Art of Survival – this stands as a kind of preliminary statement to all the work of Abdulnasser Gharem (born 1973, Saudi Arabia). Gharem is surely the only artist to be both a leading figure on his country's emerging art scene and a major in the Saudi army.

Art of Survival – this stands as a kind of preliminary statement to all the work of this artist born in 1973 in Khamis Mushait, Saudi Arabia. Abdulnasser Gharem is surely the only artist to be both a leading figure on his country’s emerging art scene and a major in the Saudi army. His story began in 2003 when Abdulnasser Gharem, an army recruit, enrolled in the Al-Miftaha Arts Village in Abha, Saudi Arabia. Founded a few years earlier by Ahmed Mater, this institution soon became the nerve center of the new art scene that was represented in the 2004 exhibition "Shattah", which captured the renewal of the Saudi Arabian scene. From now on, Gharem began using the street as his studio, working in response to his local context. In numerous performances and site-specific installations, he drew attention to ecological, geographical, urban, and societal issues, recording his actions on video or in photographs. At the same time, he was working on a series of stamp paintings in which major events are juxtaposed with the excesses of a bureaucratic system that seems capable of expressing itself only by rubberstamping.

Abdulnasser Gharem

Born 1973 in Khamis Mushait where he use to live and work. In 1992 Gharem graduated from the King Abdulaziz Academy before attending The Leader Institute in Riyadh.

In 1982 torrential rain beat down on a valley in the Tihama region, in south-western Saudi Arabia, soon threatening to flood the villages. The inhabitants decided to take refuge on a recently built bridge, trusting in the solidity of its construction. They put their faith in concrete. So, they stored their vehicles and food there and they waited. And the flood came and swept away the bridge and the villagers.

In August 2007 the artist went out to the still ruined bridge. He sprayed the broken structure with the Arab word “Al Siraat,” which means “the path” or “the way,” repeating this inscription several thousand times over the fissured surface. In this work the artist expresses a certain relation to the world and to technology, questioning the very foundations of our choices, and the way in which our value systems have today put feats of construction before religious belief.

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“ Does concrete protect you? We should be educating people, giving them opportunities, not building these barriers. My message is simple: don't put your trust in concrete. „

—Abdulnasser Gharem