubble Bath on the luxurious and beautifully decorated Marbles inside the Hamman was very interesting! I also enjoyed the salt room to improve my breathing, organic face mask, head massage and the body massage afterwards. I was so tired, I fell asleep during my massage and woke up to fresh fruits and tea served in the relaxation area!

Similarly thank you to all at the hotel, bar, waiters at the large dining room, servers of drinks, cocktails mixologists etc …for treating us with Warmth and Graciousness understanding a Professional conference have different needs to a tourist vacation.

Thank you for showing us great hospitality and providing a good environment for Intellectual endeavors while all those on holiday were clearly enjoying their time too.

The Great Connection and Friendships built: All attendees and Keynote speakers spent time at the Gala dinner and also exchanging global ideas about sports, culture and sustainability after dinner, where we met for drinks, coffee and tea. We had a lot of fun as well like on the very last evening when we were all so tired, the sudden appearance of a White Elephant made up of Towels, made us all convulse into uncontrollable laughter! It was one of those spontaneous moments of Joy and camaraderie! The white towel elephant will forever be the official mascot and injoke for Ispecongress 2019 by the seaside Resort! 🙂 Again, without the wonderful staff at the hotel, who made THAT WHITE ELEPHANT, we would not have that brilliant bonding experience!

The Art contradictions with Kel1st, in between times: My decision to create a little fusion piece that accidentally became the official poster and central image for the entire Ispescongress had its usual art bicker with Randy Rodriguez, the artist for Kel1st. We disagreed on a number of things artistically but was pleasantly surprised by how well our “contradiction” worked together in the central image where half of his image done on textured paper contrasted with the wafer thin Chinese Calligraphy Art paper made from Rice and Silk that I favor when I am experimenting with Chinese calligraphy. When lights were shone from behind the materials both the texture of the darker hue and the rice paper, came out like a Ying & Yang contrast. It was artistically interesting and completely unintended. While Kel1st is not into deviating from traditional wild style, I believe it was a pleasant surprise for him! 🙂 In the same way, I discovered that Ottoman Calligraphy had sword-like strokes which had some resonance in the Wild style calligraphy’s use of arrows; a certain kind of call for protection.

However I feel that before we explore this further, Wild style needs to get a better understanding as an art tradition for why there emerged a tendency to go towards what I jokingly described as “Holy excessive Arrows”! Sometimes less is more…like the ubiquitous style of Ottoman Calligraphy that “rounds” up the sword-like strokes in order to emphasize that Sacred Calligraphy are used primarily for the celebration of Divine peace.

I think there are rich foods for thoughts there for Kel1st’s Artist in order to contain his temperament least he ends up saying things about other people’s cultural traditions that are, in the heat of the moment Trumpland rude, while in reality he is extremely diligent in learning about other’s calligraphic tradition in order to become a better Wild Style Master. I am not going to pretend that Kel1st did not see a healthy dose of the Yu’s world famous temper. Even poor Professor Sebahattin got a good telling off when he tried to adjust a small piece in my art installation; imagining he was just helping to straighten it at 1 am in the morning! 🙂

“Wow, Art Fascism!” said Professor Seb.

Me: “The only acceptable form of fascism is in the art world!” #injoke

We laughed! But unfortunately it is true… All artists are deep down, ART FASCISTS! 😂 We might as well learn to laugh at ourselves! At least we created wonderful Art & educational Lecture events towards the UN Global Sustainable Development and Education Goals, so all is well in our world!

3 comments on “My Easter Art Installation and Lecture at ISPESCONGRESS 2019 at #PrivateBeachLife! Thanks Turkey!”

1. Garcinia Casting Networks

   May 14, 2019

   

   Good post. You made some clear points in a fun way. I did a search on the issue about Performers and Climate protest, most people will agree with your website!

   LikeLike

   Reply
2. SELVA-Vida Sin Fronteras

   May 14, 2019

   

   Maybe I am taking this out of context, or do not understand the undertones. I am not dogmatic but I would however take issue with the concept ““The only acceptable form of fascism is in the art world!”

   LikeLike

   Reply
   • ceciliawyu

     May 14, 2019

     

     Lol. The context of the joke was in relation to the serious talk about the role of the Arts and Culture in fostering Sustainability and how the cultivation of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) reverse the negative aspects of Globalisation as well as foster Diversity that combats the “Far Right Fascist Rhetorics” of modern (pro-monetization of culture) politics.

     So….I think you missed the joking ironic tone in both Prof S’s comment and my response at 1am in the morning …
     I will add an #injoke hashtag, just in case my “tone” was not clear….

     But I did write,” We laughed….” 🙂 Hope this clarifies the context. Thanks for your input!

     LikeLiked by 1 person

     Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Enter your comment here...

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Email (required) (Address never made public)

Name (required)

Website

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

Notify me of new comments via email.

Notify me of new posts via email.

Δ