|
||
| Artists: Pierre Imhof - Articles - 'The Gate of Chalk' | ||
|
Habibiby Pierre Imhof(Article of approx. 300 words. Written as an introduction to Pierre Imhof's exhibition Pixel Shmixel 10 May - 15 June 2001) It was as a teenager in Fribourg in the mid-seventies that I first heard a number of what seemed to me to be very strange songs indeed, in Arabic. The singer, I was later to find out was Om Kalsoum, sometimes called the Edith Piaf of the Arab world. These songs all went on for more than half an hour at the time, and they sounded very exotic and exciting to my unaccustomed ear. To me the language was beautiful, but entirely alien, and there was only one word I could make out, regularly recurring in every song - habibi. In those days, there was no one who spoke Arabic among my friends and acquaintances, and it was a long time before I found out what the word meant. Habibi is love, and my love, my dear, my darling. So, they were mere love songs. For me, as a very political young man, the discovery was quite a let-down. No magic word after all, just love. Yet, I still felt moved when listening to her songs. Later again I would learn that several million people had marched behind Om Kalsoum's coffin through the streets of Cairo, more than twice as many as had turned out for Nasser. There was evidently more to her, and to her lyrics, than I could understand. Now, when I read the paper or watch the news on television, and see the way Arabs are sometimes represented, I think of these songs. I think of those millions mourning the passing of their greatest singer, and I remember her words over and over: Habibi, habibi, habibi.
|
|
