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An Article by DM (611 words, 3 min. read)
There are exhibitions that present artworks, and others that reveal the inner architecture of the human spirit. Motus belongs to the latter. Entering the space at Multaqa Beirut, one feels immediately absorbed into a world where every line, curve, and symbol seems to carry its own breath. Ghassan Haydar does not draw forms; he releases impulses. His works unfold not from premeditation but from an internal motion—an instinctive surge that moves faster than thought, and deeper than intention.
Each piece begins where words fail: in the territory of restless emotion, in the unfiltered moment when the heart acts before the mind intervenes. Haydar translates this state into intricate constellations of marks—dense, hypnotic configurations that pull viewers into their orbit. They are not chaotic; they are alive.
A Language Born of Improvisation
What defines the exhibition is the remarkable coherence that emerges from improvisation. Haydar’s lines may appear spontaneous, but their accumulation reveals an intuitive sense of structure. Shapes intertwine, collide, and reform, suggesting creatures, cities, stories, and landscapes that seem to exist just beyond reach. So many elements—micro-forms, symbols, fragments, and gestures—are shaped together to build each work, as if countless impulses were woven into a single breath.
The works operate like visual jazz: improvisational, rhythmic, and driven by the energy of the moment.
In the larger canvases, the density becomes almost musical. Red or violet fields vibrate with micro-gestures—eyes half hidden, mechanical fragments, masks, waves, wings, teeth—each element a whisper of something once felt. The surface reads like a map of an interior journey, charting moments of tension, release, and revelation.
The smaller works, rendered in monochrome tones, bring us closer to the pulse of the hand. Here, negative space becomes as expressive as the ink itself, offering pauses, silences, and the suggestion of forms still forming. They feel like breaths within the larger storm.
The Beauty of the Unfiltered
Haydar’s philosophy—finding beauty in the unfiltered—runs through the exhibition like a quiet truth. These works do not seek perfection; they honor vulnerability. They expose the tremors beneath the surface of human experience: impulses we suppress, desires we do not name, fears we pretend not to feel. And yet, in exposing these raw states, the works radiate an unexpected tenderness.
There is beauty in their restlessness, grace in their fragmentation, and honesty in their refusal to settle into clean, decipherable shapes. Each piece becomes a small act of courage: a declaration that the human spirit is not linear, not polished, not predictable. It is motion. It is constant, searching, alive.
Motus as Mirror
What makes Motus truly touching is its ability to reflect viewers back to themselves. Standing before these works, one becomes aware of their own internal motion: the thoughts that scatter, the emotions that rise unannounced, the quiet battles fought beneath the surface of daily life. The art does not offer answers; it offers recognition.
In this sense, the exhibition is not simply about witnessing an artist’s process. It becomes an encounter with one’s own. Haydar gives form to the invisible forces that push us forward, the impulses that shape our choices, the instinctive movements of a soul trying to understand itself.
The Elegance of a Spirit in Motion
Motus leaves the viewer with a lingering sensation, one of being gently unsettled, subtly awakened. It is an exhibition that grows inside you, long after you leave the room. Through its dense intricacies and flowing energy, it invites us to trust our own impulses, to see the elegance in what is raw, and to embrace the beauty of a spirit always in motion.
