It is a museum in every sense of the word, or that is how one could describe the home of artist Bassam Abu Baraka in his village leaning on the shoulder of Mount Hermon in Bkifa. This house is a witness to a unique kind of creativity, and with very simple tools, Bassam created dozens of models using only matchsticks and wood.
Bassam, who passed away in May 2022, represented a rare talent and a wonderful aesthetic mark that will remain in his artistic masterpieces, which required many long nights of sleeplessness and toil. He passed away after triumphing twice: once over his difficult health conditions, and once over a life he did not allow to break him, transforming despair into hope and weakness into strength, art, and beauty.
Bassam's talent emerged in 1989, at the age of 28. He first began with drawing before moving on to wood carving. The initial idea started after he watched a film that influenced him and pushed him to build a small house out of matchsticks, equipping it with complete furniture, as well as the lighting he provided for all his models.
After the house, Bassam built a ship, a mill, a candelabra, a lighthouse, a hookah, a small plane, and a small boat. He also used thousands of wooden sticks and matchsticks to craft the famous Hama waterwheel.
As for the tools he used, they were nothing more than a knife, a file, and adhesives, which were enough to translate his ideas from imagination into reality. He participated in many exhibitions, including one at the Bkifa Cultural Charity Club, where Abu Baraka's works gained wide fame and great interest from exhibition visitors.
