Even before the revolution broke out, but certainly after it, artistic practices in Syria often centered around democratizing the access to performative and artistic spaces. In the face of collective political calamity, a “democratization” of images takes place. This democratization, as Susan Sontag argued, turns the Event or calamity into an object that can be…
Love during the Siege They come in sinking boats. They hide in asphyxiating underbellies of trucks. Their lives are destroyed and their suffering left them with lack of means and choices. But along with the piece of land upon which they live, they have access to a camera, and some of them are making films.…
The Syrian sky is crowded with jet fighters from different corners of the world. While none of these is contributing to solving the Syrian conflict, Russia has been specifically accused by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch of targeting civilians, using cluster bombs and committing atrocities that amount to war crimes. In September 2015 Russia…
Join us for an informal art gathering at Kunstplass ! By Sulafa Hijazi Sulafa Hijazi, Syrian visual artist and director, will present some of her work and talk about the concept behind it, before and after the revolution. After that we will listen to readings from “The Guide for Using Life” written by the Egyptian…
Join us for an intimate concert of Jazz-influenced, Sufi-inspired music with Bab Assalam Bab Assalam (the gate of peace) is the meeting of two Syrian musicians, Khaled Aljaramani (oud and vocals) and his brother Mohanad Aljaramani (percussion and vocals) with French clarinetist Raphaël Vuillard. They have been playing since 2005, with initial support from…
While the Syrian war seems to embody all that is complex, alien, and thus incomprehensible about the Middle East, the five-year-old brutal conflict can in fact be explained through a set of global historical factors that emanate from the world made by Europe in the wake of World War One. This talk will shed light…
Persistent claims that the Syrian regime is “non-sectarian” result from a failure to distinguish between sectarianism as an explicit ideology, and sectarianism as an often unspoken technique of power. Whereas the Assad family has generally purported to act in the name of “national unity”, and accordingly minimised discursive expressions of sectarianism, its actual practices throughout…
On September 30, the Syrian Peace Action Centre (SPACE), the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies (NCHS) and Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) will host a roundtable discussion on the Politics of Humanitarian Aid in Syria. This event is for invited guests. Background Delivering humanitarian aid in conflict situations has always been difficult. Syria is proving to be no exception.…
Mazen Darwish, one of Syria's most prominent human rights activists, will give a speech about his experience in Syria before and after the revolution as a human rights advocate. Afterwards, Darwish will be interviewed by the Norwegian journalist and author Åsne Seierstad. Mazen Darwish is a Syrian lawyer and free speech advocate, and the…