Dagmar Maria and Matug Aborawi (BONN 2004)
Matug was a friend of friends when we met for the first time, with a
handshake. He was part of a shilla . Nearly all people belonging to this shilla
were graduates from the faculty of fine arts. This was 22 years ago, during an
art exhibition in Dar Al Fonoun, an art gallery in Tripoli, Libya, 1994. For
whatever reason, I do not remember his paintings during that time.
Nearly 10 years later he and a friend visited me in Bonn and we spent
long interludes on the bank of the River Rhine. Ta’amul . Our friendship was
formed while silently watching the flow of this big river. Despite its northern
stream, the trees without leaves, a cold air & blue light turning into
darkness.
I have never been to his home place, Garabouli. I did not even know then
that he is originally from Garabouli. Yet now it is a place I think I know
deeply without having been there.
Through the digital copies of his artworks which he painted in Granada –
the city he had chosen to continue his academic studies – I started to know him
better. Although the world he painted, on first sight, was not my world. Animal
figures, small shapes, techniques and elements of naïve art. At the same time I
felt that he had transformed his feelings into vivid drawings in a very special
way. In an essential way. For the people, left behind, south of the
Mediterranean. At home, wherever.
Then in 2005 , if I remember well, I started to become excited about his
first paintings that reflected issues of Africa. People from Africa who had
made it to Spain… or not. Painted in water colours, with a sense of a deep
belonging, awareness and compassion. Mirroring how difficult it is to make a
living while escaping.
My appreciation, love and passion for his art is not about a technique.
It is about his approach to depicting a life of coming & being & going
& leaving. The known and unknown
combined, the feelings of the painter himself and those of the figures he draws
and paints, sometimes calm sometimes vivid… using colours he experiences in
everyday life, mostly mixed with some kind of blue, seemingly one of his
favourite colours.
What make his artwork so special, particular and touching are the
colourful messages of despair and death, hope and happiness. They question a
belonging, visualizing dreams and ways & forms of an undecided life. Waves & water always play an essential role for Matug.
One day in the future, I hope, we will sit at the coast in Garabouli and
read a message in a bottle. Together. From the sea with its desert underground.
Filled with all the hopes gone far and returned by the waves of the sea and
rivers. As if nothing
happened. Ta’amul.
......................................................
[1] Clique
[1] Contemplation
Dagmar Maria Stelkens
Cairo 2016
