Lebanon 2017

“ŠamaŠ” questions the theme of the sacred in our civilisation through a spatial, temporal and sound dialogue between Ur in Iraq, Beirut in Lebanon and Aleppo in Syria – sites of terrible violence past and present, full of symbolic power of the Near East.

Zad Moultaka’s “ŠamaŠ” features a monumental work combined with a musical invention together with a multi visual approach. Built in the Arsenale Novissimo this monument erected to the ŠamaŠ, the Babylonians’ god of the sun and justice is represented in the tall stele of the Hammurabi Code. With this huge installation Moultaka puts in comparison barbarism with its vivid appeal, materials and sounds of the artistic practice of the curatorial duties of Emmanuel Daydé.

A s the artist stated :”The ŠamaŠ project has its origin in the Code of Hammurabi, considered the first code of law, engraved on a tall, black basalt stele nearly 2,000 years before our era. At the top of this majestic totem is represented ŠamaŠ, the Sun god. Just as light disperses shadows, ŠamaŠ exposes evil in full light and puts an end to injustice.”