Plastic Artist Eyad Al-Belal: In my work, I embody the human being in his various manifestations
He was born before history when civilization began . His talent began from there, as he draws inspiration from Assyria and Babylon from Syria the civilization. He defines himself as the son of this land from which he draws the inspiration and knowledge that he projects onto his sculptures. When you visit his workshop, you feel that you are in Babylon or Palmyra, every sculpture there takes you to the first root of civilization and puts you, at the same time , in front of your current reality … A strange mixture between the past and the present created by the artist Eyad Al-Belal … What you see there cannot be distinguished from the exhibits of the major museums except for the novelty of the product here, as the spirit of ancient man and modern man and their suffering meet together in idealistic creative works. Death, life and hope are related and contiguous meanings in his sculptures, which take you far away into a world of imagination.
Talking about the reality of art and the role of the artist in today’s life, Al-Belal says in an interview with the Syria Times e- newspaper: “The artist in general is meant to be the moral catalyst for the people in his society. He is the true line of defense for his society through his influence on the human being and his contribution to formulating a different consciousness as well as drawing new horizons. The true artist reads reality accurately without relying on rigid thought, focusing on the importance of the human being and his centrality in art as a subject and goal”.
Al-Belal went on to say: “The artist must defend a cause that has its own social, political or intellectual implications… I personally did not imagine that there is art only for the sake of art. Art in my opinion is message, to be more precise, it is message from this time to the coming times and the artist must be sincere and honest in conveying the ideas of people, their visions, philosophy, the epic of life and death, victory, beauty, love, hope according to them and to depict all of this objectively equipped with his own philosophy and appropriate expressive tools. As an artist, I want to be read through my work after 200 or 300 years.”
On the current reality of Syrian sculpture, he says: “Arts, like other aspects of life in Syria, have been affected by the ten-year war . The impact was great, as the terrorists were destroying archaeological and cultural sites in the various areas they reached in Raqqa, Palmyra, Idlib and others, and their agents also had their role in stealing many antiquities from museums or archaeological areas as well. In addition to the blockade imposed on the state which caused a decline in people’s standard of living, and thus their interest in art decreased. Therefore the cultural institution must restore itself and believe in true creators, as the volition will restore the brilliance of plastic art to Syria and the Syrian plastic movement can revive again , as the Syrian sculptural experiences in the various international sculpture forums have proven the ability of Syrian sculpture to impose its own features despite the difficulties it faces”.
Regarding the ideas and themes embodied by his sculptures, he replied: “Before the war, I was dealing with the Syrian heritage or mythology, architecture and its impact on Man, who is an essential component of my work. I have dealt with the Epic of Gilgamesh and I have presented a work entitled ( Fenik before the Resurrection ). It is a group of closed- eye faces with compact masses heading towards the sky in a journey as close as possible to the new birth , emerging from the rubble with weights pulling them down. This work takes the form of a triangle open towards the sky.
The woman is strongly present in my work, either imagined, or in the form of a myth, or even heroine that carries my thoughts. She was always a symbol of history and civilization, fertility, birth and renewal. I sculpted a 2.5 meters high model of stone for the Queen of Palmyra on the coast of Lattakia, as an embodiment of the Syrian woman with all the noble values she carries.
As for the work after the crisis, Al-Belal says: “War has its own reality and logic, and as long as I consider that art should represent life in all its details, my works dealt with archiving some of the martyrs who died as a result of the war and for some painful events such as the terrorist bombing that affected Ekremaha Al Makhzoumi School. I executed two realistic life-size works for children representing a boy and a girl with their school bags as it depicts an expressive state of innocence and flamboyance, to immortalize the pure souls of children who were martyred as a result of Takfiri terrorism. I have also sculpted the statue of the Martyrs in the old clock square and the statue of Birds in the Hamra neighborhood in Homs, as well as a number of statues of our dignified national figures distributed in our various cities in Tartous, Quneitra and Damascus in addition to modern sculptures that depict the collective pain and sadness that unites us during the crisis that we lived through”.
“My passion for sculpting figures prompted me to think about documenting Syrian figures that have had an impact throughout Syrian history. I carved portraits for a number of personalities that had a role and influence in collective memory, such as the novelist Haider Haidar’s , Bouzouq player Muhammad Abdul Karim, the poet Suleiman Al-Issa, Fayrouz and Queen Zanobia, as I believe that documenting these characters is like thanking them in a different way. It has always been part of the project that I had started a long time ago to preserve the symbol, when I say symbol, I do not mean the person, rather, the symbol here is an intellectual civilized state because what was planning for in the war is targeting the symbol and the cultural and civilizational identity of Syria,” he added.
As for the materials that the artist uses in his work, Bilal replied: “I use any material that serves the idea that I work on without hesitation. I always try to reach new results, but I prefer marble and bronze and I do not hesitate to use wood and polyester in my work. In my opinion, marble as a work material, is one of the noble materials in sculpture as it has a strong presence throughout history and in various civilizations. It assimilates your abundance and makes you more insistent ”to materialize your artistic ideas, in addition to the artistic values that marble carries. I have accomplished more than 15 marble blocks, the least of which is 2 meters and the largest is 4 meters”.
” I have recently completed the work of a statue representing the Russian pilot Lt. Col. Oleg Peshkov, who was martyred when the Turkish air force shot down his plane over Syrian territory, where the statue was delivered to the Russian embassy in Damascus, indicating that the statue represents a message of thanks from the Syrian artist for Russia’s standing by Syria in fighting terrorism on its soil.
Speaking about his local and international participation, and the most important prizes he won, Bilal said: “I participated in many art forums and exhibitions, the most prominent of which was the “International Shwer Symposium” in Lebanon in 2012, the implementation of a memorial“ The Golan Returns ”in the city of Quneitra in 2010 in addition to my participation in several forums in Spain, Dubai, Syria and Greece harvesting several prizes, including: the first prize for sculpture in the “Second Youth Exhibition” held in Damascus in 2001, the first prize for sculpture in the competition of “Women in the Eyes of the People of the Nation” of the United Nations Population Fund in Syria in 2003 , the first prize in the competition for the memorial of Sheikh Saleh Al-Ali in Tartous and the first prize in the competition for the memorial of the martyr Ahmed Marioud at the entrance to the city of Quneitra.
On his participation in the field of artistic research, Bilal says: “I had bilateral and collective participations in Syria, Greece, Spain, Dubai and several places of the world in addition to individual exhibitions, the last of which was my exhibition that was held within the activities of the “National Flag Festival” in the Marmarita region, in parallel and in partnership with the “International Children’s Exhibition” which was organized under the title “War and Peace in the Eyes of Children” in Moscow a few months ago.
“I feel optimistic about the future of Syrian plastic art, which will flourish again and prove that it is stronger than death as it has strong artistic energies and resistance in the way of life, love and beauty. A country with successive great and deep-rooted civilizations must inherit its sons the seeds of the resurrection from the ashes,” he concluded .
The artist, Eyad Bilal, was born in Homs, Al-Shairat, in 1972. He is a member of the Union of Fine Artists in Syria. He taught at the Institute of Applied Arts, Department of Sculpture, in Damascus. He also taught at Al-Baath University, College of Architecture, and now runs the Fine Arts Center in the Cultural Complex in Homs.
His works are acquired by the Syrian Ministry of Culture, the province of “Aleppo”, the city of Aley, Lebanon, and within private collections.
Interviewed by: Amal Farhat