Nakam, the artist

by Julia Terner and Valia Savvidou

Nakam is dressed entirely in blue today, as he is every day. Blue hat, jacket, shirt, jeans and sandals. I ask him why he dresses in blue and the answer is simple: “I like blue”.

Nakam is a Kurdish artist and writer sitting under a fig tree with me, on the cracked terrace of Elefsina camp where he now lives. He studied art at university in Iraq and is now enrolled at university in Athens, which he relishes. “I like it here because (…) I know I can make everything that I want to (…) I am so happy now (…) that I go to college and to all the places where I can see art, like museums and art galleries.”

On a wall in the camp, Nakam hangs artworks depicting the crossing to Europe across the sea in pencil and charcoal. “This is about the people, how they came here and the problems that they have faced in the sea.” The pictures typically show a boat crossing the seas, with abstract figures aboard and the land wrapping around them. While the distress and despair are evident, there are often small signs of hope too, a sun shining above, a tree growing out of the boat, people reaching to them. I ask Nakam why this is. “Before, when the people decide to come and make this journey, they have many hopes. They are happy. They have hope that they will make their dreams of a good life come true. But this journey has many perils (…) they realise that it is so difficult and that there are many dangers (…) I like to mix this hope before with the despair during the journey together.”

Nakam employs symbols to convey these powerful emotions and forces of fate: a tree, a dice, a dove. “There are symbols in all of my work. Some symbols about love, about dreamers, but also some symbols about problems and people and chance – how some people have chance and some don’t.” Not confined to his visual art, Nakam’s use of symbolism extends to his writing as well. One of the stories he shared with me is narrated from the perspective of a doll, passed from owner to owner until she is worn out and broken. The parallels between the doll’s experience and that of refugees are not unintentional. However, if Nakam’s work is to be recognised in Greece, he must learn the language: “I would like to be able to speak Greek very well because I have many stories and works that I have written and I would like them to be translated into Greek.”

Overall, Nakam’s art is about expressing what is inside you, and the importance of doing so. When I ask him what subject he most enjoys depicting currently, he tells me “my work is about the space between reality and dreams (…) I hope to make everything in my heart. I have many things in my heart so I hope that I can make everything that’s inside it.” He applies the same approach to the weekly art lessons that he now gives to the children in the camp, with the help of the Solidarity Now team: “I feel the children need help. They have wishes to make art and express themselves (…) I like to teach the children good things through the art classes, to calm them down.” What’s more, it is the emotions of all Nakam’s neighbours that he seeks to channel through his art: “I know many people who have many things inside them and they are sad about the journey. But they cannot tell their story; they have to keep it inside. So, I like to make these drawings about the people and what is inside their hearts.”

Today, Nakam is very active artistically! Soon, he will take part in a series of exhibitions and events. Although his works are mostly black and white, he states “I have colourful dreams. Now I feel I have a choice – many doors to open.”

His dream of life is to live free, “without wearing a mask“, as he tells me while coming a little closer to me and lowering the tone of his voice. This freedom wants to be expressed in writing, “Writing is the most important thing for me. That’s what I will do. And I will write in English and in Greek, not in my mother tongue. I want to walk ahead; I don’t want to keep anything from the past.”

Wishing to see each other again soon and before we say goodbye, Nakam takes my pen and quickly paints a few fishes – “Now you know, I would paint a black and white seabed.”