L’atelier by Maher Attar is thrilled to host the first solo exhibition ‘DERVISHES .. Symbols of Love’ by the sculptor and painter Badie Jahjah on the 20th of December, 2023 with a live performance opening of Sufi whirling Dervish.

Artist statement

Dust, water, fire; the breeze, words, and whirls; these are the secret mixtures of chemistry that produce Dervishes in a 3D world full of love to fill the void and cross us to the side of purity.

Here, the messages of the Dervishes can pass to the universe.

Everyman is but a dervish no matter how glorious he might become, for all the experiences he undergoes are lessons to prepare him to face his fate on the open- to-all- directions frontier of life.

The Dervish inside me was awakened by the war. Ever since, I have not stopped whirling.

I remain in the presence of the Sufis, the people of gnosis and love, such as Shams Tabrizi, Jalal al-Din al-Rumi, Rabia al-Adawiyya, Ibn Arabi, and al-Hallaj. With them, I spread the energy of the spirituality through art by using kind words, merging the cultures into a laboratory to restore awareness in order to elevate humans.

I believe that the Dervish of (HABAK... love-righteousness) against ugliness represents the cognitive carrier of everything I wanted to say to humanity.

For me, it was mandatory to have a seal that tells stories and tales of the warm soul of the orient, and the nature of the emotional composition of its human.

So, the seal became a unique visual experience inspired by the Dervishes, saving my soul. It was loaded with the beauty which treasures all the meanings to announce the end of a controversial period; it was a mere wish in which was our salvation, and an announcement of a new birth.