Yazan Maksoud

Strangeness is a positive quality to Syrian artist Yazan Maksoud. Rather than a puzzling, frightening or alienating experience, it represents a sense of wonder and a chance to learn something new. Maksoud, who studied fine arts at the University of Damascus, has been living and working in Amsterdam since 2016. At EKWC he made The Home Beast, a large installation consisting of a relief, a gutter and a basin inspired by the fountains of the historic city of Damascus. The relief will be covered by a layer of soap, which will be slowly washed away by water that in turn will be collected in the fountain, to be reused to further wash away the soap. This cycle shows another of Maksoud’s beliefs: that historically grown injustices and inequalities cannot be undone in one act of revolution. It requires patience and micro-changes to gradually rebalance society – a process art can and must contribute to.