French-Kurdish painter holds art exhibition in Kurdistan

DUHOK (Kurdistan 24) – Dilshad Questani, 64, a French-Kurdish painter originally from Kirkuk, held an art exhibition “a smell of homeland” in the Art Gallery of Duhok from Nov. 14 to Nov. 22. The event was held earlier in Erbil, Sulaimani, and is expected to debut soon in Halabja, though a date has not been set yet.

A veteran Peshmerga, Questani was born in Kirkuk but was displaced to Sulaimani city early on, during the reign of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. In 1994, he went into exile and now lives in France.

“The Iraqi government destroyed our house and fired my father from the oil company he was working for,” he told Kurdistan 24. “After I grew up in Slemani, I started singing, and after that, I started working in poetry, theatre, cinema, and painting.”

“I was invited by the city of Duhok to hold an exhibition, and as an actor, I was also invited to attend the 8th Duhok International Film Festival.”

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“This is my first time visiting Duhok and holding my first exhibition here.”

Fatah Mohammed, the curator for the Duhok gallery, said he was honored to host Questani, whose paintings are primarily abstract. The exhibition was also supported by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Questani said he has held “many exhibitions in countries like Belgium, Italy, Turkey, Kurdistan, London, New York, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Emirates.”

“My main message is to show hope and light through my paintings, and I am working as a free ambassador of Kurdistan through my art.”

As a former Peshmerga, Questani said, he now fights differently. He explained that he held an art exhibition named “Kobani” after the Kurdish town in northern Syria became the target of a massive ISIS assault in 2014 “because I could not go” there.

Questani added that he has not been able to visit the Kurdistan Region over the past three years. “Normally, I come every year back for Newroz.” But, he noted, travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and projects abroad limited his ability to visit.

“I was in a real hurry to come back to smell my homeland.”

He said that he has enjoyed his stay as it was his first time holding an exhibition in Kurdistan, “and I saw that the people loved what I was doing a lot.”

“This week, I became really famous in Duhok because there is no style like mine in all of Kurdistan.”