Galerie Claude Lemand

RACHANA’S OWN STAR.

by Claude Lemand

Anachar Basbous’s sculp­tures soothe and enchant me; they make me dream and carry me far away. They are made with human hands and a celes­tial spirit. They belong to a cul­ture of mag­ical objects: their forms are modern and uni­versal. A number of Anachar’s emblem­atic sculp­tures are worthy of being inscribed in the artistic her­itage of Humanity. What joy it would be to own a large garden with one of his sculp­tures in it. What joy it is for a pop­u­la­tion - whether one is a soli­tary walker, with family, friends or chil­dren, in Lebanon or any­where else in this vast ter­rain of our global vil­lage - to be able to visit a public garden, take a seat on a bench, to rest, med­i­tate and com­mune with the soul of an artist’s sculp­ture inhab­ited by grace, and with nature sur­rounding it. And to be able to walk around it.
Let us dream!

Let us dream, when all the calami­ties of the world fell on the people of Lebanon and on its Eden-like land­scapes. Famine, dis­ease, ugli­ness, vio­lence, cor­rup­tion ... all con­gre­gated in this corner of par­adise and con­spired against this people known across the world for their cul­ture, their love of life, their tal­ents, and their many merits.

Anachar’s sculp­tures form a dia­logue with the nature of Rachana, this garden-vil­lage of sculp­tures designed by his illus­trious father Michel and his brothers, in har­mony with this Lebanese land that is blessed by the gods, sung of by so many poets, and painfully missed by the Lebanese dias­pora pushed into exile; in har­mony with the blue sea, the air, and the light that is so par­tic­ular to Lebanon, and which inspired so many artists; in har­mony with its day­time sky and the myriad stars that cradle it at night.

I am happy and proud to have guessed, from the moment of our first meeting in Paris, that Anachar Basbous would be a sculptor capable of designing an instal­la­tion on the fore­court of the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA), forming a dia­logue with and homage to the facade of Jean Nouvel, then to remove all its stars to leave only one large mete­orite, which will take its place in the IMA’s new Alley of Sculptures. His pro­ject exceeded all my expec­ta­tions. Thank you, dear Anachar, for reminding us of our com­munal stellar origin, star­dust. Thank you for making us dream!