‘LIVING SAFAI’ MEMORIAL NIGHT

Our founder, architect, painter, writer, poet and thinker SAFAİ ÖZER, who passed away on 9-March-2022, was told by his friends. An exhibition of some of Safai’s paintings from his acclaimed series Son-Kishotlar Son/Suzdur was also opened in the hall where the commemoration was held.

The ‘Living Safai’ commemoration night, where various examples of the artist personality of Safai, who was a painter, writer, architect and poet, were presented, also included sections from Safai’s philosophical worldview. Safai, who states that focusing on the questions of ‘Me, Us, What About Them’ will offer all the well-being of the earth to humanity, is also remembered for his initiatives to be a person for the orphans.

Safai’s journey from Antalya to a mountain village in Burdur and from there to Muğla was told through various video screenings. The journey of art, thought and humanity, in which everyone can find a sign for themselves at some stage, was presented to the audience with six episodes titled Living Safai, Painter Safai, Writer Safai, Esenliktepe, Thinker Safai – Simple Life Philosophy and Born Again Every Day.

A QUOTE FROM -SAFAI:

The commemoration began with the screening of a video with the following lines, which describe Safai’s outlook on life in his own unique way.

…If the cauldron is full, it owes to empty. Partridges and goldfinches owe to seeds. The clover owes the rain; the bee owes the daisy; the horseman owes the pedestrian, the walker.

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…The seer owes the blind, the deaf the hearing, the runner the cripple, the darkness the light. The whole into parts; solid gold into raw copper; dehumidified into dry, the arid…

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…The clear owes a debt to the cloudy, to the muddy. The sober owes a debt to the drunkard; the wise to the lunatic. The Cain to the Abel; the oppressor to the oppressed; the weary to the jaded; the bandit to the intercepted.

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…Whole to half, to quarter; thick owes money to sparse. Peace owes grief; joy owes lament. Water owes a debt to the vessel. Wine to the grape in the vineyard, oil to the olive on the branch, the wolf to the kid, the lamb, the healthy to the sick, the aching…

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…I owe you; you owe me. He owes us; we owe him; eleven owes to ten.

Safai’s curriculum vitae, prepared in his own unique style, was performed by Özlem Uzman:

FROM THE PEN OF SAFAI:

INSTEAD OF CURRICULUM VITAE

So you want to know our date of birth!

We are as old as the first rain that touched the earth; with the most urgent dew that turns clay into mud… Maybe even older than them! Moreover, our births go on and on: We are reborn on every branch with a leaf in praise of the sun, on every shoot that takes root – even in the weeds. “Hello!” we say to the earth, to the sky again.

We are transforming only on the one hand: we are neither really born nor die completely. Since we are an energy whose death even will be an illusion. That death which is indeed pregnant with new births, That death which is a rest!

Curious about our birthplace?

The place where the winds are born is our birthplace; The Tree of Tuba and the Phoenixes… Our birthplace is where the ocean waves first appear and the larch pollen touches the ground for the first time. The mountain where the Lord commanded Yalvaç Musa, the garden where Judas kissed Jesus and ‘sold’, the river where Mansûr scattered his ashes is our birthplace.

Anywhere or nowhere…

Still, you ask, “What is your look at the memorial?” that maybe; “Which trend follower is that poor person?”

There are ‘me’ lovers – they hope for their sadness, they try to derive points of view while they are looking for a cover for their ignorance; burp very personal opinions on this and that! Let them divide, let them divide “Stream, makim, -ist, -mist.” he asked, “Who am I?” until you can’t find the answer. What a trouble for us, what a worry for currents! It is only a mite, a grove, that which is born out of ignorance and weeps over the luminous meta-truth. Everything he does, says or writes, draws or paints, leaves behind a shovel of pebbles, a handful of sand… We are certainly not reminiscent. Maybe we are the apprentice of that Acunsal Master, who makes a hundred mistakes a day and brings a thousand scoundrels. (We haven’t even fully deserved our name yet: Safai means clarity, brilliance, purity!)

Where, when, how many exhibitions did we open?

Don’t make the man laugh; Do you think there is a moment when we are not at the ‘exhibition’?

-Safai and EGET

Safai founded the Education, Geriatrics, Ecological Agriculture, Tourism (EGET) Foundation in 2015 with Özlem Uzman in Muğla, where he spent the last phase of his life in this world. The sole and unchanging purpose of the foundation is to provide scholarships to low-income students who have difficulty in getting an education due to financial difficulties. All of the Foundation’s activities are designed around this goal. EGET Foundation’s activities can be followed at www.eget.org.tr.

Özlem Uzman, who founded the EGET Foundation together with Safai, said the following in her speech at the night:

I witnessed Safai bringing life wherever he went. In amazement, I watched you touch hearts. I watched him try to help people he had never met without expectation. I admire his wit. I was amazed to hear his immediate answers to unexpected questions, complete and flawless, the kind of answers that can only be given after much thought. I was very impressed by his writing skills and language. I respected his contemporary and forward-thinking perspective. I admired his intellectual background and his expert knowledge in agriculture, finance, human psychology, history and many other fields.

Some people go through life aiming only for their own happiness and end up just like that. Safai spent his highly productive life working for the benefit of others. In his own words:

“Either a pleasant or an empty voice is all that remains of us.

Which one we leave behind when we pass away is directly linked to our preferences.”

The journey of Safai’s physical body may have come to an end, but he has left a pleasant memory in the hearts of each and every one of us. We will always remember him with the beauties he kept alive and we will work with all our strength to cultivate the seeds he entrusted to us.

We were delighted to be with you on this special night and to relive Safai, who will always live in our hearts.

He said.

The ‘Living Safai’ commemoration night, which started with a cocktail reception, was accompanied by the music of Muğla Metropolitan Municipality Orchestra artists Burçak Özkan, İrem Kırbay, Akın Özarslan and Tuğçe Sera Çakır. There was also a symbolic exhibition of some of Safai’s paintings from his acclaimed painting series Son-Kishotlar Son/Suzdur. Safai’s published books Sufis in Stories, Stories from Sufis 1 and 2, Jonathan the Seagull to Jonathan the Yünatanmartı, and The Bible through Zen Eyes were also introduced to the participants.

The main narrator of the ‘Living Safai’ commemoration night was Safai’s friends Özlem Şahin Güngör and Ali Turan. His friends who attended the night told their memories of Safai and added color to the ‘Living Safai’ night. An excerpt from the story of Şahzane Camız, who visited the Kaleçi Art Center, which Safai co-founded, was read by Hazel Avcı. Attendees were shown various video clips from Safai’s extraordinary life. Gülçin Kinay Polat and Yunus Dabakoğlu sang two folk songs that Safai never stopped singing.

-S. Safai Ozer

Safai was born in Konya in 1952 as the first son of a civil servant family. His mother, Mrs. Hatice, was one of the popular and respected Turkish teachers at Konya Maarif College. His father, Mr. Mustafa, was a civil servant working at the Soil Crops Office. After graduating from Konya Maarif College, Safai enrolled in the Department of Architecture at Selçuk University, Faculty of Architecture and Engineering. After earning his diploma in 1975, He worked in a public institution for a short time. After completing his military service, he started working as a freelance architect. He lived in America for a while.

In 1980 he moved to Antalya, Turkey. Alongside architecture he also designed and manufactured furniture. In 1990, he founded the Kaleiçi Art House in Kaleiçi, Antalya, a prestigious institution that left its mark on the period. In 1994 he moved to a village in Burdur. He grew his own vegetables and fruits in his adobe house and established a life intertwined with nature with countless creatures; Kangal dogs, Sönmez sheep, chickens, roosters, cats. In 2013, he moved to Muğla to realize one of the most important projects of his life. In 2015, she founded EGET Foundation with Özlem Uzman.

His first book got published in 1970. Since then, he has published five books. In 1972 he had his first solo photo exhibition. He was a member of Group A and one of the founders of ANFAD (Antalya, Photography and Cinema Amateurs Association). He won the first prize in the Ministry of Culture State Photography Competition. Since 1993, he has held 37 solo exhibitions, including one abroad.