Lest We Forget

Personal Statement on ‪#‎WeAlmostForgot‬.

Since the premiere of We Almost Forgot in Berlin on June 12 2016, many people have been greatly moved and changed by this work, right from its onset, I've heard loads of personal stories in return, which proves that it's cathartic ability is potent, just as envisaged. However I have equally been asked, 'why have you created a work this violent and reminding us of so much sorrow, and hopelessness, and despair. Can't you find anything beautiful to create about?"

Beauty is surely relative, since it's in the beholder's eyes, but to God, I swear, what I really want to write about is love, I want to create works that brings us into union with the cosmos, such which is in harmony with the innate beauty of nature, with the innocence of the children, with obeisance of the wind and the essential beauty of the rain.

I want to dance about peace, but since the world around me denies me of such proximity with beauty, I dare to create beauty from all around me, that out of the sorrows and tears, the discordance and the screams, one could extract art works that are essentially both beautiful, meditative and contemplative, celebrating the triumph of the human spirit above all.

And here my favorite Rumi's poem comes to mind. Love dogs.

'One night a man was crying Allah! Allah! His lips grew sweet with praising.

Until a cynic said, "So! I have heard you calling out, but have you ever gotten any response?"

The man had no answer to that. He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.

He dreamt he saw Kidr, the guide of souls, in a thick, green foliage.

"Why did you stop praising?" "Because I've never heard anything back"

This longing you express is the return message.

The grief you cry from Draws you towards union.

Your pure sadness that wants help is the secret cup. Listen to the moan of a dog for its master. That whining is the connection.

There are love dogs no one knows the names of. Give your life to be one of them.'

Our world is a world of casualties, and like so many survivors, I too jump at the sound of loud noise. Sights, sounds, smells – anything can unexpectedly take us to those memorial spaces, where we'd rather not go.

But I'm aware that, millions around the world are survivors. Survivors of slavery, holocaust, colonialism, genocides, survivors of terrorist attacks, natural disasters, rape, torture, war, conflict, home and farm invasions, shipwrecks, car and plane crashes, assaults and the list goes on.

For so many of us, even though time may begin to heal, there will always be sights, sounds and smells that take us back to those places if we don't have the courage to really heal the traumas.

So, Instead of denial and silence, fear and hate, whining and feeling frustrated, We Almost Forgot is an invitation to join me in this lamentation. Join me in turning off the news. In most cases we already know what happened. We’ve heard and seen more than we ever need to know. I'm only inviting you to feel more, to empathize more and take a moment for our heart to shed the tears, it is perhaps our most personal and most direct contribution to climate change.

This is for Biafra, Rwanda, Syria, Gaza, Baga and Paris. This is in remembrance of the negroes, the slaves, the jews, And in memory of holocaust, of Armenia, of the Hereros, the genocides, the refugees and the colonized. ...and the numerous nameless we almost forgot, those who left without a story, without a trace.

We Dance, when we are broken open. Dance, when we’ve torn the bandage off. We dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in our blood. Dance, when we are perfectly free. Dance, never again to forget. We dance in memory of amnesia. In memory of those who left without a story, without a trace.

We are their story. We are their trace, For when shells rain, real people die, living people grief, they sing and dance, clean the street and tend to their wounds. Live goes on.

WAF is an invitation to close your eyes, to imagine any image that gives you the feeling of hope and love. Your newborn baby, children laughing, someone or something that you dearly love. I invite you to take that feeling of love and imagine slowly breathing it out across the world.

Wrapping our planet in it.

Connecting with others who are emanating the same love. Breathing that feeling of love in and out. In and out. Again and again. Again and again. Again... again and again. As many times a day as you remember to, as many days as you can. Like a network of bright light connecting around the globe.

I deeply believe that together, we can change the frequency of people’s thoughts and hearts. If we emanate fear and hatred, we connect with others who do the same, and we bring more and more into that field, but If we dare to emanate love, love, love, if we emanate love, we grow our love network, and it envelops all others on the way.

We almost forgot that the world was beautiful at creation. So my heart goes out to the rugged sons and daughters who militates, dares to hope, to pray, to meditate and think a new world is possible.

And through their creative minds, their bodies, their voices, their cameras, their canvases, their pens, their words, their designs, their strengths, their heartbeats, their talents and might they create beauty and remind us all of our dispositions.

They remind us that we are innately humans, as we are innately animals, and that we didn't inherit this world from our parent's parent, but we've borrowed it from our children's children. They remind us that lest we forget, our actions and inactions, our interactions and creations here, are accountable and responsible for what we've made of God's own creations here.