The picture in Syria today looks increasingly gloomy, especially for those watching from afar. What was widely recognized as an uprising for shared humanitarian values, is no longer seen as such. As the situation became intractably complicated, faulty generalizations and simplifications emerged, and the gloomy picture was, consequently, obscured. Nonetheless, many Syrians still believe in…
One of the most important formative experiences for the Syrian youth in the past four years is the emergence of an active civil society. The concept of civil society in Syria was virtually nonexistent before 2011 under the Assad's dictatorship. But as the Syrian uprising started, the explosion of self-expression mediums turned with time into…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkKGxGDBXwQ Our Terrible Country’ takes us on the perilous journey of Yassin Haj Saleh, a well-known Syrian intellectual and dissident, and the young photographer Ziad Homsi who travel together in an arduous and dangerous route from the liberated area of Douma/Damascus to Raqqa in northern Syria, only to find themselves eventually forced to leave their…
“There is no political power without control of the archive, if not of memory. Effective democratization can always be measured by this essential criterion: the participation in and the access to the archive, its constitution, and its interpretation” Jacques Derrida Since March 2011, Syria has witnessed deep cultural mutation; forms of expressions have evolved trying…
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…