Since the past week, the Creativity Center in Segovia has been hosting a fresh-breath-of-air exhibition. Cem Kayatekin, a professor of the IE School of Architecture and Design and the creator and curator of the exhibition, found inspiration for it throughout his childhood, fatherhood, and profession. Titled “Sketches & Things: A Daily Expression”, the exhibit includes art pieces made through the medium of legos and oil pastels.
When you enter the exhibition a wave of vibrancy and playfulness immediately catches the eye: without knowing the artist’s intent, without reading the motto of the exhibition, you can still understand it. Kayatekin frequently found himself in his childhood doodling and scribbling; years later, after the intensive process of going through architecture school and establishing his own practice, he has found himself in the same position. He notes that calling the exhibition “sketches” has lifted a lot of the pressure that comes from what distinguishes art from a sketch.
After becoming a father, he became reacquainted with the world of legos and crayons as a way of expressing himself that he had lost touch with many years ago. Finding himself free of having to communicate an idea through lines of a tangible architecture, creative freedom returned to him again: it was now merely a way of expressing the day, using one’s own intuition more than the logical methodology required by his profession.
In my conversation with Cem, we spoke about how the pieces exhibited were made in only 15 minutes a day for as long as he felt until it felt completed. Almost like an analogy of how a child would simply go and draw on the walls: a way of capturing daily life, the momentary emotions that come without the meticulous approach of designing. In this same line, just in the back of the room there is an interactive piece where the visitors of the exhibition can paint and draw on top of what has already been done prior. Truly a cumulative art piece that carries thought and intuition, the daily emotions of many people who may or may not be aware of each other.
The exhibition will still be available in the Creativity Center for approximately one more week now, and it has plenty of cultural value since it poses interrogantes like how intuition comes to play when making art, or what is it that actually distinguishes sketches from art. I would like to invite the readers of The Stork to visit the exhibition and enjoy Kayatekin’s art, while also expressing themselves with the same playfulness the author had one creating his own pieces.
