Actu-Art 

2003 May "BAGDAD GUN" Série des Stupas, huile sur toile 1,80 x 1,60 m, Paris 1990     The painting, painted in 1990 by Saülo Mercader, was done before the first war in Irak. Was it possible in that time, to foresee the invasion of Koweit  or does the painting reveal visionary qualities?  Unfortunately today,  the second war in Irak has taken place.

    A blue sky full of particles, probably due to the fall of a golden object.

   We may recognize a cornucopia that occupies nearly the whole surface of the work. Il seems that it is falling from the sky, as a symbol of the main reason for this war :  Money. Such money that has been lacking among the people for a long time, vicims of a totalitarian regime and submitted to an embargo that prevents them from eating and thinking.

   This cornucopia falls suddenly from the sky, enforcing an aspect of totalitarism different from the one enforced by the former dictator. It is a bomb that hurts a people who only aspires to live.

   A  crushed down people watching this new dictator  brutally setting himself up as a conqueror, in his country, a cradle of civilization, who takes away his children’s lives,  symbolized by the particles that go up towards the sky.

   This people has always thought that this cornucopia represented  the golden dome of his mosques.

   The cornucopia and the golden dome of the mosque were only a bomb, a mirage with a blue sky in the background , such as nomads can behold in the desert.

   As one of them said on television: “ the president is going to be  fired, another one will come but we will keep oppressed”.

   The riches lie  in the painting. You can admire them but you will never touch them”. 

                                            Christian Bruon