SHWAN DLER QARADAKI
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Shwan does not write backwards. He is originally Kurdish so that is why he writes from right to left and the direction of the text means something for the context between the drawing, the history, between text and picture.
Shwan studied art in Suleimani Institute of Fine Art in Kurdistan in the 90`s. A school with five years of art studies where one had to learn to draw and paint realistically. He studied ancient history, from Mesopotamia and Egypt, then followed the time before and after the introduction of Islam, with ornament, calligraphy and poetry. Then he studied european art history from the renaissance to modernism. Geopolitical issues, identity, belonging, and territory-looseness were consistent themes during Shwan's upbringing in Kurdistan. These issues have not become less relevant after he came to Norway as a political refugee in the year 2000." Qaradaki wants to investigate the relationship between art and war related questions in relation to individual experiences. He desired to investigate how dramatic life could affect people’s self-image and self-understanding, and he wanted to combine his own experiences with others’ voices to tell stories from our time. With his own and others’ experiences under totalitarian regimes and the loss of freedom that comes with it, he preferred to make human dignity a major theme in his work. Shwans works have been featured at a number of solo and group exhibitions in Norway and abroad. In 2013 Shwan won the Oslo City Culture Award. In 2015 he was awarded the Newcomer of the Year prize from the Norwegian Arts Council and four awards for his latest movie "To My Children." |