تلزلا ايح
I’m still alive
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The artwork Maisara designed at our request for one of the exterior walls of ‘art studios Kipvis’ in Vlissingen.
Baroud systematically shares his black-and-white diaries on his social media platforms, creating a continuous exhibition of documentation and protest.
Image ©2024 SceneNow
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an attempt to some words the artwork in Vlissingen the artwork in Middelburg
some other artworks by Maisara Baroud some answers by Maisara Baroud
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attempt to some words
05
an attempt to some words
A fluent number of artists, living and working in Zeeland, occasionally try to draw attention to the horrors inflicted on our fellow artists through exhibiting their high-quality work in (semi)public spaces.
Last year we exhibited work in Middelburg in ruimteCAESUUR by the Ukrainian artist Oleg Karch who had to flee Russian violence.
Now we are showing a work created at our request especially for this occasion by Gazan Maisara Baroud, the Palestinian artist who makes a Gaza drawing every day with the recurring title "I am still alive.”
Baroud’s art practice is infused with what he calls the black-and-white dichotomy, which he relies on to highlight human suffering in different parts of the world, particularly in Palestine. His work seeks to address humanitarian issues artistically and aesthetically, highlighting topics such as war,
highlighting topics such as war, immigration, political prisoners, illegal arrests, occupation, etc., and using dramatic and tragic scenes in which he explores the meanings of grief, sadness, death, violence, weakness, peace, hope, freedom, and light in a reflection of how life is intertwined with the fresh and continuous scent of death.
Baroud has participated in over 40 local and international group exhibitions in Palestine, France, the United States, and Japan, as well as Italy, Russia, Qatar, Egypt, Algeria, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, Kuwait, and Canada. And now in Holland. His studio was flattened, he has had to move his family 10 times and now he shares a small house in Raffah with 25 others. Yet Maisara Baroud finds a way to document the fear and devastation he sees all around him.
devastation he sees all around him.
We were very touched by that work and asked Maisara to put together a work from his series of drawings on one of the exterior walls of art studio Kipvis on Dreesstraat in Flushing.
Our communication was and is extremely chunky because of the constant disconnects, whether by phone, fb chat or email. In an interview with The Guardian, Maisara commented about his work, "My lines became sharper and tighter with each scene I drew, with the black areas swallowing up the surface of the white paper. Tragedy, in all its details, was reflected on this paper. The drawings took the place of a cry and were a call from the midst of war to stop the killing ... and that the world would notice what is happening in Gaza and its enclosed universe.'
universe.' 'I no longer have a safe house to shelter me and my small family. The missiles fell on my drawing studio (my own little world) and destroyed it. The planes wiped out all the future plans I had for my children. The steel bird killed my little cat Sarah and chewed her soft flesh before the cat could pass on her seven souls to my children.’
‘The university at which I work as a lecturer has disappeared and lies in ashes. The war machine has distorted the features of my small city and the occupation has destroyed all the beautiful things in it; so the things that are fixed in my memory now lie distorted under the rubble.’
‘In the blink of an eye I became a displaced person in cities that do not know me. I have moved 10 times in search of safety for me
person in cities that do not know me. I have moved 10 times in search of safety for me and my children, far from the heart of Gaza. I now live in the south of Rafah, in a small house with 25 other people. The space has become diminshed without clean water for drinking and showering, without electricity, fuel or gas for cooking. Like other people, I spend most of my day meeting daily household needs, in the shadow of soaring infla-t tion and scarce goods. But this isn’t all, you have to go in search of survival and safety (which is lacking) for you and your family, and wait for the start of a new day after the end of a long night in Gaza filled with aircraft, rockets and death.’
Since the stormy weather played tricks with the canvas in Vlissingen, so we renewed that one. It turned out that with some adjustments this canvas could be re-used. We did so, with the kind permission of the board of de Nieuwe Kerk at Groenmarkt in Middelburg on July 17.
May 27 / July, 2024 . . .
‘For me, sadness is a decision postponed until after the war; I decided to carry on drawing despite the difficulty of the circumstances and kept for myself some time at stances and kept for myself some time at night after a long day. Drawing has become the special way to help me overcome death for a bit.’ ‘Drawing, for me, is the way to break the blockade and in this way cancel and challenge the borders and the barriers placed by the occupation.’
Artwork studios KipVis | Vlissingen
Baroud print on canvas 470 x 160 cm
Groenmarkt | Middelburg
part of the Abby Complex / New church
I’m still alive
Maisara Baroud
print on canvas 470 x 160 cm
ink on Canson paper all 21 x 30 cm
a few questions posed by us answered by Maisara Baroud by mail | May 31, 2024
some answers
What you think about your work being placed in Vlissingen?
I believe that placing my work and participating in Vlissingen is an absolute expression of total solidarity with Palestine in general and Gaza in particular. I was honoured to choose my work and place it in the venue and with this participation, my work has transcended the siege, barriers and borders.
How do you feel about this group of artists installing it?
The efforts of the artist friends were clear and serious, starting with the choice of work and continuous communication. I felt their attention to every small detail that would make the public space integrated, accurate measurements and keen observation that would give an integrated and perfect picture at the end of the day.
I created a special artwork for these friends, a mural that I hope I have succeeded in assembling its parts and I hope it will be at a level worthy of the attendees and participants. Perhaps you could also spend some words on the use of ‘the arrow’, 'the tulip', 'the crescent moon 'and/or 'the cat', in your works.
The arrow is a reference to the self’s compass, its dispersion and its distribution during the war between emergency roles for which it was unprepared and which were already too heavy for it to bear. The arrow is also a reference to attempts to get out - to escape from this reality. The arrow has different connotations depending on the scene, indicating ascending, descending, falling, rising, entering and exiting the space of the white paper,is a reference
per, the arrow is a reference to a road that leads us to anything, the arrow is the boundary of the body and the scene and the guide for those seeking to survive the massacre. The crescent moon is a symbol that refers to a glimmer of hope and a state of waiting; the crescent moon is the least visible part of the moon, which is waiting to be completed into a full moon, but it remains a crescent moon and is not completed in my work. The crescent is a symbol of the incompleteness of the scene. The crescent moon is what remains in the Gaza sky and its light is not enough to illuminate the space and the scene. It also symbolises the night itself, in which planes are active and shells and missiles fall on the heads of safe people, the crescent moon is half reality and half life.
crescent moon is half reality and half life. The tulip is the flower of life, hope and the future. It often appears broken and shattered as a sign of the absence of a horizon and the cruelty of reality, sometimes lying on the ground and often remaining in the hand as a desperate attempt to cling to what remains of life and hope.
The cat is the witness to the daily massacre and the war of extermination, and it is able to give others its seven lives, and is able to stay with them and sacrifice for them.The cat is a gentle, gentle and sometimes fierce creature, with a high ability to evade and try to survive if it senses danger. It also represents on a personal level all that I have lost in this war: my cat Sarah, who gave us her seven lives before her soft flesh was chewed by the steel bird.
The production in Vlissingen came about thanks to Maisara Baroud
Jochem Weststrate leon riekwell
Giel Louws
Dani Ploeger hans overvliet
All art works of Maisara Baroud | Gaza
The production in Middelburg came about thanks to Maisara Baroud
Jochem Weststrate
Giel Louws
Chris Gors hans overvliet
Photos
Photos
Ilja Tuning | Omroep Zeeland
Jochem Weststrate hans overvliet
Catalogue hans overvliet
Chris Gors hans overvliet
Groenmarkt | Middelburg | July 18, 2024
