About Fouad Bader (1980)
Farmer – refugee in Swizerland
In 2005 I was invited to Switzerland where I met Mrs. Keeni Kessler. Two or three times I went to her house and saw the collages that were distributed around the main entrance of her flat. At the time, I did not know anything about Western art, as I had mainly experienced traditional art of my country.
I was born in Qunaitra, in Southern Syria where we have strong traditions and traditional crafts. When I first saw the collages I was quite amazed, as I had never seen such a type of art expression. Some of the collages had colours which really appealed to me, and others less. It took me a while to appreciate these collages and get a feel for the ones I came to like.
Now I am living in Geneva, and realise that although artistic expression may be completely different, the root motivations are fundamentally the same. The interpretations/expressions are different, but the ‘fount’ of the ideas are very similar.
When passing through difficult moments, looking at something beautiful, colourful, emotional, etc. that touches us, it helps us realise that there are colours, shapes, objects that can bring us happiness and make us feel human.