Ferhat Özgür studied in the Department of Painting and Crafts at Ankara Gazi University, (Faculty of Education) from 1985 to 1989. After graduating he obtained concurrently a Master’s degree (1992) and a PhD degree in Art (1993) in the Faculty
of Fine Arts, (Painting Department), Hacettepe University, Ankara. Özgür was appointed to the same department in Hacettepe University as a Research Assistant in 1994 and later served as a full time professor until 2010, teaching “Painting Workshop”, “Drawing”, “Contemporary Art Problems”, “Experimental Art” and “Art Criticism”. He then moved to Istanbul where he worked initially as the Head of Department in the Multimedia Department at the Culture University (Kültür Üniversitesi). Then, as a full time professor, between 2013-2017 he taught both applied and theoretical lessons such as “Art Works Analyses”, “Drawing”, “Painting Workshop” and “Art Criticism” for Master and Phd students in the Department of Art
Management at Seven Hills University (Yeditepe Üniversitesi) in Istanbul where, again, he was the Head of Department. Since 2017 he has been teaching in Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture for the Master and PhD students. Alongside his artistic practice he has also published numerous articles, exhibition and book reviews in various periodicals and newspapers in Turkey, Özgür has written two books entitled “Contemporary Turkish Painters: Turan Erol” (published by Yapı Kredi, 1995, Turkish - English summary included) and “Documentary, Short Film and Video Art” (published by Doruk Yayıncılık, 2017, Turkish). He is a member of both AICA (Association Internationale des Critiques; Art) and the
boarding committee of the Cultural Policy Yearbook published by Laureate University (Bilgi Üniversitesi).
 

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"Greetings From Damascus" 2007, photography

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Have you ever visited Palestine under military occupation?

 

“This was one of the questions on the application form when I applied to the Syrian Embassy for my visa. It seemed to me as if it was inviting me to visit Palestine. Maybe if I answered “Yes” it may be easier for me to get my visa. Despite this I answered “No” for I had never been there. With this answer I got my visa. At this time there had been some gossip spreading amongst Turkish citizens who were applying for Syrian visas which suggested that Turkish people who had been to Syria would not subsequently be allowed to enter European countires or the United States unless they they had also visited southern Cyprus & this had been recognised in their passports. Whilst I was in Damascus I didn’t forget this initial question. It stayed with me.
Naturally this question was appearing spontaneously on all of the pictures I was taking.