I was born in Beirut in my mother’s country, but we flew to Paris when I was 2 months old, where my father was appointed as the Egyptian ambassador. So I was raised in Paris with this mix.
MAGAZINE · INTERVIEW
Omar ‘Chakil’ El Wakil
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Interview
Where were you born and where are you from?
What is your first memory connected to the art world?
A Tchaikovsky record for kids, my mum’s Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life tape, or a trip to the cinema to see Walt Disney’s Fantasia, which I found mesmerizing yet totally terrifying. Can’t remember which.
Have you always worked in the art/design field?
If you consider pop music art then yes.
What led you to design creation?
Creation is second nature to me, a necessity of existence. Design is a vast concept I have yet to fully come to terms with.
How would you describe your creative process and its influences?
Emotional, sensual, and led by a desire to lift up and build bridges I cannot find.
Could you describe a typical day of your work?
Hardly, since my life is a permanent change. Just make it work could describe it.
Why did you choose the specific materials you work with?
Alabaster was my least favorite, having seen it used and abused in the worst way possible in various markets. I totally rediscovered it, or it rediscovered me, so I made it my main instrument of expression.
What are the technical particularities of your creations?
Well, I thought of the least convenient, heaviest, most unreliable material to work with and went for it.
We don’t use c&c machines yet and try to embrace traditional ways of working the stone with a contemporary vision.
What advice could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works?
Follow your gut.
If your works had to belong to a design movement, how would you define it?
I would rather have it belong to an art movement that has yet to be defined.
If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be?
Very intimate question.
What designers and artists have influenced you?
Too many to name all, but I am and have mostly been influenced by artist who have forged their own paths, which I consider the greatest kind of design. Joseph Mankiewicz, Man Ray, Chopin, Fernand Leger, Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Jean Cocteau, Jean Michel Frank, Brancusi, Om Kalthum, Hassan Fathi, to name a few.
What contemporary designers do you appreciate?
Not in order of preference: Omer Arbel, India Mahdavi, Axel Vervoordt, Sahel Al Hiyari, Martin Szekely, Nada Debs, David et Nicolas, Najla El Zein, to name only a few. Is Francois Catroux considered a designer? I don’t know; I love his interiors.
What contemporary artists, in any kind of art, have you been inspired by?
More? Francesco Clemente, Louise Bourgeois, Woody Allen, Roman Polanski (in spite of the controversy), Francis Bacon, Julian Schnabel.
Is there anything you would like to add?
Follow the yellow brick road.
“Creation is second nature to me, a necessity of existence.”
The Questionnaire
The Questions
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust.
Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde,
Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Creativity fulfilled
What is your greatest fear?
I don’t want to say in case it happens
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Impulsivity
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Hypocrisy
Which living person do you most admire?
Only one?
What is your greatest extravagance?
Scarves
What is your current state of mind?
Comfortably numb in spite of a broken foot
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Chastity
What is the quality you most like in a man?
Kindness
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Kindness
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
None that I’m aware of
Which talent would you most like to have?
Mathematics
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My balding head
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
To still have ambitions
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
I don’t know
Where would you most like to live?
PARIS, with regular long visits to LA, NYC, CAIRO and ROME
What is your most treasured possession?
Body and mind and maybe a Youssef Nabil photograph
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
I try not to regard it
What is your favorite occupation?
Wanderlusting
What is your most marked characteristic?
Expressivity
What do you most value in your friends?
Kindness
Who are your favorite writers?
Marguerite Yourcenar, Jacques Prévert, Marcel Aymé, Albert Cossery, Amin Maalouf, Jean Cocteau, James Baldwin, Youssef Idris…
Who is your hero of fiction?
Samwise the Hobbit
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Casimir in the 80’s TV show L’Île aux Enfants maybe? Or maybe his green brother Hippolyte
Who are your heroes in real life?
Cleaners, garbage collectors, nurses, artists to name only a few…
What are your favorite names?
I won’t give them away again
What is it that you most dislike?
Again?
What is your greatest regret?
To not have continued my classical piano training when I was a teen
How would you like to die?
I won’t
What is your motto?
Only fools don’t change their minds
“Design is a vast concept I have yet to fully come to terms with.”
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