It’s 2018 and stories like this shouldn’t occur anymore. When you live in a world where you can enjoy life, freedom to write, talk, express yourself in music, art, fashion and travel, you tend to forget that it is not the same everywhere.
Stories like this still make you shiver and feel anger. The protagonist here is the young (29 years old) Kurdish artist and journalist Zara Doğan; another admirable example of a strong woman in a blind universe made of bombs, attacks and violence. She is the editor of Jinha, a feminist news agency in Turkey with all female staff.
Impressive, incredible isn’t it? But the fact is that she has just celebrated her first (of two) anniversary in prison. In mid-2016 she created an art piece of the town Nusaybin following its destruction, with Turkish flags hanging from the bombed-out building around.
After posting the picture on her socials, the reaction from the government was really aggressive and she was arrested in July of 2016 in a café. She’s now living in an infernal situation, can’t communicate but maybe among artists it’s even easier to get in touch.
She succeeded in sending an illegal letter to the anonymous but worldwide famous street artist Banksy. How she did it, we don’t know, but the Bristol vandal has just posted photos of the original letter on his Instagram profile writing this short caption: “I got a letter from Zehra Doğan in Diyarbakır Prison, Turkey”.
Zara’s words are direct and raw; she speaks on how she is living, or trying to survive, going on painting and says thanks to the Girl and Balloon creator who had already demonstrated his closeness and support in his typical and efficient way.
In March this year, together with another anonymous street artist Borf, they decorated the NY Houston Bowery Wall, with a huge white background, 365 hash marks and an image of the Turkish artist behind prison bars (one bar is actually a pencil). The image is supposed to represent the amount of time Dogan has spent in jail
And for now, you can even get a full immersion into Banksy art in London, as from July 12 until August 25 an exclusive exhibition of photographs of his works are on display at Lazinc Gallery.
#Peace.Love.FreeZehraDogan
