Why do you kill us? Is there an answer to that question? And why is Namo calling on us, the indifferent ones?
Why do you kill us?
Rostam Zada (Namo), 2019
Oil on canvas - 79.5х79
Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan
Oil on canvas - 79.5х79
Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan
Как видит путешественник?
(Fragment of a post from a Facebook page)
My traveling partner in South Sudan, Instagram blogger Dmitry Lukyanchuk, made a post with the caption “They just kill us” about Afghanistan. The painting that I bought in Iraqi Kurdistan a few days before his post is, well, about precisely that.
The gallery in Erbil was closed down two years ago, but our guide got in touch with the owner. He opened it just for us and told us about an Iranian artist of Kurdish origin named Rostam Zada, who wrote under the pen name “Namo”. An article from 2015 was the last trace of him on the internet, which begged the question: is he even alive? After all, “They just kill us”.
PS. I later received information from the owner of the gallery! Namo is alive and continues to paint!
Click the link and you will find two more paintings of his that concern Afghanistan; the rest of them could well be banned by Facebook.
The gallery in Erbil was closed down two years ago, but our guide got in touch with the owner. He opened it just for us and told us about an Iranian artist of Kurdish origin named Rostam Zada, who wrote under the pen name “Namo”. An article from 2015 was the last trace of him on the internet, which begged the question: is he even alive? After all, “They just kill us”.
PS. I later received information from the owner of the gallery! Namo is alive and continues to paint!
Click the link and you will find two more paintings of his that concern Afghanistan; the rest of them could well be banned by Facebook.
What does the expert say?
The painting Why do you kill us? is dedicated to the suffering of the Kurdish people. Its imagery borders on the abstract and objective, on artistic conventions, on concrete feelings and an impulse for action on which the piece is based. The handwritten signature underscores the painting’s social message.
Halyna Sklyarenko, candidate in Art History
Halyna Sklyarenko, candidate in Art History
Что скажет зритель?