Bassem Dahdouh:

Born 1964 in Damascus. Remarkable is the determination of this artist, who presents himself as an observer of war, of the deep wounds in the souls that cannot be healed. Like his artist colleague Omran Younes, he is the most consistent of the exhibiting artists. This can be seen in the processing of the effects and consequences of the drama, which he reproduces in his paintings in the form of dark and grey lines and shadows. Characteristic is also the taming of the forms by his own clear tightness of the painting technique and the sensitivity of the dramaturgy of the painting. This can be clearly seen in the changing reincarnation between bull and man, along with the symbolism of Greek mythology and the blackening of the colours reminiscent of Picasso. An art critic said about him that he poured the pain onto the painting's surface.

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By Dr. Asaad Arabi

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A word from Bassem:

"In these difficult times of the present war we must pause and be happy that we are still alive and that we love life. For me painting is the safe haven of revelation for what I want and what I know how to do. I allow the painting to sometimes rebel against me. I sometimes submit to what the painting commands and sometimes to what I command. I try to deal with the guardians of the spirit. They often do tricks and deceive us. For me, this is the dance or the play of feelings. Not the feeling that the Dadaists and the Surrealists used to write poetry, imitating free fall. It's more like how the late artist Fatih Almudaris put it when he said he always started from scratch with every painting he painted. And so I try to work by living in front of my easel, sometimes with feelings and sometimes without feelings."