Mohammad Zaza – The earth is blue like an orange

22 April – 18 May 2016

“The earth is blue like an orange”, the words of the French surrealist writer Paul Eluard appear as an invitation to set our minds free from all their inner limits. They reflect the idea that the poetic image is a pure creation of the mind, in which the unconscious travels beyond the traditional borders. Listening to the voices of these less known territories magnify our perceptions and unravel the feelings hidden behind our visible realities. Any thoughts are possible for people who manage to adopt an alternative and less conventional look at things and experiences.

Mohammad Zaza’s creations have been dealing with this idea of resourcefulness and creativity for a long time. He pushes the viewer to delve into a world full of untold stories, a space where each painting connects with everyone’s personal wanderings. Topics such as nature, humanity and spirituality are involved, all of them creating a universal dimension to his work. With a solid background and a strong artistic identity, Zaza wishes to share with its public a new dimension of visual experience, outweighing any predetermined concepts, ideas and rules.

Living and working in Istanbul for almost two years Mohammad Zaza have been dealing with this idea of resourcefulness and creativity for a long time. He pushes the viewer to delve into a world full of untold stories, a space where each painting connects with everyone’s personal wanderings. Topics such as nature, humanity and spirituality are involved, all of them creating a universal dimension to his work. With a solid background and a strong artistic identity, Zaza wishes to share with its public a new dimension of visual experience, outweighing any predetermined concepts, ideas and rules.

“The world was in darkness, a mixture of elements crawling in gloom. When it was sleeping time, they gathered in their places, with only space for a motionless position.

Their silent easy-moving impacts woke them up, so they could feel the existence on their bellies.

They had no thoughts about distance or space, birth or death because actually thinking was like sitting in a dark misery.

Then, a black creature fell down through its straight black path, right into the water.

It thought about the mainland, thus a light exploded in an astral form with purple edges, centered by a thick glow, and kept reaching, gradually, until it touched the backs of the confined wretches above all over the existence and its elements.”

– Mohammad Zaza

Mohammad Zaza was born in Riyadh in 1987. Growing up in an artistic family, he started drawing and painting at an early age. After completing high school in Saudi Arabia, he moved to his homeland Syria in 2006 to study at the faculty of Fine Arts in Aleppo University. He held his first solo exhibition in 2008 and, after his graduation in 2010, was appointed as a painting teacher assistant at the University until 2012. Besides painting on big size canvases mainly, he also works on illustrations and animations.

29.04.2016

At the panel organized as part of the exhibition program, Syrian artists living in Istanbul and producing in different fields, will introduce their work in the context of their forced displacement and discuss its impact on creativity. A focus will be made on the possibilities of creation and collaboration in Istanbul and more generally abroad, as well as the challenges of its audience reception.

Arabic-Turkish and Arabic-English translation will be provided.

Participants:

Khaled Akil Syrian photographer based in Istanbul who has held several solo and group exhibitions around the world.
Bilal Aliriza documentary film maker and co-founder of Selam Platform, a project aiming on networking Middle Eastern artists in Istanbul.
Adnan Jetto Syrian artist working on video art and short films since 2007, now directing documentaries in Syria.
Ali Safar Syrian writer and critic who has been working with Syrian media. Graduated in Theater arts and is still involved in directing documentary movies.
Burcu Yılmaz and Fatih Gençkal Performing artists and representatives of the international “A Corner in the World” performing arts festival

Press

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Hayal gücünüzle temasa geçmeye davet eden bir sergi: “Dünya mavidir, tıpkı bir portakal gibi”
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