Painting on multiplex panels and glazed enamelled steel plating (1999)
Since 1994 he has collected hand prints in around 87 countries. The drawings of hands, inspired by traditional tattoos, were enlarged to form three large entities. These prints of hands from around the world express a desire for world peace. They were mostly collected in schools. However, prominent persons such as the Nobel peace prize winners Yasser Arafat (1994) and Adolfo Perez Esquivel (1980), the member of European Parliament Daniel Cohen-Bendit, Albert Jacquard, biologist and philosopher, and many other personalities from the world of literature, politics, film, art, culture, sport and religion were also involved in this movement. People that are usually considered as belonging to marginal groups, such as prisoners, the homeless, asylum seekers and refugees, the handicapped and the elderly were also involved. The main objective was to represent Brussels as a cultural capital in the year 2000.
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HAMSI BOUBEKER (Bejaïa - Kabylie, 1952)
Hamsi Boubeker studied at the music academy in his native city of Bejaïa and later in Algiers, where he discovered polyphonic singing. He is a war child of the Algerian war. He thinks back, with above all a lot of nostalgia, to the multicultural city of Bejaïa, where he grew up. A city that he was only really able to discover in the peace which reigned after the war. He taught French in Algiers, until he settled in Brussels in 1980 and took Belgian nationality. He worked on an international project: the hands of hope, a hand for peace out of respect for different cultures. To this end he has collected hand prints from around the world, especially from schools. In 1995 he launched the association “Afous”, which means “hand” in Berber. For Hamsi Boubeker, an open hand symbolises peace, friendship, openness and tolerance. Hamsi Boubeker not only works as a painter, he is also a singer, musician and storyteller.
PICTURES
