CRITICHE

CARMELO STRANO

"DINAMICHE STRATIFICAZIONI" 

TESTO CRITICO DI  CARMELO STRANO

"Sono due le strade che Gamal percorre lungo la sua ricerca. Due posizioni dialettiche e sincroniche. In quanto sincroniche, esse danno il senso del mondo complessivo dell’artista egiziano.

Una dimensione è legata all’interesse forte che Gamal ha sempre avuto per la scenografia (che peraltro ha studiato all’accademia di belle arti di Brera a Milano). Egli ha sfruttato molto quest’esperienza. Lo ha fatto nei dipinti e lo ha fatto nelle installazioni. I suoi dipinti, quasi sempre in bilico tra astrazione (tendente all’informale) e figurazione, sono per così dire una messinscena del colore fine a se stesso. Voglio dire che il colore non è mai strumentale in rapporto a un qualsiasi assunto o messaggio. Anche quando la figura presenti contorni accentuati, ad essa non viene affidato alcun significato. Semmai in questi casi il rischio è che si indugi su di essa con compiacimento o piglio decorativo. Che è come stabilire un allentamento della forza del colore a favore di un racconto figurale che, si capisce subito, a Gamal interessa poco.

Dunque, la dimensione scenografica si traduce nella messinscena del colore.

L’altro aspetto di questa dimensione scenografica è dato dalle installazioni. In queste Gamal Meleka raggiunge un equilibrio interessante tra modi espressivi e messaggio. L’installazione non è assolutista, essa consiste in una messa insieme di elementi formali e oggettuali mirata a una tesi. Ovvio che questa tesi sarà affermata con forza se forte è il linguaggio impiegato.

Nelle installazioni Gamal mette inventiva formale, dinamismo nella successione degli elementi. Inoltre, se il colore è materia antica ma sempre attuale, nelle installazioni Gamal impiega materiali tecnologici, da quelli industriali a quelli informatici, come ben dimostra l’opera che egli ha realizzato due anni fa nell’ambito della Biennale del Cairo.

Torno indietro e recupero la proposta iniziale delle due posizioni dialettiche e sincroniche che stanno alla base di tutta la ricerca di Gamal. Una posizione si riferisce alla scenografia, di cui ho appena detto. L’altra posizione è, come annunciato, opposta. Non la messinscena ma la stratificazione, non l’emersione ma l’immersione. E siamo alle opere che vengono proposte in questa pubblicazione e alle quali Gamal si dedica con particolare decisione e felicità negli ultimi  quattro anni. Il piglio informale è pur sempre protagonista. Solo che esso, anziché veicolare tout court gli umori dell’artista, agisce costruendo. Anziché gli umori generali o imprendibili dell’artista, questo piglio informale esprime di lui il senso della cultura, della storia. In queste opere che potremmo chiamare “dinamiche stratificazioni” Gamal si esprime con la coscienza della propria cultura, della millenaria tradizione egizia.

Di solito il piglio informale in lui ha risentito dell’influenza occidentale. E diciamolo pure: fin qui non producendo nulla di particolare. In queste “dinamiche stratificazioni” quest’influenza occidentale si allenta fortemente e il piglio informale si coniuga con il “senso” della cultura egizia più che con l’immaginario egizio. Gamal punta a dare, o meglio ad esprimere, la sedimentazione e la stratificazione della sua cultura. Ma non c’è elaborazione formale né elucubrazione mentale. Egli costruisce ma con l’istinto, ancora una volta fedele a questo suo connotato espressivo.

Gamal stratifica per mezzo di resine che determinano spessori e volumi. Esse vengono dorate o argentate e quindi “insaporite” con patine anticanti. Il racconto stratificato è spesso supportato dal legno, la qualcosa accentua il risultato di opera che è nello stesso tempo pittura e scultura. Scultura come basso o alto rilievo, lontana in ogni caso dal tutto tondo. Queste dinamiche stratificazioni talora si stagliano su fondo monocromo bianco, blu oltremare, grigio; in altre occasioni esse annegano in una policromia di tinte accese o spente. Se in genere il fondo rimane tale, talvolta il colore si dinamicizza, si agita, e si infiltra fra le pieghe delle stratificazioni. Ma il racconto rimane asciutto, severo, quasi fosse un racconto storico.

" Carmelo Strano

                                                                                                      
       Meleka's icon of Eternity 
     By Osama Affifi

Beware of artist Gamal Melika! He loves playing tricks on the viewers and art critics. Meleka loves trying every trick in the book. His art displays very childish frivolities. For example, giving the impression that his elements are moving towards the south, he deceptively points to the opposite direction. Likewise, he frivolously points to the west, although the east is the direction. Secret potentials of Meleka's admirable technique and substances are too difficult to decode. He paints—behind layers of his 'intriguing substances—creatures bore in his soul; his unfulfilled dreams; his fears; his anxieties, his roots and emotions. It was late art critic Ahmed Fouad Selim, who realized that Meleka's art is frivolous. Introducing the artist's exhibition in Akhenaton Gallery, Selim said: "Meleka is an artist, who is trying to establish his identity in that area, which lies between existence and non-existence."
Selim gave cleverly a brief account of Meleka's artistic, human and dramatic experiment since its beginning in the 1960s. The boy took drawing up in the Club of Talents. His instructors were artist Ragheb Ayyad, Hamed Nada and Ghaleb Khater. Meleka also studied at Brera Academy of Art in Milan.
Meleka's painting, scenography, sculpture and installations display a Hamlet-like enactment to draw a line between existence and non-existence. However, I oppose critics, including Selim, who categorized Meleka as an artist, who stands in an area between abstract art and representation; modernity and heritage; and formative art and leitmotif.
Meleka does not allow any of the opposites to overwhelm his experiment. Rather, he blends them and dips his brush in this mixture to paint the reality, which he appreciates. That is why his art, visible in accumulating layers of substances, techniques and experiments, reveals as Roger Garaudy had put it, realism without coasts. In other words, Meleka introduces a realism visible to him alone—not to anyone else. Visionaries, such as painters, poets and musicians, see what is invisible to ordinary people. For example, it is the artist, who ties the tree, the electric wire and the café chair with a magic [invisible) cord. The viewer will not realize that these objects are scattered in the surface. It is the artist's individual vision, which reassembles the reality, and rediscovers an extraordinary relationship between objects. The artist's reality is completely different from that, which is visible to the ordinary viewer.
French philosopher Victor Basch should be acknowledged for stating that aestheticians, art critic and essayists do not allow their senses to influence their meditations and thoughts. The artist's chief task is to help decode aesthetic phenomenon to help ordinary viewers have better understanding in this respect. ِArt critic and aestheticians, they should not by any means be subjective
It is Meleka's lines, colours, pastes and forms, which activate frivolities in his painting. They are his spokespersons. I mean that Melika introduces his optical vocabularies to communicate with the viewer smoothly—without an interlocutor or mediator. Therefore, it is the essayist's chief task to shed light on the aesthetic language in the work
Meleka introduces a panoramic display of his unique vision of the world. He is a strong voice of the beauty of the existence. He is seeking to establish a strong edifice, which could overshadow the ugliness of non-existence
Meleka's new exhibition echoes the Sphinx's hums of history. He uses his unique vocabulary, languages and motifs to highlight the beauty of the existence in the face of the ugliness of the non-existence
The Sphinx, who is the guardian of the gate of eternity, stands at the illusive line of the living and the dead; of the glowing physical existence and the frigid atmosphere of the intriguing metaphysical world
In his exhibition, Meleka is attempting to provide answers to several questions about sophisticated topics and arguments about humanity and art. For example, the Sphinx is the intense display of hints and insinuations inherited by generations. The monumental work is a mythological eyewitness of the past and the present. But how would an artist base his work entirely on another artwork
Also regardless of its mythological features (a lion's body and a human head) Egyptians and foreigners across the world are treating the sphinx with the easy familiarity as an epical creature squatting in his place around all the time. Aristotle had said that the epical artwork should not be a copy of the existing reality. According to Aristotle's advice, the artist should create metaphysical and mythological creatures, which could dim living and visible counterparts
Accordingly, Meleka deals in his exhibition with the Sphinx in its capacity as an artwork and an epical creature, too. Meleka transformed the Sphinx to an icon intense with indicators, referents and signs, which stir up an admirable and intriguing atmosphere in the work. In his attempt to reveal the invisible elements behind the icon, Meleka apparently seeks to decode the secrets hidden behind colours and substances of such a monumental artwork
He revealed creatures, which are multiplying and trying to break the mystery of the Sphinx. Corners of Meleka's paintings are the birthplaces of his creatures and shades
Meleka chiefly celebrates the human dimension in his Sphinx. He depicted the statue's majestic human head. His technique is influenced by several schools of ancient Egyptian art. It is known that miniatures of the Sphinx in museums in different cities in the world display techniques and delicate or monumental details, which were popular among ancient artisans at that time. Further, some paintings Meleka made depict the Sphinx with a beautiful and delicate head of a woman. It seems that the artist is repudiating sex discrimination
Blue, brown, crimson, and interlaced yellow and pink highlighted the iconic Sphinx's message over times. Meleka cleverly transformed the time-honoured Egyptian icon to his self portrait, which is throbbing with the artist's sufferings, transformations and changes; the artist eventually shed light on his estranged self. His self appears to be striving to break the fetters of cultural and intellectual dualities of globalization. It is also apparent that the artist is struggling to come to terms with his self, which is standing majestically at the separation line between the beauty of the existence and the ugliness of non-existence
A struggle between Meleka's straight, rough and tamed lines play beautiful melodies echoing in his surprising shades and his bold skimming. He created a contemporary icon intense with worries, which are overwhelming contemporary man. Meleka's icon also displays techniques of modern art, superb performance and the epic of the Sphinx, globally known as the guardian of civilization—since the Nile started to flow through its course
I am confident that Meleka's new experiment has opened the door of a new epical stage in his work. He deepened his artistic identity and has gained a stronghold at the separation area between existence and non-existence

           OSAMA AFFIFI  .

 da'rte Osama Affifi