معرضي الأخير في فرنسا

Quote: Hero could be defined as a person who, in the opinion of others, has extraordinary qualities or has performed acts regarded as a model or ideal. This definition for me is far from being clear. Because it’s so relative and all the basic points explaining the meaning are so elastic and mysterious. And that’s what is so interesting about it. Being a hero demands that there must be others to watch your heroic acts and call you a hero. And that decides so much about your act. I know that Osama Bin Laden is a hero in the eyes of some people as much as he is an evil criminal in the eyes of others. So, by saying “local hero” I feel that I am talking about more pure hero and better agreeable heroic qualities about these persons. That’s because I have one group of people with some common sense in understanding the meaning of things. One of the things I am trying to show in these paintings is some certain place, or the feeling that all the paintings have figures or objects that emanate from the same geographical location. I do that by repeating some signs in each different painting. Even though the acts that make them heroes are very violent in these paintings (like killing a crocodile in one of the paintings) I am trying to show their happiness after the act is done for being called heroes. But the stories are not very clear always, some paintings are so easy to read their whole story and some are not but it is easy to feel the ghost of the idea by looking at the other paintings. I chose to show their happiness because -for me- it has always been easier to make art about misery than about happiness, for happiness is so “un-artistic”, so devoid of conflict. “Local Heroes” is a project about happiness in its peek. Even though I think it was a bit hard to show that. But it’s not so important for me if it shows or not. What matters is just the joy of making those paintings, and hopefully their ability to question.