Hello, my name is Barakat. I was born in 1945 in the City of Hama, Syria.

I studied art education at the Universities of Hama and Aleppo, afterwards I lectured about painting and sculpture.
Furthermore I wrote reviews for art journals in Syria. I also had a gallery in the lovely old town of Hama.

Two years after the start of the civil war I moved to a village with my family and lived there for another two years. With the civil war reaching more and more regions, we were finally forced to leave Syria in 2015 and made our way across the Mediterranean to Europe, with the help of relatives living in Europe.

My daughter Dima managed to transport some of my works to Germany by plane. A total of 150 art pieces were rescued, including 20 oil paintings, paper works and watercolors. I don't have the slightest clue about the current state of my atelier.
Arriving in Germany I first had to deal with nerve-wracking, bureaucratic tasks. At the same time I tried to learn German, which turned out to be very hard. Maybe my age is to blame, or maybe the many hardships of the civil war and my escape.
In any case the memories of the last few years, paired with the impressions of this new environment, have driven me towards painting. In this sense painting is a kind of a substitute for language.

I noticed that here in the West people also respect „ugly art“. Pictures and objects that do not necessarily have a pleasant effect on the mind. Most of all the human being is the central theme in art. This expansion of my perspective, in connection with the local climate, has probably influenced my painting, especially the color mood.
The human being is therefore at the center of my art as well, yes, even I consider myself to be a primal being in this sense, because I have no attachment to material things and only observe the core essentials.
I am always curious about the surroundings of people and always look for the essentials in the overlaps between different topics and aspects of life. I love painting all these impressions in an expressionistic-abstract style.

My first exhibition in Germany took place in the "Galerie der 100 Brücken" in Kalbe with the help of the Berlin art teacher Hubert Schmiedleitner and the artist Annette Prüfer. The artist couple had reached out to me via my son. I organized six exhibitions of my work in Germany eversince and also sent some of my paintings to Canada for two group exhibitions.

I have been looking for a studio with cheap rent for some time. At the same time I'm trying to get to know the art scene here in Berlin. I spend most of my time with cultural programs, visiting exhibitions, museums, music events or the theatre. I have often observed, that Germany offers cultural programs for everyone, that there is no hierarchy between social classes and everything is available for everyone. This made quite the impression on me. Every kind of work is respected and valued here.
I consider this kind of politeness in dealing with people to be pretty nice and typically German. I now feel comfortable in Germany and at home, so I'm not thinking of living anywhere else. I'm not into big changes.