2015
Cairn
Galia Valtchinova et al., « Peindre avec le cœur : Ömer Kaleşi et les paysages mémoriels balkaniques », Études Balkaniques-Cahiers Pierre Belon, ID : 10670/1.25mmz7
Pictures of the Heart : Ömer Kaleşi and the Balkan Memorial LandscapeA series of conversations with the Paris-based painter of a complex Balkan background, structured around the notion of memorial landscape, give a glimpse at the importance of native place, of the material and moral worlds in the painter’s formative years. The family and the native village are evoked through memories of religious mixture and multiple linguistic codes, while images of war-time violence or everyday hardships are convoked to make sense of certain of the painter’s choices. Forty years after establishing himself in Paris, Balkans men and women, Balkan sense of the past and of timelessness are still breathing in Omer’s painting.