Said Baalbaki was born in 1974, Beirut. He lives and works between Beirut and Berlin. In 2005, he was awarded the Meisterschülerpreis des Präsidenten (President’s Prize) from the UDK (Berlin University of Fine Arts). Since 1998, he exhibited in Berlin, London, New York, Doha, Dubai, Paris, Brussels and Beirut.

“Said Baalbaki uses his paintings as an analytical tool to uncover hidden layers of memory. They become part of an archaeological excavation into memory and history. For an artist for whom the routines of war were familiar from a very early age onwards, art itself holds the potential to become a fence against the brutality of history.

And Baalbaki placed his painting against the threatening loss of identity, re-claiming his own personal history, in order to “demand a self-determined biography”. This complex process of digging through the layers of memory is also reflected in the formal technique of the artist’s work. Multiple layers of colours and motives, applied to the medium in an elaborate work process add to the act of seeing a similar archaeological aspect as is manifested in the conceptual dimension of the works.”

Charlotte Bank