“It is nice to see the painting outside the walls of the studio for people to see and get affected by and have people affect it in turn,” a statement by the Syrian artist Hossam Aloom, who participated in a group exhibition entitled “How we come across?”, the activities of the exhibition started in “Karşı sanat” exhibition hall in Istiklal Street in Istanbul, Turkey on Wednesday, May 25th.

The exhibiting hall chose the title “How we come across?” which will last for 15 days till the 10^th of next June. Aloom displays his pictures, along with two colleagues; Ali Omar and Emad Habab, in addition to four Turkish artists.

”The paintings represent our faces, we, the Syrians”

Aloom displayed what his work represents in a first participation for him in exhibitions in Turkey through 4 paintings “Mix Media” (oily – acrylic…). The paintings included expressive ones that fall under his project “era of ashes”, which he has been working on for a while.

In his interview to Enab Baladi, the Syrian painter considers the paintings he participated with “a representation of our faces as Syrians, whose inner features have changed,” however, he did not give names for his paintings “so that I won’t restrict a painting, since you impose an identity on a painting once you give it a name, and I wanted to keep them free in order to reach any receiver without getting influenced by a name.”

Aloom describes his first experience as a beautiful one, through which he felt that he owned a space to display his feelings, adding that the Turkish and Arabic attendance was good on the first day of the exhibition opening.

“Syria Lisa” belongs to the Syrian cause

The Syrian artist has not put up his painting the “Syria Lisa”, which has received a wide spread, for sale. The painting belongs to an Aleppine woman who came out from under the destruction and rubble due to the shelling on the city of Aleppo, on the 28th of last April. The artist explains the reason behind not putting it up for sale; because “it needs a special place where it can permanently tell her story, letting people know the reason behind drawing this painting,” as he describes.

“Syria lisa” – (Enab Baladi)

Aloom explains that he has received different offers to purchase the “Syria Lisa”, but he refused to sell it attributing the reason to the fact that “I do not own it, it rather belongs to the Syrian cause as a whole.”

The Syrian artist concluded his interview saying “I painted ‘Syria Lisa’ while the world made it alive and gave it a strength of presence. I hope that it will receive a considerable dimension and get what it deserves”, wishing to display the painting in a museum to reflect the suffering Syrians are experiencing and perpetuate the current era.”

Hossam Aloom, a painter born in the city of Sweida in 1986, a graduate of Fine Arts University in Damascus, specialized in photographing and Oil painting, he participated in many exhibitions in Europe, such as, Holland during the exhibition “Syria is our home”, in addition to Belgium and Germany. All of his paintings express what currently goes on in Syria, within the perception (concept) and under the title the “era of ashes”.