سُُدفة ‒ Sudfa (Chance), 2026

Mounira Al Solh

Mounira Al Solh: The title of the work refers to one of the darkest hours of the night in Arabic: al–sudfa.

Al-shafaq – twilight, ”the redness in the horizon”
al-ghasaq – dusk, ”first darkness before night”
al-‘atma – nightfall/darkness/”first third of the night”
al-sudfa – chance, which is the darkest part of the night
al-fahma – coal–black, ”the most intense blackness of the night”

The Charcoal is also one of the darkest hours of the night.

al-zulla – midnight, “the slip of the night”
al-zulfa – the near hour, ”commencing from the night”
al-buhra – the small hours, ”lowest point in a valley”
al-sahar – the gloaming before dawn
al-fajr – daybreak, ”the cleaving of the darkness from before the light”
al-subh – light of the morning, the first part of the day
al-sabāh – the morning, being gentle

… Until morning time.

The title of the work refers to one of the darkest hours of the night in Arabic: al–sudfa.

When ceasefire is announced, bombs continue hitting as many targets as possible, killing and injuring thousands of innocents.

When the darkest hour of the night comes, we, as children, had to accept death. When the darkest hour of the night moves to al–fajr [sunrise], early morning, hope raises that perhaps we will survive this time.

As daylight comes back and we understand how much we love, that we wish to survive. How much we love, that we survive. How much they want us not to survive.

At sudfa time, when everyone is expected to rest, to sleep, we, as children, prepared for our possible death. As we grew up in Beirut in the 80s, we were ready to die. We had to accept death.

The war rages until today: in our ears, in our reflexes, in our bodies, in our psyches, in our breath, in our vision, in our hearing, in our way to act in life, on our naked bodies, on my naked body, on our way to escape falling bombs and snipers’ shots, harbour explosions, Israeli invasions and intimidations from [the] strongest and meanest armies and fighting factions, guerrillas and gangsters existing on this planet.

Al-shafaq – twilight, ”the redness in the horizon”
al-ghasaq – dusk, ”first darkness before night”
al-‘atma – nightfall/darkness/”first third of the night”
al-sudfa – chance, which is the darkest part of the night
al-fahma – coal–black, ”the most intense blackness of the night”
al-zulla – midnight, “the slip of the night”
al-zulfa – the near hour, ”commencing from the night”
al-buhra – the small hours, ”lowest point in a valley”
al-sahar – the gloaming before dawn
al-fajr – daybreak, ”the cleaving of the darkness from before the light”
al-subh – light of the morning, the first part of the day
al-sabāh – the morning, being gentle.

The canvas is a field of remembrance, a field of battle. I liberate it. I occupy it, I liberate it. It’s a field of olives, a field of oil, of inks. I drip red on it. In a trance, I blindly roll. I bleed. I drag wounded bodies on it. It’s my own body. I drag on it with my barefoot legs. I practice squeezing. Here it’s raining bullets. It’s raining raw pomegranates, like pulling dead bodies from under the rubble. My body rolls. Can you escape from the nightmare of the rubble? Your home is in rubble. The war is rubble.

Al-shurūq – sunrise, light shining through a chink
al-bukūr – early morning, first part of the day
al-ghudwa – morning
al-duhā – when the sun is still low, ”smitten by the sun”
al-hājira – noon, ”hottest part of the day”
al-zhahīra – midday, ”high point on an animals back”
al-riwāh – early afternoon, ”the declining sun from the meridian”
al-‘asr – afternoon, ”until the sun becomes red”
al-qasr – late afternoon, ”the time before the sun becomes yellow”
al-asīl – early evening/pure/root/foundation/the lowest part
al-‘ashī – nightfall, ”the first part of the darkness of the night”
al-ghurūb – sunset, of the sun or of stars, most projecting part.

Arabic translation by Louisa MacMillan and Rebecka Freeman.