Hello, my name is Ibrahim Coskun. I was born in 1955 in Turkey, in Dersim, which is called Tunceli today.

I am a visual artist with the focus on painting. My artistic development was significantly influenced by my grandmother.
My grandmother's family fell victim to the ethnic cleansing in 1937 - 1938. Talking about it was a taboo.

The region of Dersim belonged to the homeland of Armenians. Even though many Dersimians described themselves as Kurds, they have their own identity, culture, religion and language. They call themselves Kirmantsch. The Kirmantsch people and the Armenian population have lived together peacefully in Dersim.
In the Armenian genocide, carried out by the army of the Turkish Republic in 1937 - 1938 as ethnic cleansing in Dersim, tens of thousands of people were massacred and just as many were deported to western Anatolia. The rest of the population faced starvation and misery.

In my childhood there were still two ruins of Armenian churches in our village.

My grandmother used to go every week, lit some candles and prayed like a Christian. Despite the great respect, that was shown to her, she always remained alone. I was the only person close and familiar to her. She gave me all her love and tenderness.
She told me about the massacres of the Armenians and Dersimians, with all the pain and longing associated with it, in a kind of fairy tale. It was about the fight between bad and smart people, where in the end the smart people won despite all the brutality of the bad ones.
She only had one wish for me, that I should never pick up a gun and try to study art, so that I could leave a mark in this world as a good person.
I was 6 years old when she died. It was a big shock for me.

I came to Hannover when I was 15 and learned how to become a machinist. After completeing my training there I worked as a bus driver.
Because of my interests in art I always wanted to be close to artists. Due to their encouragement and support I started painting at the age of 19.

I visited adult education center courses and very quickly taught courses myself. I completed a correspondence course at the Paris art Academy in Hamburg.
My first exhibition in 1984 was already reported on Bavarian television. Over time I build up contacts with the Berlin art scene. Since I had a big interest in helping to build up the art scene in Turkey, I commuted back and forth between Germany and Turkey.

I mostly lived in Mercin with my wife, we had opened a cafe and a studio there.
As I was a co-founder of the Turkish Human Rights Association, and due to a critical statement about a documentary, I got under constant surveillance by the state. At the end of 1984 my Turkish passport was confiscated and I was no longer able to leave Turkey. The cafe and studio were forcibly closed and destroyed.
I fled to Ankara and opened a gallery there. At the end of 1989 I some very close friends informed me, that my life in Turkey was threatened and that I was to be eliminated. Through my good contacts to German artists and because of my good reputation in the art scene my escape was planned and carried out via the German consulate.
In Germany, I was then received by Willy Brandt for the presentation of the activities of the Turkish Human Rights Association.

Nowadays I live in Berlin and also again in Turkey, where I am very committed to art and actively involved in the opening of art galleries. I opened up my own gallery in Bodrum.
My main themes, you may say the roots and sources of my paintings, are the devastated landscape - the depopulated and burned villages of Dersim.
Since 1984 I have shown my paintings in various solo and group exhibitions in Germany, Turkey, Luxembourg and Belgium.
Today I'm working as a freelance artist in Berlin, Istanbul and Bodrum.