Palo H Darbandi om sin kurdisk kultur, og betydningen av kunst for en kurdisk artist:

When I start to work, I disperse colours on a fresh canvas without mixing them. This moment brings me to a big reflection. I feel that my life flips in a second.

The moment I am in the act, my inner agitation, joyous or sad, mix; my hands as good as my thoughts are an incessant come and go on the canvas. I feel the beauty and harmony of what I am doing. It is my eyes that decide when the work is done the way I want it.

The eye is the mediater between the hands and the mind. It is the eye that elaborates the harmony of the colours: where as the mind is in instant agitation, it tries to achieve abstraction.

For a long period I abandoned my work. I reflected a lot on the modern art of this century. I wanted to arrive at abstraction from this period. This reflection helped me to work freely without stop.

My work is linked with time; often a short time. That is why it is not difficult for me to put on the canvas what I want. What is important for me is that when I begin, I ignore what I am about to do. I take my brush and I face the blank canvas. I give birth to my feelings.

I don't create stories like I have said, I ignore what I am about to do, but after a while, all my being condenses to work freely.

Like everything living, an artist is a passenger of life, but the real artist is that without lie or fear shows others his works. When he dies, he leaves room for another more talented artist. What remains of an artist is his soul that lives on the canvas each time the viewer lays his eyes upon the work.

You might ask why these paintings do not have titles. Titles do not have meaning, or at least not for me. I could invent names for my works, but I don't want to lie to myself or my works. What is important is that I show myself and others the psychological state that I was in that year,, month, day and instant.