The work of artist Reda Abdel Rahman, inspired by Egyptian mythology, took a radically different direction in January 2011. From the first day of the Revolution, he immediately started drawing a watercolor series recreating the atmosphere and ambience of the first days of the uprising. 

 

Following the first events, the day after January 28, he settled into Tahrir Square. There he produced a collective work of monumental proportions (2.5m high) with more than 3,000 people participating and leaving their testimony directly on the canvas. 

 

Reflecting on the work, Reda says, “My idea was to develop a painting that reflected the revolution, an interactive work where I draw all the symbols, the revolutionaries and the martyrs represented by angels” recounts Reda Abdel Rahman. “These thousands of participants present at the revolution, including certain Egyptian movie stars, writers and directors, intellectuals, artists and several journalists writing phrases of protest directly on the canvas where they sign, inscribing the names of martyrs on the angels that I drew. Signing on the painting was my idea of transferring the spirit and materializing the moment of Egyptian history where we do not know the outcome”.

 

This work was exhibited for the first time in the Middle East, as part of the BEIRUT ART FAIR 2012, in collaboration with the gallerist Sophie Lanoë, Paris.