IMAGES OF THE EAST Focused on and around “Pictures from the East” by Robert Schumann, this new program offers an unusual encounter with the works of Nizar Ali Badr, a Syrian sculptor who has been enthusiastically discussed across the social platforms in recent months. Short audio-visual inserts placed between the movements of Schumann’s composition serve as contrasting pictures from the east. According to the Syrian sculptor his unique language of pebble sculptures should “spread happiness and love amid war, destruction, death, migration, exodus, chaos, poverty and injustice”. Mr. Badr hopes that “this war will end soon, and that the killing will stop”. In the meantime freed Spanish journalist Ángel Sastre compares the war in Syria with a dead-end tunnel: “I identify very much with the Syrian people and am ashamed of the position taken by western countries who only talk about Syria when they see their own welfare threatened by the mass arrival of refugees. Being realistic, there seems to be no happy ending in sight for Syria. It’s a dead-end.” Every time a stone sculpture is finished, it has to be destroyed, because fixing stones with special glue on special supports has become unaffordable in present Syria. While creating a stone sculpture, the artist knows with certainty that there is nothing there to hold it together and that all of his works will undoubtedly be destroyed in time, just like the sand mandalas. Through this inherent ephemerality Mr. Badr’s work implies the capacity to confront the temporal nature of life. The animation is synchronized with the music from “Zodiac Melodies for Music Boxes” by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Selected parts of this cycle are performed by Gidon Kremer and the members of the Kremerata Baltica. Short preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ7HC7zgDSg Technical requirements: music stands with individual lightning, a wide screen placed behind the orchestra, a high quality video projector, a microphone with the basic amplification for the music box. Duration: 28 minutes
An interview with the Syrian Artist Nizar Ali Badr:
https://syriancreativehavens.com/portfolio/syrian-artist-nizar-ali-badr/
Articles about the pebble sculptures of the Syrian artist:
http://vsemart.com/nizar-ali-badr-pebble-stories/http://osocio.org/message/ these-stone-sculptures-from-syria-tell-the-stories-of-the-war/ http://www.neatorama.com/2015/10/11/Nizar-Ali-Badrs-Simple-Stone-Sculptures-Tell-Complex-Stories/ http://www.graphicart-news.com/unimaginable-collection-of-compositions-made-of-pebbles-and-stones/#.WAmpqTtMRak