Turkish Cypriot ceramic artist Rauf Ersenal’s exhibition titled “The Memory of the Soil from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages” will be opened by Prime Minister Ünal Üstel on Wednesday, July 10, at 17.00, at the Near East University Atatürk Culture and Congress Center Exhibition Hall.
The retrospective ceramic exhibition titled “The Memory of the Soil from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages”, exclusively prepared by the Turkish Cypriot Ceramic Artist Rauf Ersenal for the Cyprus Museum of Modern Arts, will be opened by Prime Minister Ünal Üstel on Wednesday, July 10, at 17.00 at the Near East University Atatürk Culture and Congress Center Exhibition Hall.

The exhibition, which includes 150 artworks created by Rauf Ersenal between 2000 and 2024, will cover a wide period varying from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages. The exhibition will take art lovers on a journey through time. The artist will reveal the common history of the land and humanity by skillfully processing these periods’ cultural and artistic heritage in his ceramic works.

The exhibition curated by Near East University Faculty of Fine Arts and Design Deputy Dean and GÜNSEL Art Museum Director Prof. Dr. Erdoğan Ergün can be visited free of charge until July 25.

Prof. Dr. Erdoğan Ergün: “This exhibition, inspired by a wide period from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages, offers a unique opportunity for everyone who wants to discover our artistic and cultural heritage.”
Emphasizing that the Cyprus Museum of Modern Arts brings different types of works of art inspired by various periods of history to its visitors, Near East University Faculty of Fine Arts and Design Deputy Dean and GÜNSEL Art Museum Director Prof. Dr. Erdoğan Ergün said, “This retrospective ceramic exhibition, which emerged as a result of Rauf Ersenal’s long years of research and work, reveals not only the works created by the artist throughout his career but also the rich historical and cultural heritage of Cyprus. This exhibition, inspired by a wide period from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages, offers a unique opportunity for everyone who wants to discover our artistic and cultural heritage.” said Prof. Dr. Ergün, and added, “We invite all our people to the opening of this important exhibition.”

Who is Rauf Ersenal?
Rauf Ersenal completed his undergraduate education at 19 Mayıs Youth and Sports Academy and his master’s degree at the Department of Educational Management at Near East University. Rauf Ersenal, who carried out important studies on the history and cultural heritage, made significant contributions to the history of Cyprus with his book titled “The Unknown History of Cyprus”, published in 2014. Ersenal, whose dozens of articles have been published in journals published in the TRNC, conducted extensive research and experimental studies on the production and firing techniques of Cyprus Bronze Age and Iron Age ceramics, Cyprus clays, and ceramic pigments.

Ersenal, who has been conducting research on the cultural heritage smuggled from Cyprus since 2000, has made presentations at many conferences in this field at home and abroad. He is the only registered member of the TRNC in the International Institute of Experimental Archeology (EXARC).