BARAKAT

Why is the Sea Laughing?

“Why is the sea laughing?”—a poetic question borrowed from an old Egyptian folk song, re-written and arranged by Naguib Surur and sung by Sheikh Imam in 1984—may be my guiding question, at least for this exhibition.

” What symbolizes the sea inside of me ? ”

Here, the sea is both a spiritual space—vast, spacious, dissolving boundaries—and a political space, where themes of migration, social justice, geopolitics, and the environmental dangers of our behavior toward the planet that hosts us all converge.

I explore all of this in an enigmatic, symbolic way, without imposing any ideology or opinion, leaving the door wide open for you to rethink and reinterpret.

A fish—once a creature of boundless waters—sits bound to a chair, staring at a tin of sardines that holds a tiny paper boat afloat. The sea, once infinite, is reduced to a shallow pool in a can. Is the fish longing for its lost ocean, or laughing at the absurdity of what remains?

Perhaps the sea laughs because even in captivity, imagination floats.
Perhaps it laughs because the vast has been canned, and yet the dream of sailing persists—fragile, folded, but still there.
Or… I don’t know. Can you imagine with me?
Why is the sea laughing?

Barakat