A tribute to the great Kurdish artist Ali Latif
- KurdishMedia.com - By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli
- 29/08/2009 00:00:00
Ali, where will you hold your 25th exhibition?
Note: Ali Latif was one of the greatest artists (painters) and sportsmen of the Kurdish people. He was born in Chwarbakh neighborhood in Slemani in 1944. He was a born self-made painter. He had his first exhibition at the Teachers Institute in Sulaymaniyah in 1964 and his last exhibition in Darmstadt in Germany earlier this year where he had lived as an exile and since the mid 1990s. He always earned to return to his city and use his art and knowledge to serve the new generations of his people. He returned to Sulaymaniyah last year and stayed for 18 months. He told a friend: “During all this time no one welcomed me.” He returned to exile with a broken heart and died as a result of a failed heart operation in his second home Darmstadt on 18 July 2009. Dr Kamal Mirawdeli attended the ceremony of the 40th day after his death at Tawer hall in Sulaymaniyah on 25 August 2009 and wrote this piece of prose as a tribute to the late artist but ‘party men’ did not allow it to be read to the audience.
Ali, where will you hold your 25th exhibition?
Ali, I do not recognize this city.
I do not recognize a city that does not recognize you.
Neither the blood of love, nor the certificates of sin, nor the flocks of the birds of the migrating colours in the skies of Darmstadt, nor the tales of one thousand and one nights of sorrows and ailment and exile and death can provide a sufficient proof that Ali was born in a rainy dawn under the hands of the midwife of art in the neighbpourhood of Chwarbakh in the Babanian Slemani.
Before he opened his eyes he adored colours.
Before his body made a motion his hand and fingers were busy with dots and lines painting in a magical horizon the portrait of an anfaled Kurdish girl.
Before his mind gained consciousness his brain was full of dreams and fancies drawing the map of a country in which h the artists would be rulers
Does anyone remember Ali? Does anyone know that Ali was the son of this city?
When he left you he took away with him all your wounds and left with you all his aspirations.
Brother Ali, it was only last year that you returned to your city with a well-kept small dream of your childhood. You said: “I stayed there for 18 months. No one paid attention to me.”
No one recognized you.
The old neighborhoods of your town, dominated now by intruding villas, were pushing you away. The faces had changed. The identities, standards, principles and nobilities had reversed. Your teachers were nameless. Your students were alienated and quiet. Art was an orphan word. The closest friends did not testify for you. They said: “Who is this crazy passenger who wants to enter our German, Lebanese and English villages without the party visa? Who is this talentless person who claims to be a painter without the permission of our party and wants to open an exhibition without a party permit?
Then you looked at your heart and found your city hidden there sound and safe.
Before they managed to change it, before they were able to steal it from you or buy it from you with whatever amount you wished
Before they could rename you and redefine you the way they wanted
Before they could recreate you with dollars and hang you onto the rope of corruption
You took up again the road of exile towards the warm embrace of your refuge in Darmstadt
You again sank your broken and exhausted heart in the scent and hue of ink and refreshed it with the blood of paints
You said to the world: This is my Kurdistan
I have painted this carnival with the pink spots of my soul, the blueness of my looks, the dance of my fingers and the blood of my heart.
Brother Ali: Darmstadt is your home: its roads and avenues know you, its streets know you, its exhibitions know you, its artists, journalists and poets know you, and its professors know you.
But still your heart painfully pines for the ordinary homes of Chwarbakh in your occupied city
It was only four months ago you sent me this email message:
“On Sunday 3 May 2009 in the Agri Kultur gallery the German organization of culture will organize my 24th exhibition for me. At the beginning Mr. Wilhelm Kilns will read a message then the artist and poet Martin Bordan will talk about my work, my artistic life and my life in general.”
Dear Ali, I apologize for not being able to attend your 24th exhibition. How did it go? What did they say about it? You have been silent since then. I have not heard of you. Are you taking a break to let your tired heart rest among the yellow leaves of Darmstadt trees? Or are you going back to Sulaymaniyah again and insist that your 25th exhibition be held there? Will the political party give you permission?
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Note: The political party in Sulaymaniyah did not give permission for this piece of prose to be read in Ali Latif’s 40th day commemoration which was attended by Dr Kamal himself.
For information about the artist and a gallery of his work see: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Ali+Latif/1979.html
website: Ali Latif website
- KurdishMedia.com - By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli
- 29/08/2009 00:00:00