It is a beautiful sunny winter day. My hubby and I decided to wander around Sulaymani Bazaar.
I have been wanting to go to Zamwa Gallery but my hubby forgot the location. Accidentally, we met one of my hubby's student, we chatted and he showed the way to the gallery (and my hubby immediately remember the way to that hidden gallery!). Very nice!
Zamwa gallery is located in the Bazaar area, not far from the Rasha Mall (sorry, I don't really know how to give you a direction but you can see a link in my blog that shows the area) . The best time to visit the place perhaps on working days (we were there on Monday, around 1-2 pm). The gallery used to be a house of
Ibrahim Ahmad, a well known Kurdish writer and politician. The house was donated by the family to be used as a gallery since 1995 and open to the public (free admission).
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| Inside the gallery |
The gallery has a lot of interesting collections (e.g.
photos, pictures, sculptures) of Kurdish artists. They organized several exhibitions. An officer at the gallery gave us a catalogue of their last events. I hope they will get more publications.
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| Some of the Zamwa's collections |
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This painting reminds me of the execution of Kurdish
during Saddam's regime |
The name of Zamwa is actually taken from the ancient name of Sulaymani. The region used to be called as Zamwa during the Sumerians and Acadians (over 4300 years ago..wow!). The area of Zamwa covered: Ranya planes, Bazian region, Sulaymani, Pnejwen, Sharazoor, Sartak, Bamo and Zahwi region.
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| Zamwa's terrace, an old tree and a missile |
Zamwa's terrace is quite comfortable. There are chairs available so we can rest for a while and see interesting view such as a 140 years old tree covered by rugs and a missile installation (see the picture above). The tree was planted by Ibrahim Ahmad's father on the day when he (Ibrahim) was born. About the missile, well I guess the message is
"The best use of a missile is to drop foods rather than to drop bombs ". I enjoyed our time in the gallery. It is a simple place but the arrangement is quite good (regardless it is lack of funding and need more space and facilities to display art works). It is worth to visit Zamwa.
I have been wanting to go to Zamwa Gallery but my hubby forgot the location. Accidentally, we met one of my hubby's student, we chatted and he showed the way to the gallery (and my hubby immediately remember the way to that hidden gallery!). Very nice!
