RAFIK MAJZOUB
KIDS OF BOMBS
The World is Watching …
20 February to 17 March 2018
“A kid’s diary from the Middle East … Now
I do not remember what is silence
How will my dreams be without the sound of bombing?”
Around the world, conflict is exacting a devastating toll on millions of children. Children, the youth and adults of the future, are being displaced all over the world, travelling dangerously by land and sea, as their families try to find a safe destination. Their innocence is not lost, it is ripped from them as the media regularly reminds us. The images we see also remind us to question our humanity – does it still exist after seeing so many images of children facing such dire conditions.
In Rafik Majzoub’s exhibition, the artist shows their confusion, their anger and the state of what these children simply feel when they are affected by war. Will they even grow up to know what humanity means? The artist’s naive style puts the viewer into the child’s world, one mixed with bombs and flowers and mixed emotions, that his subjects don’t yet understand. Powerful and sympathetic, the works give us insight to the tragedy of the world that many children face today.
Rafik Majzoub
Rafik Majzoub was born in 1971 in Amman, Jordan, and after living in Beirut for many years, has returned to his native Amman. Self taught, Majzoub’s paintings are known to be raw, sarcastic and tense. His work is often focused on a person in perpetual quest of himself. His art often gives the impression of a work in progress, leaving it open, unfinished and unaccomplished, echoing the essential incapacity of the human being to accomplish in a world of imperfection, fracture and fragmentation.
Rafik worked as an illustrator for “Al Nahar Newspaper” until 1998. In the same year, the artist attained a three-month residency at “The Lagos Cultural Center” for getting UNESCO’s Artist Grant. Later in 2001, the artist won First Prize for “Post Cards of Lebanon”.
Rafik has held numerous solo exhibitions in Beirut and Amman, and participated in group shows in Cairo, Sydney, London and Lisbon.
