The sculptor Eyad al-Belal … “When the artist devotes his creativity to the nation’s children and martyrs”

The international Syrian sculptor Eyad al-Belal took up the cause of the homeland with its children and heroic martyrs as he documented it through his art. He chose to produce his creativity in memorials that convey a message to  the whole world about the criminality that afflicted our children and did not have mercy on their innocence and the tears of their mothers so that their memory remains visible for generations

The terrorist bombing of Akrama Al-Makhzoumi School in Homs and the death of young children inspired Bilal to create a memorial to document one of the most painful events in the city. The monument, which is up to three meters high, represents a boy and a girl in school uniform, looking forward and the child is pointing with his finger to one place. A picture and the name of each martyr student carved on a book and pencils surmounted as a pole bearing the flag of the homeland, in an indication that with education, nations are preserved.

Highlighting the sanctity of martyrdom and the dignity of the martyr in the conscience of the Syrian people, al-Belal sculpted the statue of the martyrs in Homs; the statue is made of basalt material. It is nine meters high and weighs 12 tons. It is currently standing in the middle of the old clock square, representing two hands holding up the soldier’s helmet topped with the Syrian flag.

In an interview with SANA, al-Belal explained that the details of his environment were a reason for him to enter the world of sculpturing, in addition to his acquaintance with the civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the columns of Palmyra and its monuments, as well as the ancient architecture in Syria.

Artist Al-Belal has a special style of sculpture, as he embodied  realism  through his study at the Faculty of Fine Arts, then he adopted a different formula represented by expressive realism, stressing that each material has an expressive energy and the role of the artist lies in showing its energy through his intellectual vision.

He tends to embody the human being in all his states, from documentary portraiture to collective or ritual human situations.

It is noteworthy that the sculptor Eyad al-Belal participated in many individual and group exhibitions inside and outside Syria, including Greece, Spain and Lebanon.

He accomplished six memorials, twenty monumental stone works of a plastic research character, more than 300 sculptural works, and hundreds of studies.

Amal Farhat