Dia Azzawi

Gallery Faris, Paris
Private Collection (acquired directly from the above in 1982)
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2013

"In the midst of a struggle, deep­ened by his­tory, the majority of young Arab artists try to find a unique form of expres­sion in a world that does not appear in har­mony. Rejecting his­tory is mean­ing­less in a cul­ture that lacks aca­demics. To this strict rejec­tion coming from his­tory, artists have responded actively, by working around this rejec­tion, and with a strong con­vic­tion and deter­mi­na­tion to rework reality and 'to do some­thing else' […] meaning to treat art as goal within itself and a sub­ject of its own rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Today, the taboo has been broken almost all over the Arab world, the problem of char­ac­ter­i­za­tion has dis­ap­peared, yet the resis­tance remains. It is the resis­tance of one force against another, in the hope of avoiding its reper­cus­sions. As such, resis­tance becomes the heart of cre­ativity. The works of Dia Azzawi are wit­ness to this force. His works are in a con­stant and end­less delib­er­a­tion…inno­vating… between the past and the future and between life and his­tory, and going beyond bor­ders that sep­a­rate nations, and he con­tinues to do so inspired by his own per­sonal expe­ri­ence." Nadine Descendre, 2009