I wished I lived my whole life in this slow rhythm, where time stretches and the evening moves slowly to leave and the day slips from the night like a thread that you hold onto, see and feel as it passes through you.
Khaled Khalifa – 2023
Photo by Deldar Felemez
A Long Exercise of Solitude
Time in Zurich
When the writer’s creativity overflows with energy, they search for a new way or a language to express their feelings and thoughts, and the Syrian cultural heritage has always given us outstanding examples.
This unique and captivating exhibition presents a collection of paintings by the late novelist, screenwriter and painter Khaled Khalifa, which are a reflection of the characters of his novels, dreams and memories in the last six months he spent in Zurich, Switzerland, as part of a creative writing program. The quiet city imposes its rhythm as Khaled described it: “This was my third sign: a chance to enjoy a long, isolated retreat.” Zurich’s calm gave him a space for contemplation, and painting gave him a new language of expression.
In his paintings, Khaled depicted the loneliness during the months he spent in Zurich, surrounded by silence and tranquillity, spending hours staring into his surroundings, and to his amazement, he discovered it’s possible to live without the daily commotion.
Celebrating Khaled’s experience as a painter is necessary. His first unique venture to begin painting in this age, where prolific art productions are available, yet the simplicity, spontaneity and passion distinguish his art. Hence, I was motivated to research and wonder what Khaled thought and felt when he painted these paintings. This question imposed the importance of presenting this experience, not only because it is his first and last experience, nor because it was one of his last wishes (citing his article in Al Majalla, Culture and Social Affairs, 27 June 2023), but out of conviction of the importance of showcasing the image of this innovator so that this creative spirit may rest in peace and may his memory remain immortal as his name.
Jehan Saleh
Art Concept Manama / Bahrain 2023
Artist Bio
Khaled Khalifa (1964-2023) Novelist, screenwriter and painter
Khaled Khalifa, the Syrian novelist, screenwriter, and painter, was born in 1964 in a village near Aleppo to a family working in olive cultivation, olive oil manufacturing, and trading in truck spare parts and agricultural engines. He studied in the schools of Aleppo, where his family lived, and graduated from Al-Mutanabbi High School in 1982. Khalid graduated from the University of Aleppo with a degree in Law in 1988. He began his journey as a poet and published his first poems in the Al-Thawra newspaper when he was 15.
He participated in the Aleppo University Forum, one of the most famous youth literature festivals in Syria, attracting a large audience of students and residents of the city before it was closed in 1988. Khaled Khalifa began writing novels and poetry when he was twenty years old. He finished his first novel before he graduated from university and then tore it up because he believed it had borrowed the voices of other novelists. Khaled began to search for his voice. In 1990, after graduating and joining the military service in Damascus, he devoted himself entirely to writing novels and screenplays. Khaled is one of the founders of “Alef magazine”, which focuses on new and budding writers. In 1990, he published in its first issue a chapter from his first novel, “The Guardians of Treachery”, which was printed in Beirut by Alef Magazine in 1993. The first chapter of the “In Praise of Hatred” novel was published in its first written version in the same magazine in 1993. Later, the magazine stopped, and he returned to his city of Aleppo to devote himself to writing novels and screenplays.
The five years from 1993-1998 in Aleppo were very challenging. He couldn’t afford his coffee and cigarettes, and his family asked him to give up writing and work in law or family projects. Nevertheless, his first television series, “Memoirs of Al-Jalali”, was directed by Haitham Haqqi, one of the leading Syrian Directors, screened in 1999, and achieved overwhelming success. The media has established Khaled Khalifa as one of the most influential screenwriters of his generation. Another successful television series, “Rainbow”, was directed by Haitham Haqqi in 2001, and “City Folks” was directed by Bassam Saad. In 2009, another of his screenplays was released as a series with great success, “Relative Quietness”, which tackled the experience of Arab journalists in the Iraq war of 2003, directed by the Tunisian Chawki Mejri. Khalifa wrote many more TV screenplays that all received vast attention. In 1998, Khalifa moved permanently to Damascus. He published his second novel, “The Notebooks of the Bohemians”, in 2000 in its first edition by Dar Ward (the last edition was published by Hachette Antoine, 2019).
Thirteen years later, Khalifa finished his novel, “In Praise of Hatred”, and published it in 2006 (In 2019, Hachette Antoine was the official publisher). In 2008, the “International Prize of Arabic Fiction” shortlisted the novel. It was also shortlisted for the “Independ- ent International Award” in 2013 and was listed in 2014 by “List Muse” as one of the best hundred novels in history. Translated in many languages, “In Praise of Hatred” established Khalifa’s name internationally. In 2013, he published another novel, “No Knives in the Kitchens of This City”, and later through Hachette Antoine, in 2019. This ode to Aleppo won the prestigious Naguib Mahfouz Medal of Literature in 2014, awarded by the American University in Cairo. Once again, the book was shortlisted for the “Interna- tional Prize of Arabic Fiction” that same year. The novel also gained wide attention and was translated into different languages. In 2016, his novel “Death is Hard Work” was published by Hachette Antoine in Beirut and Dar Al Ain in Cairo. In 2019, this novel was a finalist in the National Book Award in the foreign literature category. In 2020, the novel also won the Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.
Khalifa’s last novel, “No One Prayed Over Their Graves”, was published in 2019. In 2022, Khalifa published his first memoir, “An Eagle on the Side Table: Diaries of Solitude and Writing”. From the beginning, Khaled has stood with the Syrian revolution and supported it. He passed away at the age of 60 years in his home in Damascus on September 30, 2023.