Written by MARIA LUNDERSKOV

Born in 1988, in Lebanon, Sara Abou Mrad is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Paris. She is known for her colorful, symbolic, dream-inspired artworks. Abou Mrad grew up in an artistic family that supported her path in painting from the beginning. Her father, an upholsterer, had a workshop that became Abou Mrad´s favorite playground. Since the age of nine, Abou Mrad spent her time drawing and experimenting with various materials from the workshop. She has always been attracted to colors and the palette she uses today is the same one she used in her childhood – a mix of pink, blue and green. Starting in secondary school, her joy of drawing evolved into a life-long passion; she wanted to be like Picasso ¹ .

Abou Mrad obtained a degree in visual arts from the Institute of Fine Arts of the Lebanese University in 2010 ² . In the same year, she founded the artistic department within the school of Sainte-Anne des Sœurs de Besançon, in Beirut, where she taught for a decade ³ . Expanding her teaching skills under the aegis of the Empowerment Through Integration Foundation, an NGO committed to the empowerment and integration of disabled youth, Abou Mrad designed an art-based program in 2016 that aimed at training blind children and facilitating their integration into society. The project was implemented through CAMP RAFIKI, at Balamand University´s main campus in Koura, Lebanon ⁴ .

In her artistic endeavors, Abou Mrad has integrated her own life experiences, emotions, and socio-political matters, while working with a variety of other forms of art including music and literature. In 2011, her translation of the violin concerto, Les Quatre Saisons by the Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, into a painting ⁵ earned her the first prize of the competition launched by the Goethe Institute. Similarly, in March 2021, the artist translated twelve poems into drawings ⁶ , taken from the collection Les Fleurs du Mal by the French poet Charles Baudelaire, on the occasion of the L’Orient Littéraire ⁷ bicentenary in a special issue.

Abou Mrad’s artistic evolution is also evident in her series work, creating characters that she studies and develops with patience, curiosity, and attention to detail. The most known figure in Abou Mrad´s work is Matilda, an alter ego persona the artist created as an adolescent when she felt shy sharing her emotions and worries with others. She became a friend, guiding Abou Mrad towards adult life ⁸ . Through Matilda, the artist recounts her experience of love and anxiety, breakups and the changes that marked her life ⁹ . Matilda´s overall appearance has remained consistent over the years, but the scenarios she has been represented in have changed. Abou Mrad explained: “she flits from one canvas to another and carries dreams” ¹⁰ . Matilda became a life-long project, and a collection that includes acrylic as oil paintings, acrylic ink or Chinese ink drawings, etchings, and miniatures.

The surrealist universe in which Abou Mrad creates is a rich tapestry of imaginative elements, combining both the whimsical and the profound. In her creations, Matilda frequently appears with mythological attributes; she sports wings in a 2015 Chinese ink on paper ¹¹ piece and transforms into a mermaid in Nostalgie ¹² from the same year. By 2019, in Miniature-Stories ¹³ , Matilda takes on a unicorn's guise. Abou Mrad's work also explores the sensual and natural world, with paintings like Euphoria ¹⁴ and Extacy ¹⁵ from 2017, where terrestrial and aquatic flora embody feminine sexuality and pleasure. The artist's repertoire extends to the use of religious symbols. The catholic cross is a prominent feature in her 2021 work Voyage Orinique ¹⁶ , and angels grace the canvas of La Rencontre, 2020 ¹⁷ . In Matilda fantôme, 2023 ¹⁸ , she incorporates the lily, a symbol of the Virgin Mary in the Catholic Roman Church. Her use of sexual and anthropomorphic animals further enhances the surreal quality of her work. La Danse du Soir, 2019 ¹⁹ , part of the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation in Beirut, is an exemplary artwork that features a lion, while a 2015 Chinese ink on paper ²⁰ artwork showcases a parrot, and Fantasy, 2017 ²¹ , depicts a crocodile. In Arbre de Vie, 2022 ²² , she merges a dove with a toucan.

Abou Mrad's art resonates with the influence of the great masters of surrealism. The elastic bodies of Matilda and other creatures, floating in the sky and water, echo the figures in Chagal's paintings. The deformity of these figures and the use of deep, contrasting colors are reminiscent of Salvador Dali's work. The intricate lines ending in circles or triangles that make up Matilda's environment evoke the atmosphere of Joan Miró's universe, seamlessly blending these influences into her unique artistic vision.

Each work tells a story of self-discovery and love. The Pop Matilda ²³ is a series that tells about the passage from childhood to adulthood through a Matilda that wonders about the connection between her body and her emotions. The story unfolds from one artwork to another throughout this series. Minute elements distinguish the chronological passage; a teddy bear depicted next to Matilda, a hand nestled between her legs holding a little black heart that turns red, and a small diamond in her other hand that she stares at with big eyes. The Enigma ²⁴ can be seen as a tale of possession of the female body depicted through two bighorn sheep holding the strings of her tight corset. The Voyage, 2020, narrates Matilda´s adventures on the back of a lion, their tails are intertwined symbolizing the love between the feminine and masculine body. In Abou Mrad's etchings, Matilda's journey encompasses fleeing from hands amidst red poppies, traversing landscapes of giant eyes, navigating pomegranate-laden tree branches with seagulls overhead, entering snake-filled black tunnels, and floating in an upside-down world of torrents and trees, with each element playing a pivotal role in these intricate compositions.

Another recurrent figure in Abou Mrad´s work is the Sleeper – a black stylized figure with no arms that assumes different positions inspired by the way the artist sleeps ²⁵ . In addition to her figures, the artist draws inspiration for new postures for her figures from her everyday activities like dancing, swimming, and jogging ²⁶ . Abou Mrad creates acrobatic compositions of sleepers by experimenting with different colors and materials. She uses raw materials from her father’s artisanal work, such as wool, wood, metal, tarlatan, cardboard, and pigments ²⁷ . In Dancing Sleepers ²⁸ the small black figures are floating between bubbles of colors; in Pins Sleepers in Motion ²⁹ metal figures are scattered and fixed on a wooden panel; and in the mix-media, Sleepers ³⁰ , body-like figures are cut out from black and white Canson or Japanese paper, revealing the under layer of raw cotton. The cutout figures were glued on the first layer, creating a doubling effect. Like Matilda, the Sleeper represents part of Abou Mrad´s personality – calmness and wisdom, but also her adventurous side and passion for life ³¹ .

In the context of Lebanese turmoil beginning in 2019 with the onset of an economic crisis, revolution, and the 2020 Beirut Port explosion, Abou Mrad made the Sleeper a symbol of resistance and memory. During the 2019 Lebanese Revolution, the artist transported the Sleeper universe onto the walls of abandoned buildings, like the Grand Theatre of Beirut and the Metropole Cinema (also known as the Egg) in Beirut. The project created on the theatre walls is called The Return of the Phoenix, and involved 250 protesters simultaneously gluing 250 cutouts of sleepers on the facade of the building ³² . The sleepers carry a strong meaning, as Abou Mrad explained, “like a phoenix the sleepers are simulating, through the leaping movement they represent Lebanon’s resurrection and evolution towards justice and freedom” ³³ . On the Egg, she used a different technique: the 150 sleepers were stenciled with spray paint ³⁴ . Furthermore, in 2020, Abou Mrad made the artwork Beirut, L’INSTANT T.… consisting of a series of sleepers in the form of sculptures made out of glass debris collected from the streets of Beirut after the explosion of August 4, 2020. One of the sculptures was donated to French President Emmanuel Macron at a ceremony marking the centenary of Greater Lebanon ³⁵ .

Sara Abou Mrad´s body of work offers an emotional journey into her personal life through a variety of colors, symbols, and figures. Drawing inspiration from the masters of Surrealism such as Dali, Chagal, and Miró, she creates a universe where bodies are curved and stretched, taking different forms. Abou Mrad’s work in series, and the repetition of the same characters, showcases a stable and meticulous approach to art. At the same time, her use of mediums like drawing, painting, etching, sculpting, and building street installations while using different raw materials like cotton, metal, glass and wood, demonstrates an experimental approach to art-making. Throughout her career, Abou Mrad has displayed an extraordinary capacity to create artworks that connect specific circumstances or experiences to a general context. Drawing from her personal experiences, she has expressed the universal emotions of love and sorrow, mirroring the revolution and the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, to underscore the fundamental human pursuit of justice and freedom.

Edited by Elsie Labban

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Notes:

¹ Zeina Saleh Kayali, “Sara Abou Mrad ou un monde enchanté de couleurs,” Agenda culturel, October 25, 2021, www.agendaculturel.com
² Sara Abou Mrad, email to author, November 30, 2023
³ “Sara Abou Mrad,” Galerie Claude Lemand, accessed November 20, 2023, www.claude-lemand.com
⁴ Sara Abou Mrad, email to author, December 4, 2023
⁵ refer to DAF for visual inquiry
⁶ refer to DAF for visual inquiry
⁷ “Biography,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 20,2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
⁸ Zeina Saleh Kayali, “Sara Abou Mrad ou un monde enchanté de couleurs,” Agenda culturel, October 25, 2021, www.agendaculturel.com
⁹ “Sara Abou Mrad,”Galerie Claude Lemand,” accessed November 20, 2023, www.claude-lemand.com
¹⁰ Zeina Saleh Kayali, “Sara Abou Mrad ou un monde enchanté de couleurs,” Agenda culturel, October 25, 2021, www.agendaculturel.com
¹¹ “Chinese Ink,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 20, 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
¹² “Nostalgie,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 20, 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
¹³ “Miniatures,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 20, 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
¹⁴ “Euphoria,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 20, 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
¹⁵ “Extacy,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 20, 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
¹⁶ “Voyage Orinique,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
¹⁷ “La rencontre,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
¹⁸ Sara Abou Mrad, (@saraaboumradart), “Matilda fantôme,” Instagram photo, accessed November 20, 2023, www.instagram.com
¹⁹ “La danse du soir,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 20, 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
²⁰ “2015-Chinese ink on paper,” Sara About Mrad, accessed November 20, 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
²¹ “Fantasy,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 20, 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
²² Sara Abou Mrad, (@saraaboumradart), “Arbre de Vie,” Instagram photo, accessed November 20,2023, www.instagram.com
²³ “Etchings,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 20, 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
²⁴ “Enigma,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 20, 2023,www.saraaboumrad.com
²⁵ “Sleeper,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 20, 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
²⁶ Sara Abou Mrad, (@saraaboumradart), “Sleeper in Motion,” Instagram photo, accessed November 20,2023, www.instagram.com
²⁷ Sara Abou Mrad, (@saraaboumradart), “Sleeper in Motion,” Instagram photo, accessed November 20,2023, www.instagram.com
²⁸ “Dancing sleepers,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 20, 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
²⁹ “Pins sleepers in motion,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 20, 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
³⁰ “Sleepers,” Sara Abou Mrad, accessed November 20, 2023, www.saraaboumrad.com
³¹ Sara Abou Mrad, (@saraaboumradart), “Sleeper in Motion,” Instagram photo, accessed November 20,2023, www.instagram.com
³² Sara Abou Mrad, (@saraaboumradart), “The return of the Phoenix installation,” Instagram photo, accessed November
20,2023, www.instagram.com
³³ Sara Abou Mrad, (@saraaboumradart), “The return of the Phoenix,” Instagram photo, accessed November 20,2023, www.instagram.com
³⁴ Sara Abou Mrad, (@saraaboumradart), “The return of the Phoenix,” Instagram photo, accessed November 20,2023, www.instagram.com
³⁵ Anuj Tiwari, “Lebanese Artist Who Makes Glass Sculptures Using Beirut Port Explosion Debris,” Indiatimes,
September 2, 2020, www.indiatimes.com.

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References:

Kayali, Zeina Saleh. “Sara Abou Mrad ou un monde enchanté de couleurs.” Agenda culturel.
October 25, 2021. www.agendaculturel.com
Galerie Claude Lemand. “Sara Abou Mrad.” Accessed November 20. www.claude-lemand.com
Sara Abou Mrad. Email to author. November 30, 2023
Sara Abou Mrad. “Biography.” Accessed November 20, 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad. “Chinese Ink.” Accessed November 20, 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad. “Nostalgie.” Accessed November 20, 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad, “Miniatures.” Accessed November 20, 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com/
Sara Abou Mrad, “Euphoria.” Accessed November 20, 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad. “Extacy.” Accessed November 20, 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad. “Voyage Orinique.” Accessed November 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad.“La rencontre.” Accessed November 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad (@saraaboumradart). “Matilda fantôme.” Instagram photo. Accessed November 20, 2023, www.instagram.com
Sara Abou Mrad. “La danse du soir.” Accessed November 20, 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad. “2015-Chinese ink on paper.” Accessed November 20, 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad. “Fantasy.” Accessed November 20, 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad (@saraaboumradart). “Arbre de Vie.” Instagram photo. Accessed November 20,2023, www.instagram.com
Sara Abou Mrad.“Etchings.” Accessed November 20, 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad. “Enigma.” Accessed November 20, 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad. “Sleeper.” Accessed November 20, 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad (@saraaboumradart). “Sleeper in Motion.” Instagram photo. Accessed November 20,2023. www.instagram.com
Sara Abou Mrad. “Dancing sleepers.” Accessed November 20, 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad, “Pins sleepers in motion.” Accessed November 20, 2023. www.saraaboumrad.com
Sara Abou Mrad (@saraaboumradart). “The return of the Phoenix installation.” Instagram photo. Accessed November 20,2023, www.instagram.com
Sara Abou Mrad (@saraaboumradart). “The return of the Phoenix.” Instagram photo. Accessed November 20,2023, www.instagram.com
Sara Abou Mrad (@saraaboumradart). “The return of the Phoenix.” Instagram photo. Accessed November 20,2023, www.instagram.com
Anuj Tiwari. “Lebanese Artist Who Makes Glass Sculptures Using Beirut Port Explosion Debris.” Indiatimes. September 2, 2020.