24th February 2024
Shrapnel – Splinters
Hossam wrote this piece as if it was Basil Marquosi speaking. It accompanies these drawing that were sent at the same time.
Shrapnel all the way, splinters all the time; not only shrapnel, cutting people into pieces, not only splinters cutting buildings in half. People themselves are splintering. Life itself is splintering. Nothing is complete, nothing is perfect, everything is splintered. The human beings, the buildings, the streets, the trees, the tents, Human Rights. Life itself has become shrapnel, splinters and pieces.
Who is going to collect back into one standing piece, a child who has lost his parents, a man who has lost his beloved wife, a mother who has lost her baby, or a worker whose source of livelihood was lost, or a patient who lost his hospital or a factory owner whose factory was destroyed, or the owner of a house he built with years of sweat that now he sees in ruins?
All my life as a Palestinian, as an artist, I did my best to draw complete images. Today, with this genocide, I am trying to bring pieces back, shrapnel and splinters, to become a single complete image. Will I succeed?