Through Solidarity We Survive

An open air city exhibition by Syrian artists in the diaspora, reacting to the effects of the pandemic. The artwork is exhibited in four place in Oslo: Youngstorget, Sørenga, Sankthanshaugen and Kulturkirken Jakob.

The rapid and unexpected spread of COVID-19 has affected every detail of our life, challenging everything we thought of as stable and unchangeable. While people have sought to unite in the face of a hidden common “enemy,” the pandemic has also strengthened a sense of crisis in our social and political systems. If the current crisis has revealed essential flaws in our systems, it is an opportunity to fundamentally question who we are and where we are going.

Artists and cultural producers play a critical role in providing alternative spaces, which are cornerstones in navigating the ongoing transformations of a crisis. Indeed, culture is the essence of who we are as human beings: it establishes our collective social lives, binds us together, and nurtures our sense of belonging beyond borders. It is difficult to envision the future as a joint endeavor of human civilization without it.
The posters in the ‘Through Solidarity, We Survive’ exhibition are responses to the current situation. They stem from two separate initiatives: An open call by coculture inviting Syrian artists in diaspora to create a dialogue-based artwork reacting to the pandemic, and the Artist Training Program by the UdK Berlin Career College. Alongside the UdK Berlin demonstration KUNST RAUM STADT exhibition, coculture and UdK presented the artworks in public spaces (e.g. windows, balconies, billboards, walls, etc.) throughout Berlin as a city campaign this summer. During Oslo World the posters will be exhibited in a city campaign all over Oslo.

Artists participating in the exhibition:
Alaa Hamameh, Ammar Hatem, Ammar Khattab, Diala Brisly, Fadi Aljabour, Fahed Halabi, Michaele Daoud, Nada Ali, Nagham Hamoush, Nour Safadi, Razan Sabbagh, Ruba Salameh, Tamer Mallak, Yaser Kassab, Yerevan Hassan, Zena El Abdalla

This exhibition is in collaboration with SPACE, Oslo World and Fotogalleriet and is courtesy of coculture which has selected and exhibited the artwork in Berlin last summer.

Supported by Oslo Municipality and Fritt Ord.