The dream city 9
Watercolor on paper
51x31 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 there. 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 then the Mecca of cultural events. The intellectuals gathered and discussed recent activities in the cafes, the writers' union, and the galleries.
I missed all of that when I came to Germany. At my age it was not easy to leave a cultural stage, where I knew every corner very well and knew most of the people who are involved, 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 and all the destructed cities.
