Bassel Al Saadi, born in 1971, studied at the Institute of Applied Arts in Damascus until 1995. In his metal sculptures he initially dealt with the concepts of emptiness and the figuration of the human head. For more than eight years the focus of his work has been the box, the cube, as part of confronting the works of Louise Nevelson, Donald Judd and Joseph Cornell. For Al Saadi the box is a safe space, a womb, a personal space. It is also a space that can be occupied if the public space is inaccessible. In late 2010 there followed new works, in which he used metal plates as a painting surface. Since 2017 Bassel Al Saadi lives in Italy.
The Womb is Impossibile
Sculpture
2018
Bassel Al Saadi, The Womb is Impossible, rusty iron, 150 x 40 x 35 cm; photo: OKNOstudio
Bassel Al Saadi, The Womb is Impossible (detail), rusty iron, 150 x 40 x 35 cm; photo: OKNOstudio
The Dialectic of Art and Politics in Youssef Abdelke's Work
Lecture
2009/17
The text was written in 2009, during the great political and social shutdown in Syria. The lecture was given on 27 July 2017 at Villa Romana, Florence.
The Dialectic of Art and Politics in Youssef Abdelke's Work
In memory of Omar Aziz, who died under torture in the prisons of Bashar Assad
Modon: Memory of Urban Art and Citizenship in Syria
Concept for an archive
2018 ongoing
The purpose is to create a digital interactive platform collecting images, descriptions and recordings of works of art in Syria from the 1950s until today. In particular, the project intends to build a memory of art and its urban and social context for the tormented Syrian cities for the first time. One of the main goals is to reconstruct the memory of activism in those social classes which struggled to preserve cultural and urban life against the attempt of militarization of Syrian society.