Teacher depicts Turkish fables on water with marble painting art

DİYARBAKIR

A teacher from the southeastern province of Diyarbakır depicts fables of Anatolia with the Turkish art of marbling Ebru, posting her videos on YouTube as part of a joint project of the Education Ministry and UNESCO Turkey.

Benan Torğul, also the province coordinator of the “Fables of Anatolia Project,” had been carrying out the project, telling students about the Anatolian fables through the Ebru art in different schools of the region every Tuesday before the outbreak.

But when schools were closed due to the pandemic, the Provincial Directorate for Education launched a YouTube channel to broadcast Torğul’s art, with her videos becoming one of the most viewed in the country.

“Students, away from their teachers while getting distance online education, were having difficult times at home. So, to motivate them, I recorded these videos in which I merged fables and Ebru together,” said Torğul.

Modern age kids do not know Ebru and grow up without learning traditional values, according to the teacher.

“I marbled foxes, birds and storks of the fables just to draw their attention. With these videos, I tried to encourage them to develop interest in the Ebru,” added Torğul.

Feysel Taşçıer, the provincial director of education, was also happy about the feedback Torğul was receiving.  

“We wanted to support the kids in these difficult times by creating the channel. And we introduced two Turkish arts together in these videos. Children learn the fables with visual choreography,” said Taşçıer.

The director also remarked that they will start another project called “Fable House” in September as the new academic term begins.

Ebru is the traditional Turkish art of creating colorful patterns by sprinkling and brushing color pigments onto a pan of oily water and then transferring the patterns to paper. UNESCO has added Ebru to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2014.