Romania honorary guest at Istanbul book fair

This year, the guest of honor of the 34th International Istanbul Book Fair, which will take place between Nov. 7 -15, is Romania. The book fair is organized with the cooperation of TÜYAP (All Fair Organizations Anonymous Company) and Turkey Publishers Association and will be open to visitors in the TÜYAP Fair and Congress Center. Under the program of the International Saloon, during the first four days of the fair, Romanian literature and culture will be presented on the Romania counter. The Guest of Honor activities will take place, such as discussions, panels, poem readings, music concerts, professional meetings with the publishers and children activities. For the first four days, Romanian books will meet the book-lovers of Istanbul. Moreover, important writers, such as the Nobel Prize winner Mircea Carterescu and Matei Visniec will attend the Guest of Honor activities. The details of the program and the guest list will be announced in the press release in September. Furthermore, for the book fair, a program is being organized by the Nesin Foundation and the Nesin Publications to celebrate the Turkish writer Aziz Nesin's 100th year. The program will include a discussion over Aziz Nesin's life, personality and work, through a panel and an exhibit. The drawer of honor of the fair will be Tan Oral. The theme of the 34th International Istanbul Book Fair is "Humor: Looking at Life with a Smile."


Who is Tan Oral?

The caricature artist Tan Oral was born in 1937 in Amasya. He completed his education in many different cities in Anatolia while traveling around. He then finished his studies at the Government Fine Arts Academy (now called the Architect Sinan University), in the Architecture Department, in 1963. He worked in the same school as an assistant in the Construction and Employment Chair. Later, he became interested in caricature, film and cartoon drawings.

In 1969, Oral became a member of the Artists' Association and drew caricatures for different publishers, such as Ant, Yeni Gün, Özgür İnsan magazines, newspapers and syndicate publications. In the same year, he was awarded the Best Short Film award by his "Cumartesi Pazar" (Saturday Sunday) film, and in 1970 he won the Big Prize award, in the cartoon caricature, with his work "Sansür" (Censure). In 1971, he headed the Artists' Association and between 1973 and 1976, he worked on the board of directors of the Caricaturists Foundation as the clerk and the president. He started drawing caricatures, in Politika, in 1976. He then moved to Cumhuriyet. Between 1980 and 1985, he was chosen as the Best Caricaturist of the Year five times by the Modern Journalists Foundation.

Oral won awards with his drawings in Skopje in 1978 and 1984, and in Tokyo in 1983. During the same period, he worked in the organization of Akşehir Nasreddin Hoca Caricature Competitions. Between 1980 and 1984, Oral worked as a cartoon teacher in the Architect Sinan University UESYO. He has continued the same work in Eskişehir Anatolia University since 1991.

Tan Oral, starting with his first drawings, was careful to be simple in his drawings and expressions. He wrote many essays on the art of caricature and attended many discussion sessions with national and international caricaturists. Besides the many caricature magazines he opened, his work also took place abroad in Germany (Darmstadt, Munich), Greece (Rhodes, Athens), France (Strasbourg), Romania (Petro Sani) and Cyprus. His caricatures were also published daily in the Cumhuriyet and Taraf newspapers. Moreover, he contributed his drawings to many books. Oral still continues his drawings on the T24 news website.

His books were published by Gözlem Publications, İris Publications, Metis Publications, Ygs Publications, Pan Publications, among others. In 2006, a biographical discussion book of Tan Oral, called "Tan Oral Kitabı - Kitabın Adı Budur (Tan Oral's Book- This is the Name of the Book)", written by Aydın Engin was published by İş Bankası Culture Publications under the River Discussions Series.