An Exhibition without a Title will surely Strike on the Keynote … Or Maybe on the Painting Quill

From the first encounter with this inspirational woman I perceived a woman of high sensibility and creativity enjoying multiple skills since she is a plastic artist, a film maker and an interior designer, all that in the name of Sana Atassi, a talented Syrian artist who has held a solo exhibition at Damascus Opera house, including about 20 paintings depicting the female spirit as a divine soul, a source of inspiration and fertility. 

However, without a title an exhibition might seem loosely wrapped; yet Atassi had a totally different point of view “I deliberately chose to keep my exhibition without a title to keep all possibilities open enlarging the audience’s perspective to the highest levels.’ She enthusiastically exclaimed. 

Sana Al-Atassi translated with expressive symbolism in her exhibition at the Opera House femininity and womanhood through the portraits and bodies of women playing different roles like the Joker, the belly dancer, the veiled woman; in addition to a women wearing tarboosh (a man’s hat reflecting high social class). Regarding those roles Atassi demonstrated that “women all over the world are playing different roles like being a muse, a leisure doll, a mother, a beloved and even sometimes a man! Especially in war times when a lot of burdens are over women’s shoulders.” she declared.

The female formation occupied all her murals with graceful movements that reveal feminine visions, concerns, and thoughts at one time, especially in the paintings in  black and white, the two extremities, with all the gray shades in between with grace and elegance, but as well with deepness and sharpness of Atassi’s lines. “Those gray murals are the real feminine higher soul, where she is herself not playing any role, the pure female spirit.  It is me!” She exclaimed.   

Among the most beautiful paintings is the painting in which a woman appears alone living in a state of contradictions by wearing a black and white cubic costume, resembling the joker and from her fingers seep out tarot cards symbolically imitating the passing days. As for this black and white squares technique, “I was strong-minded on the structure of the female body with this precise view inspired by the chess board, I depict the life contradictions and paradoxical concepts of the war we are living in.” she sadly expressed. 

Regarding the sharp look of all her paintings reflecting the profound and sensitive insight of those women Atassi explained that the eyes are the spirit windows, they are always reflecting truth and insight of the person, eyes do not lie. “Eyes are the soul.” She added. 

Sana Atassi is a brilliant gifted artist with multiple skills, having in the recent years heading toward cinematography since she has directed a number of short films some indirectly talking about war, and had made a career in interior design. In addition to her participation in various artistic activities here in Syria as well as in Egypt and Lebanon.

The art of people is a true mirror to their minds. A painting is like poem without words, some people found they can say things with color and shapes that they are incapable of saying any other way – things they had no words for. That’s real what identifies Sana Atassi’s artworks, even with an untitled exhibition; she has given so many titles to those unspoken inner worlds of the human soul.

Interviewed by: Lama Alhassanieh