Reporting by Abdul Hafiz al-Holani
(Zaman al-Wasl) “The evil of a country where one has no friend, and evil is a human gaining what deafens” with this famous line of poetry for his beloved al-Mutanabbi, the refugee Mohammad Ismail Rahma begins explaining how he feels now as he prepares his things to leave his tent in the camp Ansar al-Banyan al-Jadid in Arsal.
The fifty something artist who the camp residents have nicknamed Artin, says, “there is nothing to fill my time and emptiness in this camp except practicing my old hobby of painting as my family as we say are in the hospitality of the al-Assad regime and its dark prisons since the first year of the Syrian revolution and his Algerian wife returned to her country after the regime arrested him at the start of the revolution.”
Artin who visited most of the countries in the world as he says is no longer able to leave his wheelchair after he was paralyzed from the waist down due to a shrapnel lodging in his spine when he was in his home in al-Qasr.
Artin explains to Zaman al-Wasl the secret of drawing houses in all the paintings he has drawn inside the camp, as the house according to him is the, “homeland, memories, and family, it is my neighborhood, my street, my childhood in the city of al-Qasr, it is the sacred warm connection with this large planet, I paint houses with birds flying over them, as the birds are also symbols of the symbols of return as for us Syrians returning is to a homeland we lost and became estranged from.”
Artin’s paintings are not for sale or exhibitions, he chose their medium from the body of the camp itself, as he cuts the sponge insulator used within the tents to make from them the structure of a canvas on which he paints his houses and birds later on. He owns a quantity that exceeds his need and the need of his neighbors for him to use them as canvas for his paintings.
The paintings of old Artin which are not sold nor exhibited find their place within most of the tents in the camp as it reminds them of their home Syria.
Abu Mohammad al-Qasrawi, one of Artin’s neighbors in the camp, “we await Artin’s houses impatiently and we like to decorate our tents with his paintings.”
Away from Artin’s paintings filled with houses and birds the elderly man leads us to a painting that is dark, sad and filled with sorrow entitled Lebanon. He comments, “Lebanon that I knew through Fairouz’s, and Wadih el-Safi’s songs, and which they sang of, and Lebanon that I read in Gibran Khalil Gibran and Talal Haidar does not resemble this country which I have taken shelter in and built my tent on. Lebanon today is disfigured, it hates me and accuses me of terrorism and today wants to kick me out of my tent because I was unable to pay the rent for the land it is on. Lebanon today is a Lebanon telling us as Syrians get out.”
The refugee artist continues, “all the camps in Arsal will after a few days kick out everyone who is unable to pay the rent for the land that their tent is on to the landowners in this town, Lebanon today left behind reading the book The Prophet for Gibran and his instructions about long, justice, and mercy, and reads from an Iranian and Farsi book and its instructions do not see in us anything other than trash and criminals who must be evicted from where ever we are.”
Artin adds directing his comments to Lebanese, “you do not care about terrorism, the true terrorism is what causes the heart to lose its feelings towards other, and to lose mercy, pity, and love and this is the terrorism the world should face because it is a destructive terrorism and kills more than shots and airplanes.”
Artin continues talking of his sorrows. “inside this tent from which I will be evicted in a few days, I have many memories, despite their bitterness they have become part of my memory perhaps I will paint the tents one day after the tent becomes like a house, the dream to which every Syrian refugee yearns.”
(Zaman al-Wasl) “The evil of a country where one has no friend, and evil is a human gaining what deafens” with this famous line of poetry for his beloved al-Mutanabbi, the refugee Mohammad Ismail Rahma begins explaining how he feels now as he prepares his things to leave his tent in the camp Ansar al-Banyan al-Jadid in Arsal.
The fifty something artist who the camp residents have nicknamed Artin, says, “there is nothing to fill my time and emptiness in this camp except practicing my old hobby of painting as my family as we say are in the hospitality of the al-Assad regime and its dark prisons since the first year of the Syrian revolution and his Algerian wife returned to her country after the regime arrested him at the start of the revolution.”
Artin who visited most of the countries in the world as he says is no longer able to leave his wheelchair after he was paralyzed from the waist down due to a shrapnel lodging in his spine when he was in his home in al-Qasr.
Artin explains to Zaman al-Wasl the secret of drawing houses in all the paintings he has drawn inside the camp, as the house according to him is the, “homeland, memories, and family, it is my neighborhood, my street, my childhood in the city of al-Qasr, it is the sacred warm connection with this large planet, I paint houses with birds flying over them, as the birds are also symbols of the symbols of return as for us Syrians returning is to a homeland we lost and became estranged from.”
Artin’s paintings are not for sale or exhibitions, he chose their medium from the body of the camp itself, as he cuts the sponge insulator used within the tents to make from them the structure of a canvas on which he paints his houses and birds later on. He owns a quantity that exceeds his need and the need of his neighbors for him to use them as canvas for his paintings.
The paintings of old Artin which are not sold nor exhibited find their place within most of the tents in the camp as it reminds them of their home Syria.
Abu Mohammad al-Qasrawi, one of Artin’s neighbors in the camp, “we await Artin’s houses impatiently and we like to decorate our tents with his paintings.”
Away from Artin’s paintings filled with houses and birds the elderly man leads us to a painting that is dark, sad and filled with sorrow entitled Lebanon. He comments, “Lebanon that I knew through Fairouz’s, and Wadih el-Safi’s songs, and which they sang of, and Lebanon that I read in Gibran Khalil Gibran and Talal Haidar does not resemble this country which I have taken shelter in and built my tent on. Lebanon today is disfigured, it hates me and accuses me of terrorism and today wants to kick me out of my tent because I was unable to pay the rent for the land it is on. Lebanon today is a Lebanon telling us as Syrians get out.”
The refugee artist continues, “all the camps in Arsal will after a few days kick out everyone who is unable to pay the rent for the land that their tent is on to the landowners in this town, Lebanon today left behind reading the book The Prophet for Gibran and his instructions about long, justice, and mercy, and reads from an Iranian and Farsi book and its instructions do not see in us anything other than trash and criminals who must be evicted from where ever we are.”
Artin adds directing his comments to Lebanese, “you do not care about terrorism, the true terrorism is what causes the heart to lose its feelings towards other, and to lose mercy, pity, and love and this is the terrorism the world should face because it is a destructive terrorism and kills more than shots and airplanes.”
Artin continues talking of his sorrows. “inside this tent from which I will be evicted in a few days, I have many memories, despite their bitterness they have become part of my memory perhaps I will paint the tents one day after the tent becomes like a house, the dream to which every Syrian refugee yearns.”
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.