I was asked to write an article on the benefits of dialogue and mutual understanding based on the response my latest exhibition in Europe evoked. I was also going to write about another Saudi artist who was exhibiting in Lille at the same time as me with positive response from all who visited her work. I am referring to Chadia Alem and I recommend that all who don’t know her work in Saudi Arabia get to know it for she is a truly talented artist.
This article also was going to be about the Frankfurt book fair or to be more precise the missed opportunities of the fair. Instead of making use of a rare chance given to Arab countries to show the world what they have to offer it in terms of knowledge and culture, we ended up having Arab artists haggle over the wall space with each other in front of their hosts. We also saw them denying each other the necessary support and encouragement with each one favoring his country and forgetting that this was an invitation for the entire Arab region.
We had exquisite and expensive exhibiting stands for books with little or no substance. We gave poetry readings without a translator or even a printed translation to an audience that knows no Arabic. I suppose we assumed that Arabic is the universal language or maybe it is such a sublime language that its meaning will reach everyone’s heart without a need for any translation. Finally, it became nothing more than an exhibit of shame and ridicule for Arab countries and that too in an international setting.
I was going to write how important it is for Arabs in particular and Muslims in general to get their message heard by others, through their culture and artistic expression. I was going to write about how much beauty and talent we have to offer the world.
Since all that is left behind by any culture is the unique beauty they give birth to. The pharaohs are gone, but the grace of their temples still inspires us. Only ruins are left of the Roman Empire, but we can still be moved by the writings of Virgil and Cicero. We look around and see only mirages of worlds which still live in our minds of the Umayyads, the Abbasids and all the many Muslim empires which left us nothing but beauty to contemplate and admire. Empires turn to dust, power is fickle and wealth pleasures only the hand which wields it.
All of the above and more was the subject of this article. Then it occurred to me that everything I said or had the intention of saying was utterly meaningless. How can any culture live and breathe under hostile domination? Who are we fooling here? We’re a nation of slaves, semi slaves and would-be slaves. Where in the Muslim world can we say we’re independent? By independent, I mean free to decide which path we should take to benefit us, not what will please our masters. Where are the independent thinkers to be found in Muslim lands? Even if we aren’t physically under some foreign boot like in Iraq or Palestine, most of us suffer from some sort of mental dependency on a foreign power. Most of the world’s refugees come from Muslim lands and many of those same lands have high rates of poverty, illiteracy and oppression. What sort of culture and knowledge can be born and flourish in such conditions? What great achievements can one expect in an environment of perpetual chaos and wars? By all means continue to talk, hold dialogue, attend conferences, make exhibitions and keep writing and creating but let’s be sure of one thing: We’re all living in a borrowed world.
To make my point clear I want every Muslim and Arab to ask these simple questions of himself and herself: Am I comfortable in this world? Do I feel I am an essential part of the 21st century? Have we produced the answers that create a healthy, well-adjusted society? Do we feel authentic and not just a cheap copy of something we’ve lost the meaning of? Do we really believe any of our leaders, governments, and intellectuals are capable of solving any of our problems? Are we not always waiting for the solutions to come from outside? Do we not have an infantile and submissive relationship to world powers? Are we not all waiting for the inevitable to happen without being able to discern what that really is? Do any of you feel we are worth anything?
But, don’t lose hope and keep going through the motions of living. Keep lying to yourselves that we’re really worth something and maybe we can lie so well we might fool the world and finally fool ourselves. Then maybe, one day, the lie will be our greatest work of art, which will be left to humanity to contemplate and remember the Muslims of the 20th and 21st century.
— Reem Al-Faisal is a Saudi photographer. She is based in Jeddah.
