After 4 years of absence from the local Art scene, Maroun Hakim inaugurated on the eve of July 14th, 2022, a new exhibition of paintings and sculptures entitled: "A Salute to my Country", at Art on 56th in Gemmayzeh, Beirut. This exhibition is M. Hakim's own interpretation of recent dark years in the history of Lebanon with the perpetual glimmers of hope present in the artist's work over the years.
The collection of artworks is composed by 36 new paintings created between 2017 and 2022 along with 13 sculptures created between 2016 and 2022 (except for one which was previously exhibited in 2001).
The opening was a great success with over 300 guests who came and enjoyed the exhibition till 10 pm.
The exhbition runs till August 6, 2022, as the gallery opens daily, Tuesday to Saturday, from 11 am till 6 pm.
Some images from the opening night:
A Salute to my Country
I am clothed with the soil of my country, I will not abandon the soil, I will not abandon my country.
I gather my personal pain, gather the sorrows of my slain country. Take refuge in a dream with hope, with beautiful patience, with wisdom, and with will, and prevent tragedy, prevent disaster and the disappointments of time, from achieving victory over me.
The wounds are thick, the paths are dark and closed, and the beasts gnaw at the body of the city and perch on its ruins.
The wounds heal, the mind calms, I arrange the sorrows, I conjure the colored spaces and begin to restore the face of the earth, declaring peace, raising its flag, in search of light, or the wing of a bird, or a rose that emanates its smell from the groans of rubble.
Before the big explosion, before its volcanoes erupted, my Nature was magical, inspiring, luminous, and serene. I painted and colored it as if it were fountains of light and joy:
Flirting with the clouds of its Spring and Summer, with the warmth of its snows, with the hotness of bricks, with the serenity of the earth after the harvest seasons and the olive picking. Enjoying its sunrise and sunset, its moonlit nights, glimpsing the mountains guarding the plains, its stillness, its dialogue with the sky, its clouds flirting with the mist, and its sun fleeing at sunset, but on the promise of return.
Our earth is our mother, from its sweetness I create splendor. Her pains are maternal pains, her tremors inciting the births of creation.
The works of this stage are characterized by their bright colors and bright lights. It is characterized by different densities of colors and textures in the sensory and visual texture, and spaces that call for joy and pride, in the seasons’ prayers and the change of their climates between sunrise and sunset, and in capturing the temptations and desires of light.
Suddenly, without warning and due to a mysterious rage, dreams vanish: the light withdraws, the horizons darken, and the city is blown away.
Darkness prevails, and death reaps crowds of loved ones in my country. Bodies mingle with doors and windows, stones, dust and darkness, and all paths lead to the unknown, to the crushing darkness.
Hope becomes a mirage before the ruins of the surrendered city and its angry entrances.
Dreams fade over the ruins, in the fall of disappointments, the darkness of the roads, and the bottom of the abyss.
In this era, my feelings freeze, my creative abilities stagnate, and my desire to formulate artworks that embody the horror of tragedy is paralyzed.
In the struggle of reflections, obsessions, and suffering, in the bitterness and horrors of bereavement, my brushes, paints, and chisels await the moment that leads me to the white paper, to the cloth, to the stone.
... And when the terrors of emotions and storms subside, when the land of ashes gathers its sorrows, to declare that it is a land of peace and love in a time of wars, and when they decide to rise up from the depression of their disappointments and heal their wounds, and when they are armed with hope so that the homeland does not become cemetery or exile, I regain my creative health, and I decide to express in color through movement this critical stage in the history of our country, but without tension, without directness, leaving my artistic feelings to frame this solemn event with works that remain purposeful aesthetic witnesses.
In this section of the works, the subject shifts from the countryside to the city, with its buildings and rubble. I focus on the scattering of buildings and what they contain, and on narrow spaces, squeezing themselves with opaque colors devoured by the scattering of door and window openings and crashes, suggesting ruin and fragmentation. It is as if behind every hole a human eye bears witness to the bereavement and its horrors.
From the heart of this hurricane, hope creeps into this darkness, expanding the space for some light so that hope and resurrection can breathe in the spirit of the homeland and its components, in an optimistic view aimed at cooling souls and calming congestion, hoping that this aesthetic and human moment will be our opportunity for new beginnings.
Maroun El Hakim
1 June 2022
Artist Statement in Arabic - نصّ عن المعرض بقلم الفنان في اللغة العربية
You can download the exhibition catalog on this link.
