Mrs. Anine Hagemann
Deputy Head of Mission
Embassy of Denmark in Ankara
29 April 2026 - Alev Ebüzziya Siesbye Exhibition Opening Speech (transcribed)
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“Thank you, thank you everyone for coming. (some words spoken in Danish) Thank you so much for coming this evening. It is an honor to welcome you to the residence of the Danish Embassy, of the Danish Ambassador, Mr. Ole Toft. Ole is unfortunately out of the country. He was very, very sad to miss this, as you have understood from him directly, but he unfortunately had to be in Denmark.
So, my name is Anine Hagemann. I'm the Deputy Head of Mission at the Danish Embassy and the Chargé d'affaires at the Embassy in this period. So it's my pleasure and honor to welcome you today. Thank you for coming. Tonight we celebrate the opening of your exhibition, Alev. And we also honour the lifetime achievement of the Danish, Turkish artist Alev Siesbye.
It's been quite touching actually to see in the past few hours, all these old friends and acquaintances gather around Alev. It's very very obvious, you do not need to know anything about you to sense the effect you have on a room, but also the effect you have had on the people who are gathered here today. I have heard from several of you how far you have traveled to be here tonight. And it's something you can sense when a big personality with a big contribution is here.
It's also quite touching to meet your art. Like you, each piece has quite a mesmerizing presence, quite a quality that is not conveyable easily. Like very good art does, it communicates something and you want to spend time face to face with it. I have read up on your art and I have seen pictures of it but it's a different thing to be there with it. And I don't think I quite understood that before I saw it tonight. It's never easy to explain art or an artist with words. That's of course one of the many values of art. But we must try sometimes with words. And I will do my best.
I have tried to put three words to your art and your contribution and it can rest with you in however many ways you want. But the first word I came to was vibration. I dare to use this word because you yourself have done so in the past in previous exhibitions. But it was even clearer to me now that I was seeing these works, to feel this vibrating duality in your works. The contrasting forms, the roundness, but also the groundedness, the light and dark, the simplicity and elegance but also ornamentation, a feeling of lightness, a feeling of strength, presence of past and presence.
A second word might be transformation. Somehow, you yourself have had an amazing journey, but so the art makes us feel the journey in it, the way that it represents both something from anti-culture, from Turkiye, but also from parts of European culture and Nordic culture. You have also transformed the art form of stoneware. And so transformation is another word. The last one I dare to use is echoes. Echoes of your roots and your training. Echoes from these many cultures that I mentioned and probably many that I don't know. When I look at the pieces, they look like they are almost floating and yet somehow they have a depth. So there are many echoes to whatever I am feeling in this very alive thing that feeds me.
Throughout the years, your contribution has been acknowledged with many prestigious honors. I cannot list the CV you would never get to go home or the list of honors. But I want to mention that you have just recently been granted the lifelong art scholarship from the Danish Arts Foundation. This is the absolute highest award that the Danish artist can receive. Only a very very small handful of artists. This year it was seven, sometimes it's less. Only a very small handful of artists received this award each year. And so this demonstrates your very, very unique contribution to the field of ceramics, of stoneware and of art in Denmark.
The justification in that award names you among the most remarkable ceramics artists in the world. It says that your work is genre defining. It has been absolutely critical for the development of Danish and international ceramics for more than 50 years. And it has contributed to the elevation of stoneware to an autonomously recognized art form.
Tonight we celebrate your life's work. We do so here in these very brutalist surroundings. I know that some of you have already been asking questions about this place. This house was designed by a famous Danish architect called Ove Rix for Friis & Moltke in 1970. As you will also sense, this represents one of the many Danish values, Danish architecture and design; Play with form, the very heavy and the light that you meet when you come out of it.
Because again there is a lot of history here and I feel it is just the right place to celebrate your contribution to Denmark and Türkiye and to the relationship between our two countries here today. So it is very, very honoured that I and the Danish Embassy, which represents Denmark in Türkiye and the strong partnership between our two countries, can be your hosts this evening. And in these very dramatic surroundings, please let us drink a toast to Alev and to her lifelong contribution of vibrating and transformative echoes, of her life, her journey, of Türkiye, of Denmark and the world.”
