Chaouki Choukini, (Lebanon, born 1947)

Desert Gate

Desert Gate
wooden sculpture
signed "Choukini", executed in 1996, this work is unique
Height: 68cm

Provenance:
Property from a private collection, Paris

"When I was younger, I used to go to my grandfather's house during school holidays in a village called Choukine in the south of Lebanon, where I would contemplate mountains, trees, valleys, wells — unlike the views of Beirut. This led me to develop my love of nature, which influences my work. My expression of a landscape is not an exact representation of nature — I'm turning it into something metaphysical, imaginary and with an element of mystique."

- Chaouki Choukini

"This Lebanese artist arrived in France directly from his vil lage in South Lebanon. At the time, he carved strange, imag i nary and soberly baroque con struc tions in wood. The formal evi dence, on the bor der line with fan tasy, imposed itself: these sculp tures simul ta ne ously appear as irra tional mon u ments, checker boards for games of chance, fig ures that are inter locked and involved with a sort of big meta phys ical game.

Since then, Choukini has divested him self to the advan tage of curves and sur face planes. He uses the mate rial as a key board and extracts from it pow erful and del i cate formal com po si tions on which are dis played a fig ural sug ges tion, almost at the second degree. The word 'key board' is even more so appro priate here as it also trans lates the sought after and achieved effect, that of music, which is simple and pure sim ilar to a melody, yet some times more com plex and almost like an orchestra. The mute music pre sent in Choukini's sculp tures is a chal lenge to the absurd canon that fatally shoots here and there to kill, without suc ceeding, Lebanon's soul and body, which stands like a strong and tender moun tain, just like the sculp tures and sculptor I have here men tioned.

After forty years of career as a sculptor, Chaouki Choukini has always remained true to him self. This man who came from Lebanon, a country of rocks and sun, always pays close atten tion to the sin cerity of objects and shapes, some times giving pri ority to the music of the mate rial, other times to objec tive rep re sen ta tion. This inge nious bal ance makes each and every one of Choukini's cre ations quake with emo tion. Choukini's sculp ture reveals the poetic, yet often so tragic, strangeness of our con di tion."

- Salah Stetie