Darat al Funun currently on

In the main building of Darat Al Funun, a feast of colour and beauty meets the eye. At the entrance, a big sand and mixed media canvas depicting a dark blue sea and ochre sand, by Mohammad Kaitouqa (Jordan), welcomes the visitor. Specialised in murals and stained glass, Kaitouqa started using sand and –blossomed”.

Further ahead, Jordanian Rajwa Ali's little prints flank the entryway to the room where the square, a recognized earth symbol, all the more imposing after Rajwa's minimal works, is used in monumental works by Kamal Boullata (Palestine).

Working with purity of form, Boullata's geometrical representations are based on this particular geometrical shape. Superimposing it and playing with colours, he creates optical effects that exact the viewer's attention. Behind Boulatta's passion for geometry, says art critic Abdelkebir Khatibi, –lies the tradition of icon-painting, which forged the beginnings of his artistic training, a tradition that has maintained a venerable continuity between Byzantium and the Arabo-Islamic civilisation of the Middle East”.

The artist dynamically experiments with square, symbols and shapes; you can either see light seeping through his canvas (a stain-glass church window calmly reflecting sun light) or two overlaid squares making a hexagon (the Dome of the Rock of his childhood). Pure lines yet mystical thoughts, the dream world of an exile is present in the mostly pastel-coloured works of this artist.

At the very entrance, Egyptian Adam Henein's sculptures complement Jordanian Samer Tabbaa's works. Henein's works on papyrus are contemporary abstracts that betray a traditional, pharaonic, background.

Many perspectives open in this room, but Algerian Rachid KoraÝchi's impressive calligraphic paintings, illustrations of Mahmoud Darwish's and Mohamad Dib's poems, are particularly bound to capture the eye. Perhaps the disciplined alignment of the paintings, perhaps the golden print on black canvas or perhaps the desire to decipher the secret contained in his lettering draw the viewer. Perhaps, again, it is just the mastery of an artist whose skill is as complex as it is unexpected..

His inscriptions challenge the imagination. The signs seem to follow no distinct direction. They are contorted images of a purity and simplicity achieved only by Chinese ideograms, hieroglyphs that can be read by Arab viewers but are more likely to confound the others. Where does an image begin and where does it end? Are they images of Darwish's people and places (twisted human bodies in the devastated camps of Sabra and Shatilla, a mosque's minaret) or a double of the poet's writings, creating amorphous monograms? KoraÝchi's pottery, well known and appreciated, is on display under the calligraphic works.

His olivettes draw inspiration from the shape of the traditional Tunisian jars used for storing olives. Opening yet another perspective, a small hall at the end holds Jordanian Mona Saudi's sculpture of an embracing figure (inspired by Brancusi) and, above, her illustrations of Adonis' poems –The Petra Tablets”. raw the viewer. Perhaps, again, it is just the mastery of an artist whose skill is as complex as it is unexpected.

The hall overlooks the verandah where an installation by Nasser Soumi (Palestine) -- sea waves plastered, here and there, with s-shaped orange peels -- shows the obvious source of inspiration: Palestine's Mediterranean. While somehow delineating the exhibition hall, it also lets the eye wander beyond, to the horizon, opening a vast expanse for the imagination to run wild.