The good thing about the artist is sometimes he becomes a mirror, you know, he reflects
his society. Yeah, they will get upset for a while but that's who you are guys you need to change it.
In that time, me and the family were in front of the tv
just watching what's happening it's like it was something new for us to be honest
and everybody was like shocked because of what we what we were seeing and what we were hearing.
There was a lot of things that was new for us and I remember that we were searching about what Zizek
that philosopher was saying or what Noam Chomsky was saying about the Arab Spring and then they
started to compare it to the Spring of Revolution in Europe. Which is wrong, it's totally different
and then they didn't convince me with their answers. All of that thing shocked my essentials,
I mean I started to change my my perspective you know I want to create
a new artwork which will at least reflect some of what was happening
I have an artwork called Cupping. Cupping, it's a traditional pain treatment
it's in our Islamic culture they use it usually in the back of the of the person and try to suck the
bad blood and to make the blood flow again. I remember one of my friends, I put the the map
of the Arab world and on his back and we start to put the cupping and we were trying to take
the bad blood of his body and let the blood flow again and that's how I imagined the Arab world
that we need to take out of that artwork. What distinguished the period of the Arab Spring was
seeing Arab nations and individuals using their own minds far from religious or political
guardianship and guidance. There was a kind of liberty and freedom of expression during the
Arab Spring, the majority expressed their thoughts openly. After the Arab Spring,
the government became aware of the importance of the field of the arts and its influential power.
It was hard really to display our new artwork in Saudi Arabia because you know there was a
lot of monarchy in the art scene here in Saudi Arabia so we couldn't do anything about it so
we said why don't we start something from outside. The first show we did in London
and we see the impact on the people the people start to love Edge of Arabia, even the Saudis,
so we have seen the potential from the young Saudi artists, boys and girls.
The idea came just from from the potential we have seen so we said why don't we donate
some of our artwork and let's take that money and do a kind of education program
and now in Saudi Arabia there is like 32 artists who graduated from that program,
you know, they are now established artists and well-known artists now.
We are living in a grand narrative, it's a new one and I believe that the enlightenment should
come from within the culture, so don't wait from the people outside to tell you what to do or or
you know to try to explain to you what you need to do or what's happening to you or all of that
thing. It will not come from outside so that's why I'm trying to encourage the young artists and the
young people to do their homework they need to do it by themselves, don't wait for anyone to tell
you what to do so I'm trying to create a kind of a new platform, you know it's the art piece itself,
it's a new discourse, it's a new discourse based on understanding, it's not based on convincing.
That's why I'm doing all of that, I want everyone who will see the artwork, what I want from them is
a statement. I just need a statement from you, either it's bad or good, I don't care. I just
want to activate you to get back to your mind, your knowledge, your essentials... just think.