Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) Center for Cyprus Studies and European Mediterranean Art Association (EMAA) are preparing to hold a Heidi Trautmann exhibition on the 15th of April World Art Day. Heidi Trautmann is an artist that has devoted her years to art, providing multiple contributions to the art environment.

The exhibition that will open at the Rauf Raif Denktaş Culture and Congress Center on Saturday, the 15th April 2017, at 18:00 will be available for visit until the 15th of May 2017. Trautmann’s 2 volume catalogue will be available for art-lovers to view.

EMU Center for Cyprus Studies and EMAA are organizing joint activities in order to draw attention to the universal language of art, its power, its connection to intellectuality as well as aesthetic values and its essential position in the development of mankind. In a statement released it was announced that this year they are proud to present Germany Order of Merit holder Heidi Trautmann’s exhibition comprised of her cultural and artwork carried out in our country over the last 16 years.

Who is Heidi Trautmann?

In 1941, Heidi Trautmann was born in the East Prussia region of Germany, in the city Königsberg now known as Kaliningrad. When she was 19 Trautmann spent a few years in Angola and Nigeria. She later moved to South Africa where she lived with her husband for six years and had two children. Here worked as a conference translator and interpreter as well as working with local artist.

She returned to Germany in the 1980s and received an education for three years at Rolf Markl’s art studio, participating in a number of joint exhibitions. She worked as a global travel guide at her husband’s travel agents for a period of four years. Later, she set up a “Werkhof” (art and studio house of a range of disciplines) in a location between Salzburg and Munich.

She organized barn operas, musical organizations attended by international artists, literature platforms, art exhibitions as well as pottery, art and handicraft bazaars. For approximately ten years she worked as a technical writer. Along with her husband she decided to build a sailing boat, which they lived in for six years. Before coming to Cyprus in 1999, they sailed the whole of the Mediterranean in their boat. In 2001, they permanently dropped anchor in Cyprus. That year Trautmann joined the Levantine College of Art in the Erdemit village and is still working there with the same group of artists. She held three solo exhibitions in Cyprus in 2005, 2007 and 2010. In Germany she held two solo exhibitions in 2010 and 2015 as well as joint exhibitions in 2006, 2007 and 2011.

In April 2005, Heidi published the book ‘Early Bird’ in German. In October 2007, she published the book titled ‘Die Welt ist mein Zuhause’. She has also published the book ‘North Cyprus my Way/Nordzypern’.

Her books contain local poems in German and English as well as a small collection of her artwork. She has also published the English and Turkish “Art and Creativity in North Cyprus” in two volumes. She wrote articles about the world of art for local newspapers from 2005 to 2015. She was and is writing articles on her own website www.heiditrautmann.com. She was given an Order of Merit by her county Germany in 2015 as a result of her artwork in Cyprus.