We came across Ali Aslan during one of our
conversations with the shopkeepers on the third
floor, in front of Füreya’s ceramic panel that evokes
the life cycle of the universe. We were surprised
when we heard that he was an assistant to the
construction supervisor during the construction of
the mall. Now in his 70’s, he is stitching curtains in a
draper shop. He graduated from Ankara University
Financial Commercial Sciences in the early 1960’s.
He was brought to assist the construction supervisor
because he was the only one who had a university
diploma. We got even more excited when we heard
that while the market was still a rough building,
he witnessed the artists working on the wonderful
ceramic panels. “While making them he didn’t even
use one helper. He did it all on his own, with his own
hands. The others were the same. Mr. Cevdet (Altuğ)
worked on his own for one and a half years on top
of that huge scaffolding. A huge amount of time was
spent on every piece of art you see here. They always
came early in the morning around 8 or 8:30 am.
They had sheet pans and brought all the materials
by themselves like they mixed their mortars on
sheet pans on their own. Also, while working they
spreaded shrouds over their work. Before the first
opening on the 10th of November, 1964, none of
us had seen their works. But I remember Füreya
saying “I’ll create things in such a way that they’ll
survive untill the world stops turning’. Sometimes
we all had lunches together. One day, I think it was
either Mr. Attila or it may have been Mr.Cevdet, I
may be getting confused, said, “You know the art
work in ancient places such as Ephesus, the ones you
see on inscriptions, the ones in Çorum, Alacahöyük,
or hieroglyphics. All of these give us insights about
the era in which they were made. We’re going to
leave something that will speak to and expand the
horizons of the future generations...”
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Summer Fall 2015