DR BASEL DALLOUL

youth of the two sprawling camps that he calls home.

I visited Abed at his studio in the Sabra camp a couple of times. The building was a decommissioned, dilapidated hospital which was converted into homes after the Israeli invasion of 1982, one family to a room. Abed and his family lived there, so acquired a room when one became available, and converted it into his studio until he moved out of the camp, with his family, to a larger home and studio he had built on a plot of land he had acquired south of Beirut. Going through the Sabra and Shatila camps with Abed to visit his then humble studio was quite an experience. My dear friend has to be one of the most popular guys in the camps. People there admire, respect and genuinely love him, just like any of us who are privileged to know him do.

Abed cleverly resorts to using materials in his works that are easily found in the camps, like metal from oil barrels, corrugated steel, used for roofs in the camps, wood, and barbed wire. My dear friend is a genius at taking these difficult materials, like barbed wire for example, and weaving it into anything he wants, from a wave to a carpet, or even a tornado! This ability of his to take basic materials and turn them into stunning art is what sets him apart from others, but don’t take my humble word for it: in 2019, the French government saw something quite special in Abed, special enough to bestow on him French citizenship.

As an artist, Abdul Rahman Katanani enjoys a deep friendship with the Dalloul Art Foundation, built on mutual trust and respect. The foundation features and celebrates his unique and impactful work and maintains an extensive digital archive on him. As a friend, I’ve recommended him to fellow collectors and fans of his work, some of whom have given him commissions. As a big fan and collector of his work myself, I’ve also commissioned Abed to produce specific works for me. As chairman of the Dalloul Art Foundation, I commissioned him to produce a piece to be sold at a Christie’s auction in London in October 2020, in aid of the victims of the August 2020 Beirut Port explosion, which I ended up acquiring for the foundation. I also recently commissioned Abed to work on a piece, inspired by something very much tied to Palestinian culture (I don’t want to ruin the surprise by disclosing it now), which then turned into a new series he’s currently working on, and which the foundation is looking forward to promoting and perhaps touring.

At this point in time, Abed is no longer a rising star, but a shooting star! We have yet to see his full impact as an artist in the works he has yet to conceive and create. I personally am looking forward to an art future, with my dear friend Abdul Rahman Katanani prominently in it!

I initially encountered Abdul Rahman Katanani through his work. In 2015, I was visiting Beirut, looking at art. In the rather small – at the time – gallery of Saleh Barakat, in the basement office, I saw a tree: an olive tree with no roots. The small trunk was tightly surrounded with barbed wire, and I experienced an incredibly strong sensation of imprisonment and entanglement. Like an oxymoron though, the barbed wire then flourished in freely growing, joyful branches. I immediately felt in love – art love.

At that time, I was preparing a group exhibition in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, on the theme of art and prison with the title “Le sens de la peine”. I immediately knew that this work would become the keynote of this exhibition, and it did. I was able to have Abdul Rahman invited by the City of Nanterre for a one-month residency during which he produced eight olive trees, like a forest, for a huge window that opened onto the Place Nelson Mandela, a location that was a sign of the importance of the work. I saw people in tears, looking at his "forest". After the exhibition, some of the trees went to the Anglet Biennial in South-West France, one went to the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, and there was a huge interest in his work. I felt there had to be an exhibition in Paris, where I mostly work with the excellent art dealer Magda Danysz, so we presented together a completely original exhibition in her gallery, “Hard Core”. Abdul Rahman worked on this for months and it remains a milestone in his career. Paris is Paris is Paris…

Comment continuer? Abdul Rahman Katanani, au-delà de son art, élabore des propositions qui, basées sur une critique informée des jeux de violence, d’argent et de pouvoir qui agitent le monde, ouvrent la voie vers des lendemains vivables. Dans la joie, car c’est de joie dont l’artiste parle dans ce livre. Et de liberté.

Barbara Polla travaille avec Abdul Rahman Katanani depuis 2015. Fascinée par les idées et les visions de l’artiste autant que par ses œuvres et sa personnalité, elle a passé de longues heures, pendant près de deux ans, à l’écouter et à transcrire ses paroles: la meilleure manière, pour l’écrivaine, de pénétrer son monde et de le faire sien. Elle «devient» Abdul Rahman Katanani.

I believe he already has a wide audience, but I carry the responsibility to develop it even further, to interact with institutions and museums in and beyond the Middle East and central Europe and open new territories for his work to be seen and known. Besides organising exhibitions, I am also responsible for having the latest book we recently published together, (Barbara Polla, Abdul Rahman Katanani, “Paroles d’artiste”, Slatkine Ed., 2023), translated into different languages – and in another year or two to publish another one, as the work and the projects evolve, as well as an exhaustive monograph including all his work from the beginning.