Sufi News Report - SNSWR - U.S.A./SwitzerlandThursday, November 29, 2007
Bruxelles (Brussels): A demonstration of ebru art (painting on water) took place at the European Parliament in Brussels last Monday, November 26th.
Dr. Mehmet Refii Kileci's demonstration set the atmosphere for the panel discussion, "Re-Thinking Mavlana:What if Mavlana lived in today's Europe?"
Originally from Istanbul, Dr. Kileci is an associate professor who now lives in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
He turned an all-steel, minimalist designed room into an art studio similar to those one could find in Konya during the Ottoman Empire by patiently unpacking and arranging all his fascinating equipment: little bottles filled with colours; delicate, twisted sticks; fine sabre brushes; and hard-surfaced, alum-treated sheets of paper.
In fact, the traditional manner of marbling paper is often called "Turkish marbling" or "ebru" because it originated in the 15th century Ottoman Empire.
Since patterned papers don't show marks of wear so easily as plain paper does, marbled papers were (and are) used as endpapers of hand-bound books, to hide the lumps and bumps caused by leather turn-ins and cords, or as covers.
An amazed and continually growing group of observers watched with delight as Professor Kileci painted unique pieces of art in the water --actually water thickened with gum tragacanth or carragheenan moss (a seaweed).
With many graceful gestures, Dr. Mehmet drew the water-based inks, that contain ox gall (bile) as a dispersant, guiding the colours into shapes and transforming floating drops into leafs and tulips, dots and letters.
He then gently laid the paper on the surface of the solution, let it remain a few seconds, and then removed it with caring hands: lo. a beautiful piece of patterned paper, unique and unrepeatable, appeared!
[1st picture: Enchanted Panelist Marc Luyckx, Dean of Cotrugli Business Academy, observes Dr. Mehmet Kileci at work. All photos: Sufi News]
Visit Dr. Kileci's website
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