AN ASTRONOMICAL TALENT

I first met Abdul Rahman Katanani, late in the autumn of 2015, at a dinner party my late father hosted, at our home in Beirut. I was so looking forward to meeting him because we already had a work by him called “In Six Days And We Will Be Back Inshallah”. It’s an iconic piece, by my now dear friend, made of corrugated steel and various other objects, depicting a Palestinian family fleeing what became known as the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, just as his own grandfather had, when he took his family out of Jaffa, Palestine and headed for Lebanon, ending up in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut.

Abdul Rahman is quite a character, one you couldn’t but instantly like, always smiling and constantly finding ways to make those around him laugh. He’s the kind of person you feel happy around, or in whose company any unhappy mood can never last long. We became fast friends. Abed, as most of his good friends call him, comes with quite a fascinating story. He was born in Beirut, in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra, where after receiving several degrees in fine arts, he returned to work, teach and inspire in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, giving hope and inspiration to the children and