Bady Dalloul: A country without a door or windows

Project Space

Bady Dalloul's A country without a door or windows, is a series of 200 miniature drawings displayed inside pocket matchboxes. The vividly coloured and seemingly childlike images sharply contrast with the harsh reality of the stories they depict of the Syrian war that erupted in 2011. By re-appropriating images from the media, Dalloul invokes a deeply personal and emotive connection to the conflict as his family hails from Syria. Although these images have left a lasting impression on the artist's psyche, the sequence of events is not arranged chronologically. Instead, Dalloul arranges the sequence of events subjectively, conveying a sense of imagination and escapism.

This body of work offers an intimate glimpse into Dalloul’s childhood, rooted in the games he played with his brother at the age of ten. The drawings, which are no larger than 2.7cm each, are inspired by the fictional countries that Dalloul and his brother created by adding new elements to the visible depictions on postage stamps using black pen and coloured pencil to create new geopolitical territories. Dalloul later refined this technique to explore how propaganda and folklore images contribute to the construction of identities.

Despite the drawings' small size, they offer a potent message by helping to process and cope with the overwhelming pain of historical events. Dalloul's approach isn't only a means of artistic expression; it's also a way to domesticate the pain of personal and collective memories.

Edited from original text by Fabien Denesi