I am the wound and the knife!
I am the slap and the cheek.
I am the limbs and the wheel,
And the victim and the executioner!

Je suis la plaie et le couteau !
Je suis le soufflet et la joue !
Je suis les membres et la roue,
Et la victime et le bourreau !

(Charles Baudelaire, L’heautontimorouménos [The self tormented])

It is within these lines by Baudelaire that the Essam’s work finds its origin and strength. Their paradoxes and strangeness resonate deeply with the hidden forces of the artist’s imagination. They speak of contradiction, duality, and the eternal tension between submission and rebellion themes that pulse through the Essam’s canvases.

In these paintings, the rhythm and musicality of Baudelaire’s words are transposed into color and form. Scattered fragments of life are reassembled into unusual, dreamlike worlds where characters embody conflicting worldviews: they dissolve and reappear, oppose and embrace, wound and heal.

Through this interplay of harmony and rupture, the exhibition The knife and the apple explores the fragile balance between freedom and constraining the space where creative energy is both born and tested. It is within this space that the artist reveals the poetry of conflict, and the beauty that emerges from contradiction.