WITNESS
A year ago…
Wael Darwesh reached the boiling point.
Although he tried to remain calm, questions kept on creeping in his head; questions without answers crammed themselves before his eyes.
Often to keep hope alive, only self-deceit was the option, the only way was to stay alive. Ultimately, avoiding reality seemed to be the only choice to avoid perishing in anger.
“Are we still alive?” Wael asked. He believed no one is capable of answering such question anymore. Everyone around him was silently dying for change. There were dark clouds of change hovering all over.
“Art is my profession and this establishes a strong connection with the political situation, with political dialogue and its discourse… My Art provides a visual drama often including glimpses of the real world through photographs, as eye-witnesses to actual events… Describing my art as political appeared long before the 25th of January 2011. Though my work was cautious to curb wild feelings, even marginalizing that condition and then it actually happened”, said Wael.
Quite often, he was haunted by the question: How would a bystander express his or her thoughts?
As they do not have a means to steam off thoughts, Wael has made himself a non-stop transmitter and receiver, when his only signal or message was his paintings portraying arguments gripping the Egyptian street, depicting visual and rare dramas.
Nobody could have predicted how the future would evolve when no readymade scenario ready to apply. It is simply a dream that all of sudden came true, and the thirst for freedom inside eventually came out prior to the Revelation/Revolution of the 25th of January.
In June 2010, Wael exhibited at artsawa works under the title “Shrouded Memories”, which is another name that he had thought was a “Witness”.
Wael never revealed that for fear of being held accountable.
Today, the answers are crystal clear after the 25th of January 2011. It becomes the real barometer of Revolution and he simply depicts what he witnessed.
History will seek to understand the ensuing events and he felt that many things have changed.
“Witness” is an enjoyable expression of freedom.
CATALOG