Hamid Sulaiman (Paris/Bonn): 82, before freedom hospital (Bericht aus der Werkstatt des Artist in Residence)

Abstract

Hamid Sulaiman - current artist in residence at the Käte Hamburger Center "Law as Culture" - will provide insight into his work "82, before freedom hospital". This is the artist’s second ‘graphic novel’, which follows his first well-received piece "Freedom Hospital" (Hanser Verlag Berlin 2017). This new graphic novel is about a Syrian family living in Damascus who travels to the city of Hama to witness the violent events that took place there in 1982.

The subsequent discussion with Prof. Gephart will concern the tension between the aesthetic representation and horrors of realities. Art Spiegelman, who dealt with Nazi-era concentration camps in his famous novel "Maus", was one of the first to meet this challenge. How is it possible to transfer another kind of message by way of drawing rather than by pure textuality? This is one of the questions the Center for Advanced Study “Law as Culture” addresses, namely the moment when the aesthetic power is brought into connection with the “force du droit”, which is still lacking for the events at Hama.

Personal details

Hamid Sulaiman is a Syrian artist and comic author. He was born in Damascus in 1986 and trained as an architect at the Damascus university in 2009. Due to the Syrian civil war Hamid Sulaiman was forced to flee his country. He is currently based in Paris, where he continues his work as an artist. In April 2016 he published his first comicbook „Freedom Hospital“ (Hanser Verlag Berlin 2017) which was edited by arté in France. Since October 2016 Hamid Sulaiman is artistic in residence at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg ”Recht als Kultur“, Bonn, where he is working on his second graphic novel ”82, before freedom hospital“.
Pacifism, life, and the rejection of arbitrary power represents the core of Sulaiman´s artistic message. His artworks are based on variations of contrasts betweenblack and white. The mix of complex reality and visual simplicity makes his work very versatile to be presented in different kind of media types such as: Paintings, graphic novels, animation films and theater