I woke up soaked in my own tears...I must have cried for hours in my sleep...
I dreamt I was with a small group of Iraqi artists - among them was a famous sculptor, an elderly man...
I told him : I've given you a down payment for one of your sculptures, so you can reserve it for me...today I am here, and will pay you the rest of the money...I want to take it home with me.
This sculptor then presented me a piece of work which was not the one I had reserved. He presented me with a sculpted portrait of himself.
I got quite upset and said to him - this is not what I reserved. I gave you a down payment for a sculpture of Iraq not for a sculpture of your face, nor your portrait. I don't care about any individual face, I care about Iraq. Where is my sculpture ?
The artist kept teasing me by showing me more pieces of his work, that had nothing to do with the piece I actually saved money for...he kept showing me trivial pieces of faces, nonsense models, garbage casts...and I got angrier and angrier...
I said to him - I will not leave this place without you giving me what is my due. I want that piece of sculpture of Iraq. I want the "Authentic Thing."
I understood from the dream that I was desperately trying retrieve, to hold on to the "Authentic Thing" and he could not /did not want, to part with it himself...he too was trying to retrieve and hold on...
He then tried all kinds of ploys, he even invited me to sit down and eat with the rest of the artists...I refused...He finally gave in and gave me the art work I had saved for all this time...
Then I saw myself in his kitchen..I was preparing something for them to eat....and I was standing by the sink, I could not stop crying and I cried and cried and cried...the elderly man, the sculptor, walked in and just hugged me....I understood that he had gone through it himself, losing the "Authentic Thing"...
