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Hanibal Srouji: A song for freedom
by Roula el Zein
'Somewhere
in the Orient, there is a magnificent bird with a celestial voice’.
So began one of the tales Hanibal Srouji used to read as a child.
He once wrote 'In our countries, in Lebanon in particular, people
give food and nurture birds for their delicate colours and their
wonderful songs, often as symbols of freedom'.
Freedom is at
the heart of Hannibal Srouji's work. Lebanon, too, plays a role
in his artistic expression. "For me, painting is a necessity.
My work is always linked to the history of Lebanon and the Middle
East," says Srouji, who left his homeland at the tender age
of 18.
The year was
1976 and the civil war was raging in Lebanon. After many sleepless
nights in the Southern city of Saïda, which had been blockaded
for weeks, he and his family escaped to Cyprus aboard a ship which
had docked in Lebanon to deliver flour. From there, he immigrated
to Canada.
Srouji's nostalgia
for the beloved paradise he had lost slow I y gained momentum. When
he returned to Lebanon 15 years later and saw his country still
in ruins, the experience left an indelible mark. By accepting the
reality of his country's position, Srouji was able to move forward
and, as time passed, he began to revisit Lebanon more and more,
and even became a regular exhibitor.
"In Lebanon,
I found my place among other artists and colleagues for whom I have
a lot of respect. But I must say that my presence in Beirut is mainly
due to the work do with Janine Rubeiz Gallery," says Srouji.
"The gallery has given me the opportunity to do so many new
things. I consider every exhibition as a project. It's not just
about sending paintings I have here [in Paris] . I always think
about every show and prepare specifically for each exhibition."
For Srouji,
the renewed conflict in 2006 brought back terrible memories. Having
left Saïda as a teenager, his city was experiencing a new tragedy
30 years later. "On 12 July, I was in my studio in Montreuil
with Nadine Begdache [ the owner and director of Janine Rubeiz Gallery
] when we heard the tragic news," says Srouji. "She managed
to go back to be with her family and I stayed in Paris. Faced with
the terrible events that were taking place, I was in a state of
shock. It was a disaster on all levels. It was a human tragedy,
an economical disaster and an ecological catastrophe for the country.
After the civil war, the Lebanese had managed to rebuild ...but
the country was transformed back into rubble in just a few days."
The series 'Memory
and Transformation' encompasses bath the themes of human emotion
and of Beirut following the civil war. These large-panelled works
evoke the crippled buildings and surfaces of the Lebanese capital.
One can see how their bullet-marked walls are painted amid a torrent
of emotion. In places, Srouji has even spread the acrylic over the
canvas with his own sprawling hands, while in others he has used
a blow-torch to create small hales and lines. These manifestations
of the conflict's structural and emotional damage give the paintings
colour and an additional dimension. "Sometimes, I also use
a small bowl of cotton, which I soak in olive oil. Next, I set light
to it and roll it around on the canvas. I push it with the tip of
my thumb so it goes from side to side creating burns that, in the
end, give the same visual effect as drawing."
"For me, painting is a necessity; my work is always linked
to the history of Lebanon and to the Middle East in general,"
Srouji's exploration
of the destruction created by errant particles and his experiments
in other media on large scale canvases began, following his return
to Beirut. As an artist, he sees the marks left by flaming cotton
as akin to musical tones; visual sounds which he, as the choreographer
of the scene, directs. "The particles are in perpetual movement..."
says Srouji. "They remind me of the Lebanese people who are
constant I y on the move." Although he still has concerns for
his homeland and fellow countrymen, Srouji has not lost confidence.
"I am sure that the Lebanese, with all their differences, are
capable of rebuilding the country. After 15 years of fighting each
other, we have learnt that we are all bound to this little piece
of land, and there is no way to survive except to unite. It is this
specificity of Lebanon, with its multi-confessional and - multi-ethnic
society, and the liberty and tolerance which it allows, that makes
it the target of so much aggression."
In his large
studio in the Parisian suburb of Montreuil, one can see how Srouji
is struggling to emerge from the darkness. Some of the canvases
adorning the walls, both finished and unfinished, are so light in
texture and colour that one can see Srouji's 'Iost paradise' resurrected.
"The
particles are in perpetual movement. . . They remind me of the Lebanese
people who are constantly on the move." Hanibal Srouji
The "healing"
period, as he calls it, relates to works which address the state
of Lebanon. It started in 1996 with a series which featured colourful,
yet uniform, strips of canvas juxtaposed with ones of a more sombre
nature (some even carry charred ends). Whether a wall hanging or
mounted side by side in a frame, Srouji ensures no strip is displayed
alone. However, their arrangement is random and the composition
temporary. "They're not just something to look at, but to rearrange
as well," he says. "It's all part of the game."
Srouji applies a playful approach to his latest works too. This
time, the paintings are square and can be hung alone or joined to
form diptychs or triptychs. By changing the combination, Srouji
offers an almost infinite variety of interpretations, depending
on the sequence of the works. By turning each painting upside down,
a whole new range of possibilities opens up, which in turn pours
forth new meanings. "My work is in constant evolution; free,
colourful but grave in its allegory. It is a work of variable dimensions
and temporal existence," says Srouji, who has personal experience
of what it is like to be uprooted and move from one world to another.
Srouji has spent
the last three decades travelling the world, exploring new places
and experimenting with different modes of expression. Perhaps it
is fate that the artist/wanderer carries the same name as the great
Carthaginian general who scoured the world but always carried a
deep love for his home/and. From Saïda, he pursued formal studies
in art at Concordia University in Montreal, before moving to Paris
where he has been living since 1989. A disciple of drawing and painting
from an early age, Srouji was waylaid by science for a while before
returning to the artistic fold and graduating with a Master's degree
in Fine Art. His thesis focused on the role of the objects in painting
"not as a representation but as the object itself in sculpture,
painting and installations."
"My
work is in constant evolution; free and coloured but grave in its
allegories. It is a work of variable dimensions and temporal existence."
During the research
for his paper, he spent several months in the city of NÎmes
in the South of France, a place he regularly visited once he became
Assistant Professor at Canada's Concordia University. "I used
to take my students there for an intensive month of painting. I
was planning to organise a similar thing for students from Lebanon;
to bring them to France for summer courses in painting, drawing
and museum visits... This is an idea, but still a feasible one,"
says Srouji who continues to educate the next generation from his
base in Paris.
Srouji does
not teach painting anymore (he stopped in 1993) but is indulging
in his scientific interest once again as a computer programming
tutor. "I was interested in computers from the very beginning,"
he says. "In 1980, I saw my first mouse. Now, 20 years later,
I have reinvested in computing and I am currently teaching artists
computer drawing skills. I am still in education and run the drawing
section at a photography school." Of course, Srouji spends
a lot of time tucked away in his studio. His adventures in fire,
rust and water add force to his art. From his deliberations in the
pure aesthetic, to investigating the representational force of the
abstract, Srouji allows the interpretation of his work to be almost
limitless. Every one of his realisations comes with a story and
a language. It is the fruit of a thought, a decision, and an unremitting
desire to express.
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