Ali Nejat Kanıyaş

I was born in Ankara, Turkey in the ’80s. The children of that period came to the world with heavy burden on their shoulders. They had to bear witness to the aftermath of the military coup that shook the country. My generation saw what happened to their parents and all the love, sweat and blood they gave for the future of their country, only for all of that to go to waste.

So, we learned a bitter lesson: keep it to yourself. Those among us who had a spark of authenticity in them had to work hard to keep it from being snuffed out. I consider myself one of those people.
Over the years, I did my best to learn more about the world, about myself. The nature of me and the nature of the world remained obscure, so I went further. I defied parental expectations and ignored common sense to study philosophy. Then I met interesting and wonderful people, and I became friends with some of them. I’ve learned philosophy, sculpture, and painting. I read, drew, drank, and shared with people what I thought and knew.

The country had changed much when I was the age my parents were when they had me. Only this time, there wasn’t much love, sweat or blood to give, so I left. I left behind all that I loved to go further, to see what knowledge and meaning the world had to offer. I never knew what “wisdom” meant, and for sure I didn’t think I had any. Yet, this far from home I’ve changed. I’ve learned, as Dante once said, “how salty the other’s bread can be”. I’ve learned that away from home, I’m not quite myself. The self changes in all kinds of unpredictable ways. One gets fearful, anxious, but also diligent, driven, even! Perhaps more importantly, one can no longer judge those who have trodden the same weary path. Perhaps, there lies a little bit of wisdom.

Now I am building myself a new home in this strange country with my partner and our little child. My interests remain as wide and varied as they always have been: art, philosophy, astronomy, palaeontology, games of all kinds, extreme genres of music, illuminated manuscripts, ancient history, mystic traditions, magic, cooking, and cats, etc.
I look forward to what life brings my way next.

A quote I would like to share is from my personal intellectual idol John Berger. His writings about hope and the human spirit have always fascinated me and resonate very strongly with my beliefs:

“Hope is a contraband passed from hand to hand and story to story.”

See: https://www.instagram.com/alinejatkaniyas/