Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) In a hidden apartment in Halle, along the placid canal, Maher Naji and his family warmly welcomed us; Arabic coffee on the table, some sweets to soften the intense quality blend, and we discussed his early life in Gaza, his decision to move to Belgium, and his talent.
Among other European countries, Belgium seemed the right place to be: close to everything, and especially to his children but at the same time quite far from Gaza. He tried more than once to stay and remain in Palestine, but the final and relentless decision fell during the last war her survived in 2014. Such a small country with such a huge problem, he finally seems to argue. With a bombed and partially destroyed house, this time Maher does not look back, and with his wife Irina he takes the road to Europe with nostalgia. A deep, and typical nostalgia to Russia, which is somehow reflected in the bright colours and faces of his broad painting production.
Nostalgia to Russia
He laughs, pretty amused, when this similarity is pointed out to him: of course, it seems to say, he lived and studied in Russia for almost two decades, when the young spirit becomes imbued with memories and images. But Irina, the solid presence at his side, comforts this hypothesis by whispering that the memory of Russia is still alive, and that modern Russian painting has something to do with his paintings. Just as Palestine has something to do with the complementary works of Irina, also a artist.
Maher Naji was born in 1963 and raised in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp after his parents were forced to leave their home in Northern Sawafer Village. Also, Maher’s paintings depict his refugee experience: «Ι was a refugee twice. In many of my paintings, people are living in tents. I want to remind everyone that Palestinians are still refugees. I paint scenes of war to visualize the past and set shed light on history», he said.
He moved to Russia at the age of 18 to study Fine Arts and Interior Design at the Baron Stieglitz Art Academy in St. Petersburg. Returning to Palestine in 1994, after receiving his Ph.D. in Arabic Architecture, he started his career as a lecturer, designer, and consultant; those were the days when a career as an artist was not frowned upon, but judged as a divertissement, certainly not a job. But, since his very young age, his first childhood memories of drawing and painting on all surfaces are vivid; and since then, he has never stopped. He started painting when he was young, and he developed his talent during his studies. «Painting for me is a pleasure. Not only a source of income», Maher mentioned. For him, painting is still not a job, it is a passion, which he cultivates with readings and a sort of urgent need. And it is perhaps also for this reason that his paintings are touring the world, between purchases (the latest, the Qatar Museum acquiring one of his canvases in 2023), and exhibitions (the most recent in London, in 2022, and obviously in Halle between 2020 and 2021).
Inspiration and Palestinian Tradition
A unique element of his painting is the depiction of an idyllic, arcadic, nostalgic, Palestinian life. Harvesting and cooking, traditional attire, folk dances, and certainly monuments, are some of the components characterizing his work. «This is the life of Palestinian people for more than 100 years. I want to keep all those memories alive», Maher commented. Trying to «to recreate his own home» through the architectural magniloquence of the Dome of the Rock (in Jerusalem), or the humble familiar environment of the “classic” Palestinian style, he tries to reconstruct and remember his far homeland.
No hatred transpires from his canvases, no rancour, but a placid, serene, and traditional vision that wants to preserve the traces of a wounded Palestine, still alive in the memory of the refugees. His latest work in progress shows the reinterpretation of a Salvador Dali work, Christopher Columbus discovering America (1958) from the ‘other’, and mostly forgotten, point of view; that of the Muslim community in Spain, and his leader Tarik ibn Ziyad. As Maher Naji uses his sense of art and interpretation of history to send a message to Europe and the world. «The world needs peace. Palestine is too small to endure all these wars but too big for every love and peace. I paint scenes of war to visualize the past and shed light on history».
