{"id":10108,"date":"2013-03-18T10:10:44","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T14:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=10108"},"modified":"2013-03-18T10:10:44","modified_gmt":"2013-03-18T14:10:44","slug":"tamam-azzam-artist-from-art-to-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/tamam-azzam-artist-from-art-to-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Tamam Azzam: Artist from Art to Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Azam<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Al Mudon electronic newspaper<\/em><\/p>\n

Dima Wannous, a Syrian journalist and daughter of the late noted playwright Saddallah Wannous, has been providing exceptional coverage of the Arab art and cultural scene for the newly established Lebanese electronic newspaper, Al Mudon. She recently talked with Syrian artist Tamam Azzam, whom she claims remains as engaged in documenting the events of the Syrian revolution through his paintings as he was almost\u00a0 two years ago.\u00a0 As Wannous wrote, \u201cFrom the map to the sniper\u2019s bullet, to the destruction of the liberty statue in one of Homs\u2019s suburbs that was transformed into piles of rubble. From the students who returned to their classrooms to find nothing but destruction, to the MiG aircraft which flies across the \u2018national\u2019 air space to bomb the \u2018enemies.\u2019 Didn\u2019t\u00a0 he get bored from this documentation?\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many critics, Wannous is concerned with \u2018political art\u2019: what is the future of such art when the revolution succeeds or if it were to be defeated? \u201cDespite his continued passion in documenting the most important events of the revolution (bombing bakeries, use of chemical weapons, dire conditions in the refugee camps\u2026), the viewer perhaps still asks: to what extent would these works continue? Does their importance stem from the moment or will they continue for many years as a witness of the revolution,\u201d wrote Wannous.\u201d Azzam offers a realistic, and even objective answer: \u201cUndoubtedly the influence of these works will vary with time. I often try to complete the works under a dual influence, that is, of the moment on the one hand, and of artistic value on the other. I am taken by the moment and do not give much attention to the future, for there is no past before the revolution for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Azzam\u2019s assessment of what art can do is evident when telling Wannous, \u201cas time goes, I think that this is all I can do, and I do not believe that painting or writing or any other form of expression can express fully the sorrow of an old man waiting in front of a bakery, the bitter cold in the refugee camps, and the hunger of the refugees. We could not comprehend the full impact of the moment a missile hit or the sound of aircraft. Thus we borrow a little from people\u2019s fears and sorrows, just enough so that we can express our own sorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Azzam comes across as an artist moving away from \u201cart to revolution\u201d and even \u201ccrossing the line,\u201d when he suggests to Wannous\u00a0 that he would send \u201cto the Zaatari refugee camp (in Jordan) three huge volumes of books by Adonis, some plays by Ziad al-Rahbani, films by Dareed Laham, and poetry collections by Unsi al-Haj and Nazih al-Afash, hoping they will make a fire to warm a Syrian child.\u201d Azzam\u2019s anger with some Lebanese and Syrian intellectuals who did not stand with the revolution is overt, \u00a0as they provided intellectual \u2018legitimacy\u2019 to a murderous regime.<\/p>\n

\u2013Elie Chalala<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Copyright 2013\u00a0 AL JADID MAGAZINE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Courtesy of Al Mudon electronic newspaper Dima Wannous, a Syrian journalist and daughter of the late noted playwright Saddallah Wannous, has been providing exceptional coverage of the Arab art and cultural scene for...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1012,14,71,997],"tags":[1372],"class_list":["post-10108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arab-spring","category-art","category-middle-east","category-syria","tag-tamam-azzam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10108"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10113,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10108\/revisions\/10113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}