7 - 9 Eylül 2012 tarihlerinde Belçika'nın Kruishoutem kentinde toplanan 4. Dünya Karikatür Müzeleri Toplantısında alınan karar ile Dünya Karikatür Müzeleri Toplantılarını 2009 yılında Eskişehir'de başlatan ve geçen yıl vefat eden ünlü karikatür sanatçımız Prof.Atila Özer'in doğum günü olan 3 Nisan gününe alındı.
Dünyanın değişik ülkelerindeki karikatür müzeleri arasında iş birliği, bilgi ve deneğimlerini paylaşma düşüncesiyle ünlü karikatür sanatçımız, Eskişehir'deki karikatür müzesinin kurucusu Prof. Atila Özer'in 2009 yılında Eskişehir'de başlattığı bu gelenek İran (Tebriz- 2010), Sırbistan (Zemun- 2011) da yapılmıştı.
Bu yıl Belçika, Türkiye,Azerbaycan, Bulgaristan,Polonya, Hollanda, Portekiz, Mısır, Lüxsenburg Sırbistan, ABD, ve İsrail'den olmak üzere 12 ülkeden 17 Karikatür Müzesi ve Karikatür Evi'nin katılımı ile gerçekleşti. Ülkemizden Prof Atila Özer Karikatür Evi ve Milas Turhan Selçuk Karikatürlü Ev katıldılar. Toplantı; müzeler arasında sanal sergilerin açılması, gönüllülerin çalıştırılması, İnternette dünya karikatürlerinden koleksiyonla sanal müze kurulması,sergi değişimlerinin yapılması kararlaştırıldı.
Vicdan Bulunmaz Ozer's Presentation at Meeting
With Atila and After Atila
When I got married to Atila Ozer in 1975,1 did not know anything about cartoons. We were both working. At the evening, he was conducting research on cartoons, reading books and drawing and drawing. I was surprised and a little bit jealous to see his passion for cartoons. University, academic research, classes, exams and homework were taking all of his time. In time, I also started to get interested in cartoons and I got to know some of the cartoonists. I decided to help him during my free time after school. I became the secretary: copying paperwork, wrapping and mailing the cartoons for competitions. During all those years we spent together, were filied with cartoons and numerous friends. We visited museums, attended cartoon meetings, festivals and symposiums. I was also tied to cartoons just like him. We were buying the newly released books and were immediately examining them. He was always thinking, planning things he could do for cartoon art and putting them in order.
In 1983 he established the first Cartoon Student Club in Turkish Universities.
In 1984 for the first time in Turkish Universities he started to teach the Cartoon Class and he continued teaching this class till his death without any interruption.
In 2001 he became a professor. We had a better and more comfortable working environment.
In 2002 he established the Cartoon Art Research Center, which was also first in his kind in Turkish Universities. In the meantime, he also organized two international cartoon contests as a first step towards establishing the cartoon museum that he was planning to open.
In 2004 he opened the Eskişehir Cartoon M useum asa part of the Cartoon Art Research Center. The museum was like Atila's child. During the restorations, he was present at the construction site of the building, when he didn't have classes. Since it took a while for the staff of the museum to start working, he opened and closed the museum himself and we did the cleaning together. He put everything in the museum very carefully and paid attention to every detail. He carried lots of books, journals, and documents from our house to the museum. His friends and cartoonists welcomed his request warmly and donated several books to the museum. This was an example of incredible trust between friends and colleagues. Approximately 1000 cartoons and 1200 books were collected in a very short time. New staff did not have any knowledge about cartoon art. Whenever Atila saw a cartoon misplaced or fell on the floor, he used to get really upset That's why we started to build up the archive on our own. I went to the university's library to learn how to create an archive. Atila designed an emblem for the museum. At the end of the first year we finished archiving the cartoons and recording the books that were donated to the museum. My volunteer efforts outside of the working hours were not very welcome for the universifies community. We even heard unpleasant complaints about my volunteer efforts. We did not know that working without expecting anything was a mistake, and we were both confused and very sad. However, none of these obstacles have diminished our passion for cartoons. Atila was a very calm, patient and faithful person. He never forgot the people who were dedicated to cartoon art, he organized special events for them. In the meantime everything was settled in the museum and the museum started to run smoothly. Atila was planning a new project.
In 2009, in order to establish a Cartoon Museums Union, he organized the First International Cartoon Museum Directors'Meeting İn Eskişehir and designed a logo for the meeting. This was his fifth big project He knew that the participation to this meeting would increase every year. Unfortunately, he couldn't participate to any of the following meetings of this union he established. He passed away on April 23"1, 2011. A life which was full of cartoons between 1973 and has ended in 2011.
After his death, over two and a half months, I went to the museum as a volunteer just to help people there and answer any questions they might have. However, there were again complaints about my presence there. Fortunately, there were nice developments outside the museum. The third Cartoon Museum Directors' Meeting in Zemun, Serbia, organized an International Atila Ozer Cartoon Portraits Exhibition and a book was published by the Mayor of Eskişehir Tepebasi Municipality Dr. Ahmet Atac. Remembering Atila Ozer Exhibition of cartoonist Beytullah Heper, a cartoon contest among the high school students organized by Eskişehir Art Association and myself, and with environment cartoons contest a mong students with Atila Ozer speciaL award.
I watched all these developments. I could not leave 36-37 years of my life spent passionately on cartoons behind me. What could I do? I decided to redesign our house in which we lived with our cats as "Prof. Atila Ozer Cartoon House." On April 23rd 2012, one year after Atila's death, we got together w ith cartoonists, j oumalists a nd a rt lovers and announced the opening of the house. My niece, Deniz Cil who is in a PhD program in the United States carried on the correspondence. Everyone who knows us said that this was a very good idea and seeing Atila's books, cartoons, drawings, we did not know that he had produced this much work. I could not hang all the cartoons because we did not have enough space. This is a work of love and passion. I could not let his work stay in cabinets. Visitors are coming and sitting in the house just like guests, they rest and I offer them some refreshments. They look at the cartoons on the walls. But there is a lot of work to do. I will organize the articles written about him, interviews, letters, poster and emblem designs. I need more time to organize all of these.
What is important for me is to make people leave the Atila Ozer House with good and warm memories.
Vicdan Bulunmaz Ozer
Below you will find all discussions at the meeting.
