Hummus-Sana
The international Syrian sculptor Iyad Bilal carried the cause of the homeland with his children and heroic martyrs and documented it through art, as he chose to craft his creativity in memorials that tell the whole world about the criminality that afflicted our young and did not have mercy on their innocence and the tears of their mothers, so that their memories remain visible for generations.
Bilal was inspired by the bombing of Akrama Al-Makhzoumi School in Homs and the martyrdom of children of Omar Al-Ward, a memorial through which he was able to document one of the most painful events in the city, reaching a height of three meters. Those who were martyred in the terrorist bombing, and each book carved a picture and the name of the martyr student and pencils surmounted by a pole carrying the flag of the homeland, indicating that with the flag homelands are preserved.
Bilal also sculpted the statue of the martyrs in Homs, which reflects the sanctity of martyrdom and the martyr in the conscience of the Syrian people, as he made it from basalt material at a height of nine meters and weighed 12 tons. It is currently standing in the middle of the old Homs Square beside the clock and it represents two hands holding the soldier's helmet and above it the Syrian flag.
In an interview with Sana, Bilal stated that the details of his environment were a reason for him to enter the world of sculpture, in addition to his acquaintance with the civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the columns of Palmyra and its monuments, and later the ancient architecture in Syria from Apamea to the castles and was influenced by sculptors of the Renaissance.
Bilal has a special style of sculpture, as he began to embody the realist school through his studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts, then went towards a different formula represented by expressive realism, considering that each material or material has an expressive energy and the role of the artist lies in showing its energy through his intellectual vision.
Bilal tends to embody the human being in all his condition, from documentary portraiture to collective or ritual human situations, and he works with interest to formulate human groups in different situations.
It is noteworthy that the sculptor Iyad Bilal participated in many individual and group exhibitions inside and outside Syria, including in Greece, Spain and Lebanon. He has six memorials, twenty huge stone works bearing the character of plastic research, more than 300 sculptural works and hundreds of written studies.
Lara Ahmed