Omar IBRAHIM
Visual artist
Omar received a creation grant in partnership with the Atelier des Artistes en Exil.
What is your artistic background ?
I am what I like to call a ‘visual Artist’, which means for me the ability to be free and responsible to create my artistic product through all the forms of art I have experienced. My education was completed by graduating from the faculty of fine arts at Damascus University in 2002 (department of sculpture). After that, I went through many artistic experiences and projects with sculpture, painting, graphic and interior design, photography and Arabic calligraphy. Nowadays I work to group all my artistic experiences together, to go further with my artistic project which is multimedia in nature—especially sculpture, painting and calligraphy—to create my own personality through my pieces of art that hopefully showcase high quality, values and uniqueness. At least, this is my dream goal, and I work hard to reach it. I teach Arabic calligraphy at the School of Political Sciences in Reims, in order to share my cultural background with my students and people who could be interested in the rich scene of the Arab world.
How do you see your profession today ?
My profession today is only slowly improving, probably because of the many difficulties I have finding the right financial support and finding the time to develop the new research that I am currently working on. However, I continue my artistic production and participate in many exhibitions and workshops (as I did on the 2nd November this year, for example, when I finished a 5x5 meter painting at the Musée de l'Histoire de l'Immigration, along with five other artists from different countries under the supervision of the Atelier des Artistes en Exil. But I am still happy that through all, the way that I chose to express myself is still moving forward and further, and day by day I feel myself closer to what I want to experience and offer to myself, and maybe to achieve giving others something of human and cognitive value.
How do you see yourself in five years ? In 10 years ?
I see myself as an independent artist able to live from his work and give it all the time and the research that it needs to improve and spread awareness so it can carry the message and the values that I want to share with people. I am deeply passionate about what I am doing and would like to keep this passion to reach the goals I am aiming for.
This interview was conducted in 2019
Photo credit: Céline Anaya Gautier