In his exhibition “Al-Mahatta” (The Station), visual artist Hakim Tlais presents a visual testimony that moves beyond the mere temporal recording of events. His paintings transform into artistic documents that interrogate the “deferred pain” inherited from memory, placing it in confrontation with the present while opening windows onto the future. This experience strives to break traditional patterns of reception by immersing the viewer in the creative act, making them an integral part of the process.
In a critical reading, writer Abdulsalam Al-Faghi described the experience: “In his exhibition ( the Station), artist Hakim Tlais presents the testimony of art as a document that transcends the timing of the event into a mural that interrogates the pain relocated from the memory of the past to the present, as well as anticipating the questions of the future. Across the bridge of this distance, he attempts to break the stereotyped reception by ensuring the viewer does not receive the work as a ready-made meal, but rather brings them into the depth of the painting’s details and its preparation stages, drawing them into the workshop environment.”
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Tlais’s brush moves through portraits of distorted or sorrowful features, using charcoal to depict a psychological flow that Al-Faghi describes as a funereal atmosphere weighing on the soul. The faces embrace a symbolic blackness reflecting the bitter struggle for the long-deferred right to “freedom.” Regarding the piece “The Bank Queue,” which encapsulates the human struggle against endless daily crises, Al-Faghi asks: “Why and until when? Indeed, art is sometimes not concerned with answers, but it also interrogates an implicit question: what is the way to change?” He notes that the depicted violence and red tape reflect a hereditary tyranny hidden behind slogans of development, in a reality that has fought every battle except that of culture.
On his part, Hakim Tlais reflected on his creative path: “The exhibition is the result of a long journey with art—a journey that was not straight or clear, but full of questions, doubt, attempts, and starting anew. I did not begin art in search of answers, but because I found no other way to understand what I live and see around me. Over time, art became a means of survival for me, and a constant attempt to dismantle reality instead of escaping it.”
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Tlais likened his artistic journey to living in Libya, a series of “stations” where one waits without a clear destination. He addressed the societal condition, stating: “A large part of Libyan society lives in a state of incomplete awareness of reality… not out of ignorance, but as a result of a long accumulation of exhaustion, normalization of crises, and fear of confrontation. When the exception becomes the rule, man loses his ability to ask questions and settles for daily survival.” He concluded that art’s role is to break this cycle of habituation, using charcoal as an “honest and harsh” medium that leaves an unfalsifiable mark, reminding the public that their reality is not a final destiny but one capable of critique and change.