Addressing one of the great moral issues of our time, the refugee crisis in which tens of thousands of unfortunate souls drowned in the Mediterranean, Ebeid commented: “People who feel like strangers in their own countries seeking for a better life in other places where they will realize that they are more strange.” His painting The Immigrant is a kind of shock art, intended to shake us out of complacency. Reversing roles, and expectations, it depicts a fully clothed man (washed up onshore?) lying next to a naked woman at the beach. He is lifeless and discolored, she pale and languid. One of the nudist’s legs is raised, idly—like a cat’s tail twitching on a lazy summer day. It appears that the woman is reading a book, but upon closer inspection, it turns out to be a passport. This is angry, indignant art, laced with defiance and a strange eroticism. But the true obscenity that such a challenging painting suggests is indifference to the pain of Others.
▻https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/culture/protest-art-walid-ebeid-reflections-four-paintings-yahia-labab
#décès #migrations #plage #peinture #mourir_aux_frontières #morts_aux_frontières #Méditerranée #mer_Méditerranée #mourir_en_mer #art_et_politique
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ajouté au fil de discussion : #tourisme et migrations :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/770799