The dream city
Acrylic, golden flakes and Arabic gum on canvas
80 x 116 cm.
In 2000 I left my homeland Iraq and the city of Baghdad and have lived in Berlin ever since. Before I left, I was very active culturally. Between 1980 and the end of the century, I participated in many joint exhibitions, held four solo exhibitions, and wrote and published many articles on literature and art in the newspapers. Baghdad was the Mecca of cultural events. In the cafes, in the writers' union and also in the galleries, the intellectuals gathered and discussed recent activities.
I missed all of that when I came to Germany. At my age it was not easy to leave a cultural stage, you know every corner very well and you know most of the people who are involved in their activities to start a new beginning.
I missed Baghdad and regretted its fate, especially because of the wars and destruction it went through. In 2012 I felt able to paint a new generation of paintings in which I “rebuild” Baghdad according t
