A beautiful illusion

It is very quiet inside the gallery.
And yet, the texture of the memories and all those hardships we usually keep to ourselves is loud.

Louder than the heavy weight of life artist Rim El Jundi hides behind a brave smile.

I haven't seen her in years.
I simply catch glimpses of her through her social media posts.

Oftentimes during  rare interviews.

Perhaps she carries the heavyweight Inside her pleated smile.

Outside, Abdul Aziz street in our Ras Beirut is trying hard to pretend that life has moved on.
Inside Agial Gallery, It is very clear that the exceptional artist, Rim El Jundi is unable to pretend that life has not defeated her.
She is fully aware that it has, in fact, defeated us all.

She has her own cocoon. Perhaps, she too has discovered that in order to survive in this world, well we must create our own world.

Her cocoon is made of a swimming pool.
Thus the title of the exhibition:

TEXTURE OF WATER.

In that swimming pool, hidden in a resort nestled outside of Beirut, there is no fear.
The bills can wait.
Reality can gloriously take respite.

In this swimming pool, the texture of her memories, uncensored disappointments and hidden confrontations with all but a few demons here and there, consoles her.

She knows very well that this swimming pool which has been her companion for a few years, is a beautiful illusion.
Exactly like life.

That does not stop her from finding refuge midst the texture of its water, time after time.

I haven't seen Rim El Jundi in years. Yet, she couldn't be closer to me in that quiet afternoon in our beautiful Ras Beirut.

28 paintings. Minimalist in their appearance, somehow trying to evoke serenity. Yet so dramatic and heartbreaking once the visitor has the courage to gaze long enough. Without this need to runaway from a certain discomfort that slithers its way one painting after the other.

The swimming pool could be her lover.
Didn't she mention in her interviews that it is a beautiful illusion?

It all started in 2020.
She found solace in an intimate resort which contains a swimming pool, a forest (or perhaps that is also an illusion?), the sea.

Thus a story that transcends death was born.

Rim El Jundi knows death very well. For it has visited her in the shape of a scary disease a few years back.
She defeated the disease.
As for death.
Well, that is another story.

In the paintings. we find the artist alone oftentimes, in different postures. Different situations revolving around the swimming pool.
She is fully aware that at some point, she has to go back to reality.

She is fully aware that she has been defeated.
If only someone could tell her that we all have.

She considers this swimming pool, this small pool, her savior.

Every weekend, since 2020, the texture of the water consoles her. Water, as El Jundi explains in her interviews, does not contain a visual texture.
Yet it is able to calm her, even though it takes its color from its surroundings. it has no real face. And usually, that is a scary realization. One that certainly evokes deceit. 

She sees life as a destructive, chaotic battlefield decorated by tensions, crisis, and the shadow of eminent war lurking somewhere.
Perhaps behind her pleated smile.

The paintings are almost happy.
Yet, they do not convey contentment.
even midst their happy colors and minimalist atmosphere, there is a heavy story hidden behind this heavenly place, located less than 2 hours away from the Capital.

Rim El Jundi knows very well that water can be deceitful.
But she does call it her lover.
And that in itself could be enough of an explanation.

28 paintings.
28 self-portraits that depict different situations she has lived.

This is a woman who is alone.
This woman, as her work shows,  is courageously facing solitude, sadness, and this heaviness carved painfully in her face.
She is fully aware that she is fragile.

And she knows a thing or two about the frailty of the human body.

She rents, then, since 2020, an apartment in a resort not too faraway from the capital.
Yet faraway enough to find something which resembles peace.

And through the depiction of her body, she writes visually, about the human condition.

Her paintings are her diary.

Her naked body is not an invitation for seduction.

It is rather the  tool that holds the confessions of a shattered soul.

Rim El Jundi admits that life has defeated her.
I haven't seen her in years.
But when I do, I will assure her that life has spared none of us.