Marwan Kassab Bachi
A Spiritual Bridge to the Arab World
April, 17, 1998

Perhaps the most famous and successful artist of the Arab Diaspora, Germany-based Syrian artist Marwan Kassab Bachi is the protagonist of a special cultural event that has taken place simultaneously in two Palestinian cities and Amman. His donation of 75 etching and watercolors to Palestine, currently exhibited at Bir Zeit University and Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center in Ramallah. was also celebrated in Amman on April 17 at Darat Al Funun by inaugurating his etching exhibition titled "A Suite of Heads." The opening was followed by Palestinian Tania Tamari Nasir's rendition of the cycle "The Miracle of Life" by Palestinian poet Jabra Ibrahim Jabra set to music by Agnes Bashir.

Invited by Bir Zeit University, Bachi not only promised to display but also decided to make a gift to the Palestinian people. "As I could not accompany the collection I sent to the West Bank (for the reason that I reject the aggressive Zionist policy of Israel). I was happy to accept Suha Shoman's idea to celebrate the event in Amman, "explained the artist in an interview with the Star. "Instead of me, Jorn Merkert the director of the Berlin Museum. attended the two ceremonies in Ramallah and at Bir Zeit on the 13th and 14th of April. respectively."

Using video documentation (an interview with the artist and a film about his artwork), Meskert introduced Bachi to the Palestinian audience. It was not only art students who showed extreme interest in knowing more about this Arab artist who has gained an enormous reputation in the West and which he wanted to share his achievements with them. "The youth in particular seemed very touched by Marwan's gesture of solidarity", Merkert pointed out. "My impression is that the Palestinian younger generation longs for more cultural exchanges of this kind. "he said.

The donation consists of 60 etchings and seven watercolors carefully selected by the artist with the aim of offering a comprehensive image of his work and of his artistic development up to the very present. "The 75 pieces are authentic treasures and not in any way "left-overs" pointed out the director of the Berlin Museum. Today this collection belongs to the Palestinian people. Its permanent home will be the art museum that is to be built in Bethlehem by the year 2000. Until that time the entire collection will be kept at the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center in Ramallah. Soprano Tania Nasier came from Jerusalem to Amman to sing on this occasion and to express her gratitude for Bachi 's gesture. Tania Nasir and I have a very beautiful pen friendship that started exactly one year ago." Bachi said. "We have exchanged written ideas on music. sculpture. clouds and other ordinary things, without actually knowing each other." the artist elaborated, mentioning that they met for the first time the day of the celebration at the King Hussein Bridge. The "richness" Bachi finds in such special friendships as Tania's (or that of a very dear friend from Damascus) makes him believe in the privileged connection that only spiritually related people can establish.

The 99 etchings on display at Darat Al Funun until May 21 are the result of seven months of frantic work. "Still warm," the collection brings together Bachi 's very latest work. He started to work on a "heads" project in August 1997 and finished it up last month. "In the beginning I wanted to do only 15 or 20 etchings. but I simply could not stop before I completed the 140th piece." he said with a smile behind his round sunglasses. "It has been dramatic. It's been like a fury. but now I know kit's done. "he added with satisfaction in his voice. The fact that this collection came out of an imperative is the artist's guarantee that he has done authentic valuable work. When he felt he had exhausted the theme. he chose 99 out of the 140 etchings. "It was not easy. but I was keen on this number because God's names are 99." he explained. As Merkert put it. "these inner portraits show God that you understand you are His creation."

First prefigured in an etching from the 60s (evocative of the immemorial time of the genesis). Bachi theme of "the head as a cosmos" inspired the poet Adonis in 1993. Encouraged in turn by Adonis's poem. he persisted with this idea and explored more of its mystic dimensions in the present 99 black and white heads. Displayed frame to frame on three rows. they form an impressive rectangular block that Merkert compares to "a kind of ocean in constant movement". It disorderly order is fascinating to the eye. "You are floating with it. making discoveries." the director of Berlin Museum commented. While looking for similarities. one finds the details that make two resembling heads completely different. Just like the cosmos itself. Bachi 's heads are in continuous transformation. The dialectics of "composition and decomposition" governs his black and white universe of plaited and crowded lines. roughened and smooth surfaces. playful and transparent filigrees.

The complex intaglio technique on zinc and copper plates with dry-point, aquatint, asphalt or acid bath. differ very much from the painting techniques (colors. materiality, perspectives). The etcher works on the photographic negative, as it were, of the target image, the final result being always a surprise. A real architect. Bachi calculates and controls with precision the printing effects. Sometimes he stops in the midst of etching just to print a first trial and see what corrections should be made. "The artist is a worker. an order-maker and not a dreamer in an ivory tower. "he stressed stroking his short white beard.

Bachi bears in his genes the spiritual heritage of the Orient. Sometimes contested by those that prefer to label him as a German expressionist. Marwan's belonging to the large Arab spiritual family is testified by the very inner mechanism of his whole creation. In both painting and etching. the artist draws closer and closer to "the border of the absolute" in an "indirect" and "long" movement resembling the mystic Darwish dance. The creative gesture is repeated again and again as if in an endless effort of correction. of doing and undoing, which has nothing to do with the aggressive and colourful straightforwardness of European expressionists.

The fact that Bachi needs to come now and again to "Arabia" also shows how close his ties are to this corner of the world where he started his earthly voyage. Although he is fully satisfied with the life he has been living in Berlin since 1957. Bachi constantly thinks of his homeland and returns to it whenever he has the chance. The artist left the sunny gardens of Darat Al Funun on Wednesday and flew back to "dark, rainy and depressive Berlin" with the resolve to return again next year.