 "Donald Trump as a refugee? Syrian artist portrays world leaders in as vulnerable migrants")
Abdalla Al Omari’s ‘The Vulnerability Series’ is a set of paintings that couldn’t have been more relevant at any other time. As a divisive atmosphere has taken over most of the world, Omar’s work attempts to look at world leaders beyond their positions of power.
The Syrian refugee artist has spent over 19 months creating a series of paintings in his Brussels studio showing world leaders as displaced or disenfranchised people. “My aim somehow shifted from an expression of anger to a more vivid desire of disarming these figures, (to) picture them outside their positions of power”, Omari told Al Jazeera .
Omari’s series of includes paintings of US president Donald Trump, Russian president Vladimir Putin, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, Kim Jong-un, former US president Barack Obama and other world leaders as the homeless and as refugees.
Besides his oil/mixed media on canvas paintings, the Syrian artist has also made a short film on this idea.
On his website , Omari has a simple message for the leaders who have been portrayed in this series,
“Intimate hours I spent with them have taught me more than I could imagine. Just as easily as everything worth defending can become defenceless, moments of absolute powerlessness can give you superpowers. Even I felt sorry for (my version of) Assad. In this universe without gravity, all we can hold on to is our vulnerability. This invisible wind makes our chest heavy, yet, mysteriously propels us back on our feet again. I have convinced myself it is the strongest weapon humankind possesses, way more powerful than the trail of power games, bomb craters and bullet holes in our collective memories. Vulnerability is a gift we should all celebrate.”
With this small note, he puts across his point clearly:
Hello. Let’s say it clear, I’m weak. And you, officially the strongest, are not that strong either. So, lets all celebrate this.
Yours truly,
Abdalla Al Omari
Here are some of Omari’s paintings from the series:
 "Trump escalates his immigration rhetoric with baseless claim about Biden trying to overthrow the US")
 "Is the situation changing in favour of Russia in its war against Ukraine?")
 "You weren’t afraid, neither are we, say defiant Russians as Navalny is laid to rest")
 "Alexei Navalny's funeral: Family struggles to find hearse agree to take his body")
 "Trump escalates his immigration rhetoric with baseless claim about Biden trying to overthrow the US")
 "Is the situation changing in favour of Russia in its war against Ukraine?")
 "You weren’t afraid, neither are we, say defiant Russians as Navalny is laid to rest")
 "Alexei Navalny's funeral: Family struggles to find hearse agree to take his body")