27 January 2022

Health, wellness and longevity at the heart of the goal of "BG4SDGs - Time To Change"

Every morning, Kazim Gürbüz wakes up at dawn to start the day with a run in the open air that precedes a long swimming session in the waters of the sea. He then devotes body and mind to his great passion, yoga, which he accompanies with a strict vegetarian diet based on products he himself has grown. His goal is to keep his agile and sculpted physique in perfect shape.

But what sets Kazim Gürbüz apart from the hundreds of millions of fitness enthusiasts around the world? The identity card. This unique yoga master was born in the small village of Şahinağa, Turkey, on November 10, 1924, making him an impressive 97 years old.

Kazim Gürbüz's life is the starting point for the story of the fourth chapter of "BG4SDGs - Time To Change", the photographic project in which, together with Stefano Guindani, we investigate the state of realization of the 17 SDGs of the UN 2030 Agenda. At the center of the photographer's lens ends the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 3, the one dedicated to ensuring health and well-being for all and for all ages.

In a world convulsed by the pandemic, talking about healthy, long-lived living holds an importance that perhaps not even the UN imagined when the 17 Goals of the 2030 Agenda were defined in 2015. Yet according to the UN's latest findings, there are still 400 million people today without access to health care and disease prevention services. This is an already large number that the Covid-19 pandemic is causing to grow very rapidly.

And while a definitive solution to this health inequality can only be solved at the institutional level, a first step can be taken by each person in his or her inner self, just as Kazim Gürbüz does every day. In order to keep his physique in perfect shape and reach the goal of 130 years of life, the yogi Kazim has developed a discipline of moves and positions that he has renamed Yoki. At the base of Yoki is the search for new sources of psychophysical energy to maintain, repair and rejuvenate the body by eliminating all unnecessary impurities.

"Today, as never before, it is fundamental to choose a lifestyle and a diet that allow us to pursue a physical and psychic well-being while managing to preserve the resources of our planet. Kazim's choice appears to be a winning one, after all we have already seen great ascetics living with absolute simplicity. We must realize that the quality of life often depends on the food we eat and the lifestyle we choose to lead. As Kazim says "A little is good, a lot is too much" commented Stefano Guindani, author of the project.

The project

Presented on September 15, 2021 in Milan, BG4SDGs - Time to Change will now continue for another 13 months in order to explore all 17 SDGs of the UN 2030 Agenda. For each of them, the key adopted by the photographer will be twofold: on the one hand it aims to highlight the negative action of mankind on the environment and the community, on the other hand, how the same human race has instead an extraordinary ability to recover through innovative and sustainable solutions. In his research, Guindani will go beyond the Italian borders looking for critical cases and situations of excellence abroad: Brazil, Norway and Australia, but also the United States, Turkey and South Africa. He will be accompanied by an exceptional accompanist, Alberto Salza, one of the most internationally renowned anthropologists, who will edit the texts of the project and suggest some of the projects to be monitored.