Khaled DAWWA, Tyrant Figures. 18 Bronze sculptures.
Figures of tyranny
Through his 18 bronze sculptures, Khaled Dawwa erects the figures of men of power who have become tyrants, eaten away by their will to power. Fat, deformed men, sometimes without legs or without arms, sunk on thrones. They stare straight ahead, with closed faces, disdainful eyes, puffed up with pride, insensitive and brutal dictators.
These monstrous figures do not only evoke the regime of the Syrian tyrants Hafez and Bashar Al-Assad. “Of course I try to represent, as I see it, this dictatorial regime. Before 2000, there were statues of Hafez Al-Assad everywhere in the country. This is a problem for me, with regard to my personal history, but it is also a problem for more than half of the countries on our planet.”
Khaled Dawwa’s sculptures show the violence of power, its ugliness and its perversion; a dominant male figure, who has become obese due to his greed. These sculptures are outlets. They are riddled with holes, until they are disfigured, the bodies are damaged, as necrotic. Deadly for those who suffer it, the abuse of power is also deadly for those who exercise it, as if seized by the physical impossibility of extracting themselves from a throne too small for them and condemned to progressive decomposition. . “The holes you see in my works, almost like shrapnel, are the result of my expression of fragility, of wear and tear. They were, at one point, my only outlet for my personal frustrations at the corruption and devastation that surrounded me, and my own helplessness in the face of those responsible for it. I spent long hours perforating sculptures. »
However, nothing can be done, despite all these holes that deform them, the sick of power remain clinging to their seats, seeming to resist the attempts at destruction aimed at them. "They are the image of a fragile power, but they are there, which will not fall immediately", summarizes Khaled Dawwa. Hope exists, but it is still uncertain and distant.
