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Invited by Bir Zeit University,
Bashi 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 Bashi 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 Bashi's
gesture. Tania Nasir and I have a very beautiful pen friendship
that started exactly one year ago." Bashi 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" Bashi
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
Bashi'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).
Bashi 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. Bashi'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. Bashi
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.
Bashi 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 Bashi 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. Bashi 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. |
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April,
17, 1998
