 Ali
Ahmad Saïd Esber (Adonis)
In Arabic click here
Curriculum
Vitae
Ali Ahmad Saïd Esber
Pen name: ADONIS
Born in Qassabin, Syria - 1930
He lived and had his cultural activity in Beirut, Lebanon, mainly
from 1956 to 1986
Nationality: Lebanese and French
Resides in France since 1986
Education
Schooling in
Tartous and Lattaquié, Syria
B.A. at Damascus University, Syria, 1951-1954
Ph.D. at University of St Joseph, Beirut, 1970-1973
Teaching
Experience
1971 – 1985:
Lebanese University: Professor of Arabic Literature.
1971 – 1985: University of St Joseph, Beirut: Ph.D. Advisor
1980 – 1981: Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle (Censier-Paris
III) : Visiting professor of Arabic Literature.
1983: Collège de France, Paris: Invited to lecture on Modernity.
1985: Georgetown University: Invited to lecture on Modernity in
Arab Culture.
Université
de Genève / Associate professor in charge of a seminar on
Arab Poetry.
Fellowship by
Trans-regional Institute, Center of International Studies at Prinston
University.
1998 – 1999:
Fellowship – Institute of Advanced Studies in Berlin.
2000 – 2001: Fellowship – Institute of Advanced Studies in Berlin.
Cultural
Activities
Co-founded and
co-edited the literary review Shi’r.
1964: Founded the literary review Afâq.
1967: Founding member of the Lebanese Writer’s Union.
Founded the
literary review Mawâqif of which he was editor in chief until
1995.
Other
Activities
UNESCO, Paris: Permanent Representative of the Arab league.
Honors
and Awards
1961: Prix de la revue Shi`r
1968 : Prix des Amis du Livre, Beirut.
1971: Syria-Lebanon Award of the International Poetry Forum, Pittsburg.
1974: National Prize of Poetry, Beirut.
1983: Member of the Académie Stéphane Mallarmé.
1983: Appointed “Officier des Arts et des Lettres” by the Ministry
of Culture, Paris.
1984: Exhibit at the “Maison de la Poésie”, Paris, and four
readings. Followed by talks and comments by other poets and philosophers.
1984: Médaille Picasso, Accorded by UNESCO
1986: Guest of Honor, Pen Club Week, New York.
1986: Grand Prix des Biennales Internationales de la Poesie de Liège,
Brussels
1990 : Member of Académie Universelle des Cultures, Paris.
1991 : Prix Jean-Marlieu-Etranger, Marseille.
1993 : Feronia-Cita di Fiamo Priwe, Rome.
1994 : Nazim Hikmet Prize, Istanbul.
1995 : Prix Méditerranée-Etranger, Paris.
1995: Prize of Lebanese Cultural Forum in France.
1997: Poetry Prize of Struga, Macedonia.
1999: Poetry Prize of Nonino, Italy.
2000 : Prix Alain Bosquet, Paris.
2001: Prix Goethe. Germany
2004: Grade of Docteur Honoris Causa, from the Université
de Genève.
2006: Medal of the Italian Cabinet. Awarded by the International
Scientific Committee of the Manzu Centre.
2006 : Prize of “ Pio Manzu – Centro Internazionale Recherche. “
2007: Grade of Docteur Honoris Causa, from the American University
of Beirut.
2007: The Bjornson Prize – Norway
2008: Premio Grinzane Cavour per la Lettura . Italy.
2008: Prize Max Jacob for Poetry - France
2008: Prize Giovanni Pascoli – San Mauro - Italy
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1-
Poetry
1957: Qasâ’id
Ûla, Beirut.
1958: Awrâk Fî l-Rîh, Beirut.
1961: Aghâni Mihiâr al-Dimashqî, Beirut.
1965: Kitâb al-Tahawwulât wal-Hijra fî Aqâlîm
al-Nahâr wal-Layl, Beirut.
1968: Al-Masrah wal-Marâya, Beirut.
1970: Waqt Bayna l-Ramâd wal-Ward
1977: Mufrad bi-Sighat al-Jam’, Beirut.
1980: Kitâb al-Qasâ’id al-Khams, Beirut.
1985: Kitâb al-Hisâr, Beirut.
1987: Shahwa Tataqaddam fî Kharâ’it al-Mâdda,
Casablanca.
1988: Ihtifâ’an bil-Ashyâ’ al-Wadihat al-Ghâmida,
Beirut.
1994: Abjadiya Thânia, Casablanca.
1995: Al-Kitâb, vol. 1, Beirut.
1998: Al-Kitâb, vol. 2, Beirut
1998: Fahras li-A’mâl al-Rîh, Beirut.
2002: Al-Kitâb, vol. 3, Beirut.
2003: Awwal al-Jassad, Âkhir al-Bahr
2003: Tanabba’ Ayyuha’l ‘A’mâ.
2006: Tãriikh Yatamazzaq fii Jassad Imra`a
2007: Warraaq Yabii` Kutub al-Noujoum
2007: Ihda` Hamlet, Tanachchaq Junoun Ophelia.
2-
Essays
1971: Muqaddima
lil-Shi’r al-Arabî, Beirut.
1972: Zaman al-Shi’r, Beirut.
1974: AL-Thâbit wal-Mutahawwil, vol. 1, Beirut.
1977: AL-Thâbit wal-Mutahawwil, vol. 2, Beirut.
1978: AL-Thâbit wal-Mutahawwil, vol. 3, Beirut.
1980: Fâtiha li-Nihâyât al-Qarn, Beirut.
1985: Al-Shi’ryyat al-Arabyya, Beirut.
1985: Syasat al-Shi’r,Beirut.
1992: Al-Sûfiyya wal-Sureâliyya, London.
1993: Hâ Anta Ayyuha l-Waqt, Beirut.
1993: Al-Nizâm wal-Kalâm, Beirut.
1993: Al-Nass al-Qur’âni wa Âfâq al-Kitâba,
Beirut.
2002: Mûsiqa al-Hût al-Azraq, Beirut.
2004: Al-Muheet al-Aswad, Beirut.
2008: Ra`s Al-Lughah, Jism Al-Sahra`, Beirut
2008: Al-Kitab Al-khitab Al-Hijab, Beirut
3-
Anthologies
1963: Mukhtârât
min Shi’r Yûsuf al-Khâl, Beirut.
1967: Mukhtârât min Shi’r al-Sayyâb, Beirut.
1964 – 1968: Diwân al-Shi’r al-‘Arabî, Beyrut. (3 Volumes).
4- Translations
From French
into Arabic:
1972 – 75: Georges
Schehadé, Théâtre Complet, 6 vol. , Beirut.
1972 – 75: Jean Racine, La Thébaïde, Phèdre,
Beirut.
1976 – 78: Saint-John Perse, Eloges, La Gloire des Rois, Anabase,
Exils, Neiges, Poèmes à l’étrangère,
Amers, 2 vols. , Damascus.
1987: Yves Bonnefoye, Collected Poems, Damascus.
2002: Ovide, Métamorphosis, Abu Dhabi, Cultural Foundation.
From Arabic
into French:
1988- Abu l-Alâ’
al-Ma’arrî, Rets d’éternité (excerpts from the
Luzûmiyyât) in collaboration with Anne Wade Minkowski,
ed . Fayard, Paris.
1998 - Khalil Gibran, Le Livre des Processions, in collaboration
with Anne Wade Minkowski, éd. Arfuyen, Paris.
5-
Translations of Adonis available in French:
Poetry
1982: Le Livre
de la Migration, éd. Luneau Ascot, translated by martine
Faideau, préface by Salah Stétié.
1983 : Chants de Mihyar le Damascène, éd. Sindbad,
translated by Anne Wade Minkowsky, préface by Eugène
Guillevic. Reprinted in 1995, Sindbad-Actes Sud.
1984: Les Résonances Les Origines, translated by Chawki Abdelamir
and Serge Sautreau, éd. Nulle Part.
1984: Ismaël, translated by Chawki Abdelamir and Serge Sautreau,
éd. Nulle Part.
1986: Tombeau pour New York, Suivi de Prologue à l’Histoire
des Rois des Ta’ifa et de Ceci Est Mon Nom, ed. Sindbad ? translated
by Anne W. Minkowsky. Reprinted in 1999, by éd. Sindbad/Actes
Sud.
1989: Cheminement du Désir Dans la Géographie de la
Matière, éd. PAP, translated by A. W. Minkowski.
1990: Le Temps Les Villes, éd. Mercure de France, translated
by Jacques Berque and A. W. Minkowski, in collaboration with the
author.
1991: Célébrations, éd. La Différence,
translated by A. W. M.
1991: Chronique des Branches, éd. la Différence, translated
by A.W.M. préface by Jacques Lacarrière.
1991: Mémoire du Vent ( anthology), éd. Poésie/Gallimard,
translated by C. Abdelamir, Claude Estéban, S. Sautreau,
André Velter, A. W. M. and the author, préface by
A. Velter. Reprinted in 1994, 97, 99, 2000, 03, 05.
1994: La Madâ’a,éd. PAP, Translated by A. W. M.
1994 : La Main de la Pierre Dessine le Lieu, éd. PAP, translated
by A. W. M.
1994: Soleils Seconds, éd. Mercure de France, translated
by Jacques Berque.
1995: Singuliers éd. Sindbad/Actes Sud, translated by Jacques
Berque re-édited by éd . Gallimard 2002
1997: Au Sein d’un Alphabet Second, 2d. Origine, translated by A.
W. M.
2003: Toucher La Lumière, éd. Imprimerie Nationale,
présentation, Jean Yves Masson, translated by A. W. Minkowski.
2004: Commencement Du Corps Fin De L’Océan, éd. Mercure
de France, translated by Vénus Khoury-Ghata.
2004: Alep, in collaboration with the artist photographer Carlos
Freire, éd. Imprimerie Nationale, translated by Renée
Herbouze,
2007: Le Livre I – Al Kitâb I, edit. du Seuil, Traduit par
Houriyya Abdel-Wahed.
2008: Histoire qui se déchire sur le corps d’une femme. Ed.
Mercure de France Traduit par Houriyya Abdel-Wahed.
Essays
1985: Introduction
à la Poétique Arabe, éd; Shndbad, forword by
Yves Bonnefoy, translated by Bassam Tahhan and A.W. M.
1993: La Prière et l’Epée (essays on arab culture),
éd. Mercure de France, intoduction by A. W. M., édited
by Jean-Yves Masson, translated by Layla Khatîb and A. W.
M.
2001: Amitié, Temps et Lumière, co-author Dimitri
Analis, éd. Obsidiane.
2004: Identité Inachevée, in collaboration with Chantal
Chawwaf,éd. du Rocher.
2006: Conversation avec Adonis, mon père, co-author Ninar
Esber éd. Seuil.
6-
A great number of translations have been published in other languages,
including English, Italian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Norvegian, Persian,
Spanish, Swedish, polish, Macedonian, Turkish, Portuguese, Chinese,
and Indonesian.
Available in
English:
1990: An Introduction
to Arab Poetics, (essay) Saqi Books, London, translated By Catherine
Cobham.
1992: Atif Y. Faddul, The Poetics of T. S. Eliot and Adunis, a comparative
study, Alhamra Publishers.
1994: The Pages of Day and Night, The Marlboro Press, Marlboro Vermont,
translated by Samuel Hazo.
2003: If Only the Sea Could Sleep, éd. Green Integer 77,
translated by Kamal Bullata, Susan Einbinder and Mirène Ghossein.
2004: A Time Between Ashes and Roses, Poems, With a forward of Nasser
Rabbat, ed. Syracuse University Press, translation, critical Arabic
edition by Shawkat M. Toorawa.
2005: Sufism and Surrealism, (essay) edit. by Saqi Books, translated
by Judith Cumberbatch.
2008: Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs. Translated by Adnan Haydar
and Michael Beard - USA
7- Critical
studies and appreciations in French:
1991: N°
16 of the review “Détours d’Ecriture”, Paris.
1991: N° 96 of the review “Sud”, Marseille.
1995: N° 8 of the review “L’Oeil du Boeuf”, Paris.
1996: May issue of the review “Esprit”, Paris.
1998: N° 2 of the review “Autre Sud” Marseille.
1998: N° 28 of the review “Pleine Marge”, Paris.
2000: Michel Camus, Adonis le Visionnaire, éd. Du Rocher.
Some 19 Arabic
books and great number of Academic dissertations on Adonis poetry
are available.
ART EXHIBITIONS
2000: Berlin
- Institute for Advanced Studies
2000 : Paris - L`Institut du Monde Arabe
2003: Paris - Area Gallery
2007: Amman -Shuman`s Gallery (co-exhibition With Haydar)
2008: Damascus - Atassy Gallery, exh. For 4 Poets-Painters (with
works of Fateh Mudarress, Etel Adnan, Samir Sayegh)
2008 : Paris - Le Louvre des Antiquaires : Calligraphies d`Orient.
(Collectif)
Adonis
and his attempt at reconciling civilizations
In these days,
If ever Adonis alias Ali Ahmed Said is mentioned, we automatically
think of the extent of suitability or accordance between Arab thought
derived from the Arab cultural heritage and modern Western thinking
which is constantly evolving and shaping the general human mind.
Ideas inherited
from old civilizations became obsolete and out of touch with the
daily changing life of modern man. The gap was widening between
Arab and Western civilizations all through the last 200 years. This
was evident starting with the advent of Napoleon's expedition on
Arab Mediterranean shores facing Europe and ending with the European
colonialism to the Arab Nation which resulted in contradictions
and perturbation of thoughts and conceptions.
I do not think
that any Arab contemporary thinker or intellectual could compete
with Adonis in expressing loud and clear what the reconciliation
of civilizations is all about in the same language which translates
the Artist's thought and ideas and within the same framework which
defines his intellectual and artistic perspective. For the past
half a century, Adonis appears as strikingly unique with respect
to his depth, insight, multi-faceted universal culture and as such
is able to shine as a reflection of this interesting facet of the
Arabic culture which carries a great potential to reach out to other
contemporary modern civilizations. As such, through his work Adonis
is able to defy western intellectual misconceptions about the dominance
of dark and obscure areas on the Arab cultural heritage scene. As
such, Adonis is able to demonstrate the capabilities of this culture
to evolve, to comprehend, and to reach out to other cultures so
as to contribute to enriching and enhancing modern contemporary
civilization.
It is clear
that Adonis is different from the majority of his contemporary Arab
thinkers as most of them are not willing to give and take when it
comes to the reconciliation of different cultures.
Arab intellectuals
can be divided into two camps: Those who are totally infatuated
with western culture and will try to imitate it blindly going by
the popular Syro-lebanese saying: All that is foreign is of superior
quality! The other camp is on the contrary, opposed to everything
foreign and in conflict to it because they consider it as the work
of the devil. This will not, however prevent them from depending
on the west and its technological advancement for their livelihood.
This is where
Adonis comes into the scene, mainly as the mediator, the one who
is capable of bringing together civilizations, the one who introduces
Arabic culture to the West and Western culture to the Arabs. Armed
with insight and discernment, he is well aware of the advantages
and disadvantages of each culture. The Artist will try to accommodate
together the two cultures in a scientific, realistic, unbiased,
and objective manner devoid of any influences from traditions and
religious convictions. Through his writings and his presentations,
one realizes how important is his role in rejecting the clashes
between civilizations and in harmonizing the relationship between
the two cultures.
It is fortunate to find that a large number of Arab and western
intellectuals realize that Adonis has paved the way for this tendency
to reconcile the different cultures and to nurture this line of
thought which makes of him a highly esteemed thinker praised for
his strong convictions in thought and in action, his perseverance
in the pursuit of his goal in the most familiar uncomplicated manner
with respect to language, style, performance and presentation.
Through this
event organized by Hunar Gallery in Dubai in honor of Adonis, another
aspect of the Artist's thought is revealed through Art; the art
of the reflection of script and the painting with words. Through
his artistic production, the artist reveals himself more as an innovator
than a skillful imitator as a result of his close interaction with
foreign contemporary cultures and modern artistic trends. Both qualifications,
creativity and conformity are sought and praised in any artistic
work.
Adonis in a
contemplative manner draws his letters and chooses the lines which
express the most the personality of the author of the chosen script.
Through these paintings exposed in the gallery, the artist is also
seeking certain recognition for himself along with the author of
his lines. He is in other words delivering the message that amid
his involvement with humanity's concerns around the world, he still
finds time for privacy and seclusion to be able to express and reveal
all what goes in his mind through this special form of art which
is at the top of the modern contemporary artistic expression and
tendency.
Abdul
Gaffar Hussain – Writer from Emirates
Adonis's
Muallaquat
His posters,
or should I say his poems by way of comparison, are initiated by
numerous and varied influences and inspirations. How exciting it
is for the viewer to look for and discover for himself what those
influences and inspirational material are!
They could be:
what has been picked up as left overs of mother nature after it
has been altered by time, dust, or oxidization, torn leaves by the
mind, sand shaped pebbles, strangely shaped industrial packaging
carton items, copper beads, threshed cannabis straws, metal plates,
car tires, filthy trampled plastic items.
At his work
table or surface, the artist embarks on creating his work of art
or composing his poem or amulet which carries a poetic enchanting
magical dimension. In the past, weren't amulets and talismans formed
out of a mixture of writings, paper, and thread? Wasn't the totem
a difficult piece of poetry to decipher?
Calligraphy
in Adonis's posters or boards appear as networks of horizontal inscriptions
within the very fabric of the composition of his art work displaying
totems as the main focus of their structures. Those inscriptions
serve a double purpose with respect to the choice of script and
the graphic design function. They could constitute a dialogue with
ancient poets such as the Maari, the Motanabi and their long stored
poems in our memories. Thus, his work of art could well be a manipulation
of somebody else's script with different painting tools. Knowledge
could be compared to a painting kit with pencils devoid of light
to paint large black and grey areas which govern the composition
of the initial painting. The script constitutes the main structural
composition. Knowledge is also comparable to A swing allowing you
to have a glance at what lies is beyond the garden of reality. As
for poetry and painting, the first is the rhetoric in writing beyond
just mere words, the second is what the hand picks up as an expression
of thought and what is perceived through the eye.
Adonis's poems
could be characterized as epic poetry which questions the universe,
human beings, the concept of beauty, phenomenon, and wonders about
the predictability of things and nature. His poetry is reflecting
his knowledge of the language and the mastering of its tools. He
uses rhetoric to reach to the essence of things.
Through his
paintings, Adonis the poet and the Artist, is also writing poems
but not the ones that are legible. Instead, he brings the world
before the viewer through the heteroclite objects he collects, the
remnants of man and nature, more as material for contemplation and
meditation than as esthetic elements for his paintings.
The artist is
satisfied with just the smooth flow of scribbling in his paintings
which is not constrained by the strict rules of Grammar. In scribbling,
he finds a biological and esthetic language instead of the traditional
significant dictionary-style one.
Rarely would
the Artist use pastel colors or any other painting color material.
Instead, he obtains the color element from his collage objects:
dust black, rusty purple, wood brown. He also gets it from the colored
rags and any corroded elements he finds and sticks with glue to
his working surface.
Perhaps the
dominance of the black color evokes the black ink used in writing.
Perhaps also, in his abstinence to use colors, he is trying to apply
religiously the rules of calligraphy? As a matter of fact, a poet
uses only paper and ink when writing poems. There is a distinct
contrast between Collage, which is a protrusive or hollow kind of
sculpture, and Calligraphy. The latter is smooth, polished, and
graphical. It flows horizontally and strictly on lines within controlled
accurate margins.
Collage, on
the other hand, is spontaneous, horizontally laid and fixed on the
working surface, and exhibits varying thickness and touching feel.
When applied, collage breaks the flow of Calligraphy and changes
its course. In itself, the element of collage is not an explanatory
tool for the script in the background of the painting surface; it
is not related to the essence of the script, it is both complementary
and contradictory to it. Perhaps the artist, being also a poet,
follows a certain plan when changing his working surface from blank
pages to painting spaces; and in an attempt of combining both talents,
uses the script as graphic networks to surround the collage element,
to intersect it or to flow beneath it.
Working elements
or objects are fixed with glue on the inscribed surface of the painting
haphazardly in a chaotic manner. They seem fragile liable to break
down and return to their source: mother Nature. Although solid in
nature, these elements will eventually fade away.
We could reach the conclusion that Adonis applies the techniques
of abstraction both in his writing as well as in his art, writing
being in a general sense, a tool for abstraction and symbolization.
The artist is raising this question: how far could a poem be diffused
when contained in a book or read by the poet on the most elevated
podium? Is not this the time for poems to be hung on walls as in
the Muallaquat?
How unique and
special are the Muallaquat!
Ziad
Daloul – Paris, April 10, 2007
Adonis's
Collages Self-portraits of multiple facets
Since the beginning
of the nineties, Adonis produced more than a hundred collage works
which are all unique in style. His productions reveal a certain
ease, smoothness, both lightness and profoundness; they are clear
and enigmatic at the same time. These are precisely the best attributes
for the artist himself. When introduced to his work, it is as though
we were exploring a previously discovered territory, and as such
it is with great pleasure and surprise that were-discover his works
as though they were once lost and then found. His style can be easily
traced from one collage to the other, along the same track which
is sometimes straight or sinuous, familiar or hazardous. This is
exactly the same path he takes when choosing his poems or his books.
Along this track or path interconnecting his collage works, Adonis
through the" visible" expresses the invisible, the inaccessible,
the emotional which words in his poems attempt to reveal. His works
in their totality constitute his own personnel territory; revealing
his unique style and guiding us as though sign posts down the road
of his literary works.
His collage
works are structured around a simple guiding principle: wherever
he goes, the artist collects small objects: small pieces of wood,
stones, and torn pieces of cloth, paper or rags, non-coded fragments
of everyday living. This method of picking up, collecting, and storing
in traveling bags what people normally ignore or pay no attention
to, is very similar to Kurt Schwitters'method "merz" in
collage work. In 1922, Schwiitters, taking to art critics, declared:
"you need greater knowledge and expertise when shaping a work
of art which is not yet formed in nature than when you merely gather
insignificant elements to shape them into a work of art according
to your own rules". "In art, the kind of material you
use is not important, what matters is how you use it to produce
a work of art" (…..) Does an art critic really grasp this notion?
This appropriation or snatching of real elements from mother earth
or from the industrial environment, similar to Marcel Duchamps's
"ready-mades", has succeeded in reconciling two notions
which the principle of duality in the west still considers as separate
concepts: the "artistic" and "non-artistic",
the "sense" and the "non-sense", the "visible"
and the "invisible". The artist adopts the reconciliation
approach in his collage work which to some is still difficult to
comprehend.
Adonis is not
satisfied with merely assembling collected objects and putting them
together according to color, form or nature criteria as other collage
artists do; he goes beyond that and takes a step further: he sticks
them on paper or carton backgrounds where he writes in calligraphy
form poems not by him but by his favorite Arab poets. Thus, the
artist offers the viewer simultaneously a mysterious composition
made of words of poets and collected objects which secrets the latter
is invited to unlock.
With Adonis,
it is always collage on calligraphy background and sometimes words
in the background do not have any sense or meaning. This is Adonis's
main innovation in the art of collage and innovations are rare with
respect to this art form.
It is very tempting,
though, to classify his collage work according to the use of certain
dominating colors such as black and red, or black and white, or
brown and beige, or red, gray and black. This classification is
easy but will not be of any help in the process of deciphering and
interpreting his work. In collage work, Adonis's concern or purpose
is not exclusively esthetic. Similarly, in his literary works, he
is not always engaged in seducing the reader. He is discretely breaking
rules and stepping over hierarchies. The "minute" and
the "form less" for the artist are equally important as
the "huge" and the "formed". However, this does
not in any way imply that for him, anything is equal to each other,
and that fundamental truths can be reduced to trivialities. The
message the artist wants to send is that simple things can lead
you to great concepts and ideas and vice versa. This is feasible
only if one remains alert to the world and reality around him; to
everything we say or do. This is precisely what the artist tries
to do; whether he is writing or practicing collage, whether he is
walking around or at his working table.
Those collected
objects he sticks to calligraphy backgrounds take a human shape
or a real or imaginary animal form. Also, they can have architectural
shapes such as doors, windows, houses, monuments…etc. Those shapes
are sometimes extremely clear and noticeable as well as hidden and
ambiguous in which case one should be able to read into this meaningless
calligraphy or into the significance of assembling unrelated objects.
Whether we are able to identify those shapes is not important inasmuch
as they are really present and are the result of a deliberate choice
of the artist.
It is the viewer's
task then to give his own interpretation of these shapes."Viewers
are the ones who make the paintings". This is a famous Duchamps's
saying which is very much applicable in this case and elsewhere.
However, when we are successful in identifying the eye with its
pupil, iris, brows, and lashes in one of Adonis's beautiful collage
works in 1998, we have the feeling of being observed or under scrutiny
by the eye. Also, when Adonis produces human shapes in the form
of warriors or dancers, he is in effect addressing himself to each
and every viewer independently. In general, his works are often
an open invitation for the reader and the viewer to reinvent or
reinterpret reality and the world around them.
Upon careful
examination, could we not come to the conclusion that our initial
and subsequent impressions (if there is such a thing as first and
second impression) of these collages result in comparing them to
fictitious self-portraits. They are produced as though they were
a personal mirror for the artist. But instead of reflecting one
single self-portrait of him, they send back a multitude of portraits.
Through them, he identifies himself with a fighter or an acrobat
or a kite runner or an orator or a thinker or a contemplator, or
an inquirer or a disguised person. Also, he could be a bird or an
insect, a hippocampus, a horse or almost one, a bear or almost one,
a person holding books, or a lover before his beloved. This is what
he appears to be in a successive and alternative manner without
ever sticking to one identification or one role as though an actor
with multiple talents even to the point of taking the part of the
immobile person. Those shapes are always placed over a script or
text, the infinitely rich texts of others, the source of all present
and future texts.
This omnipresence
of the written word whether legible or illegible from Arabic origin
or any other foreign one, expresses the will of the artist to fit
in the written text to the very essence of the objects. From this,
we infer that the artist believes that there exists no single absolute
language.
For him, words
are similar to the sea which allows objects to float at its surface.
Each collage work is conceived as an aquatic language of arabesques
carrying different objects; in other words, a recovery operation
of the debris of the real world around us. As the real world has
been disseminated through the disaggregation of its parts or its
essence, it is the duty of the poet more than anybody else to try
to gather the dispersed object and rescue it from being lost forever
and from being devoid of any meaning. With Adonis, we remain on
the individual and collective level in the realms of the short-term
or the temporary, within the proximity of the possible or the eventual.
The hazards and fortunate discoveries which are the main source
for his collage objects led him to bestow upon them a new meaning
totally different than the one they were predestined to convey which
is fixed, regulated by strict rules and regulations and deprived
of any lively significance.
We seem to constantly
forget that humanity as a whole is the source of all languages and
the owner of all words. Words are part of Time, but they could also
lie beyond. They constitute part of Space but they can run beyond
the space limits in another drifting world. Let us remember this
fact: here represents everywhere and now stands for always. The
act of conferring or re-giving a certain meaning to objects and
words is an expression of supreme liberty and freedom. This is precisely
what Adonis is enjoying while producing his collage pieces. Adonis
is not alone in expressing total freedom of expression. It is not
out of vanity or conceit or a feeling of self-importance that Adonis
is exercising this freedom, but rather out of a close connection
to and being influenced by Arab painters and Sculptors such as Mona
Saudi, Etel Adnan, Shafic Abboud, Mehdi Kotby, Ziad Dalloul, Said
Farhan, Assadour, Kamal Boullata, Dia Azzawi, Ahmed Jarid, farid
Belkahia. The Artist was also influenced by many western contemporary
painters such as Achille Perilli, Marc Pessin, and Anne Slacik.
Adonis solicited the participation of painters such as Soulages,
Velickovic, and Christian Bouille with whom he has strong affinity
to share with some of their works in the exhibition he held at the
Institut du Monde Arabe.
Soulages participated
with his famous work "noir-lumiere" which carries numerous
metaphysical meanings. As for Velickovic, he participated with one
of his famous work of art related to war and its devastations. Christian
Brouille, on the other hand shared with a very unexpected dramatic
and jolly painting which secrets he only can unlock. It was only
natural for Adonis to present alongside this painting a corresponding
collage which sheds light on the Parisian experience of Adonis and
its influence on his work.
Adonis, the
unifier, does not separate Arab Artists from Western ones. He adheres
to all of them with the same enthusiasm, and the same sense of fusion
and complicity. This is clearly expressed in his collage work and
in his books. He firmly believes that we should give a new meaning
to our existence on earth. For him, it is not only life and the
world that we need to transform but mainly our inner feelings and
attitudes with respect to everything and every man whoever he is
and from wherever he comes.
The
Magic of the Orient and the Occident
Dancing legendary
creatures, rocky formations, symbols in secret language in clouds,
sand, and alga: All of these are the main constituents of the plastic
art paintings of Adonis, along with all what is considered peculiar,
enchanting and cannot be expressed in written words. At the same
time, these paintings form part of an on-going written entity, starting
with the poem then being the link between poetry, calligraphy, and
image on one hand, and on the other, between imagery languages in
the East and in the West. The poet does not deal only with poetry
lines and rhymes, but also with scissors, carton paper, cloth, small
needles, and thread. This art exhibition at the Berlin Scientific
Institute is the Artist's first one in Germany but his fourth one
as he already exhibited his works three times in Paris, his homeland.
Looking deeper
into the small soft compositions with strong vegetal and earthly
colors, we could trace his modifications of the poetic scripts as
a controversial attitude with respect to the cultural Arabic heritage
and the Artist's unique contemporary experience with western influence.
In the same
way that Adonis's poetry is connected to classical Arabic poems
and French surrealism and Islamic Sufism in an exciting revisited
relation, some of his paintings are devoid of imagery and some are
full of them. At first glance, it would seem that a large number
of those images and forms are threatened by Calligraphy art which
attempts at replacing image with written script. If we look deeper
into the subject, we notice that on the contrary, there exists a
pleasant vital balance between images and calligraphy. They both
embrace and ornament each other in a certain rhythm. Anyone who
can decipher what is written will not find old traditional poems,
but rather some verses of Adonis which extends inside the image
and melts in it. Often do words quit the front scene, in an orderly
or distorted manner to appear within the structure of the painting?
The written word becomes just meaningless scribbling. As for the
smaller paintings, they appear as though they were post cards reproducing
their own figures devoid in some instances of the written word.
As such, through these smaller paintings, creatures become tree
leaves tossed by the wind; hence, the significance of the pseudo
name of the artist Adonis which refers to an ancient Greek Eastern
legend, rooted in the vegetative kingdom, giving a new poetic dimension
to the name of the artist.
Henrich
Detering - Frankfurt Newspaper FAZ - 21/3/2002
►► Adonis's
Muallaquat
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