“The Shape of Birds” takes the theme of displacement, remembrance and adaption from Nizar Qabbani’s poem “A Lesson in Drawing” which begins with “My son placed a paint box in front of me / and asked me to draw a bird for him. / Into the color gray I dip the brush / and draw a square with locks and bars. / Astonishment fills his eyes: / ‘...But this is a prison, Father. Don’t you know, how to draw a bird?’ / And I tell him: ‘Son, forgive me. / I’ve forgotten the shapes of birds.’” The artists in “The Shape of Birds” are from nine countries in the Middle East and North Africa: Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Azerbaijan. Some continue to live in their countries of origin, while others have immigrated to adopted homelands of Europe or the United States. The exhibition is arranged in three galleries: the large Ilgenfritz Gallery and its Corridor, the … [Read more...] about The Shape of Birds: Bridging the Cultural Divide Through Art