Kremerata Baltica is a chamber orchestra consisting of young talented musicians from Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). It was founded by Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer in 1997. “I am not living in an ivory tower”, says Latvian master violinist. And so he does not have any fear of exploring new things. Particularly important to him, he emphasizes, is that behind the music there is a genuine statement.

The latest Kremerata Baltica project “Pictures from the East” is a joint venture with Syrian artist Nizar Ali Badr, which focuses on the dramatic situation in the Middle East and the current refugee problem. Nizar Ali Badr has been capturing the story of refugees from his country, using self-collected pebble-stones from his local beach. His art has become the inspiration for a unique film – the concept of Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer, who asked Georgian animator Sandro Kancheli to bring the stone figures to life along with his music. The results are artful poetic animations that show yet nothing but oppression and violence, images of life and death in Syria.

https://youtu.be/tJ7HC7zgDSg

CULTURE & POPULISM: “DO WE BELIEVE THAT ART CAN HELP TO COUNTER POPULISM AND SIMPLIFICATION?”

An event of the FLAX Open Academy for immigrant artists in Germany initiated by FLAX Foreign Local Artistic Xchange in cooperation with the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) and the Akademie der Künste Berlin, and with the participation of SYRIA.ART

Dates: 25 – 28 May 2017
Venue: Akademie der Künste Hanseatemweg 10, Berlin, Germany
Photo credit ©Jesco Denzel

Under the near total hegemony of the market and dominant political forces pandering to populism, the production, exhibition and mediation of culture has become increasingly depoliticized, with the “mainstream” widely ceding ground to the extreme right. Furthermore, political and cultural pluralism, once cornerstones of democratic modern and postmodern societies, are increasingly marginalized and denigrated. What is the role of art, cultural actors and institutions in blunting the nefarious impact and pervasive influence of populism? Can art constitute the ground for a counter-culture and the regeneration of democratic, egalitarian and plural social and political imaginaries?

Participants: Natasha Sadr-Haghighian, Inaya Fanis Hodeib, Adam Broomberg, Nasan Tur, Khaled Youssef, and others…

FLAX is a cultural network that promotes exchange, networking and cooperation for local and newly arrived cultural workers, artists and institutions inside Germany. In cooperation with the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) and the Akademie der Künste Berlin, FLAX invites newly arrived visual artists in Germany (in the past 5 years), to participate in a four-day workshop, designed as an Open Academy that will include lectures, panel discussions and workshops with established artists and experts from the art world.

Exhibition: Terre natale : ici, là-bas, quelque part ?
Dates: 14 – 20 June 2017
Venue: Mairie du 2e arrondissement, 8 rue de la Banque, 75002 Paris
Opening: Wednesday 14 June at 18:00
Free admission

The question of the home country and homeland, the place where one feels at home, has always been universal. It is even more topical for those people who are fleeing war zones, whose epicenter is the Middle-East, leaving their homes behind and hoping to find a new one in the host countries.

“Terre natale : ici, là-bas, quelque part ?” (Homeland: here, there, somewhere?) is an exhibition organized by four MBA students in Contemporary Art at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Art (IESA) in Paris, in partnership with SYRIA.ART association. The exhibition brings together refugee and exiled artists around the theme of the homeland by allowing them to share their experience.

Professional or non-professional artists, coming from different horizons, they testify through their works of their personal life trajectories and the destinies of their countries stuck in persistent turmoil. Among the works to be seen there are photographs of Nizar Ali Badr’s ephemeral sculptures, Souleymane Baldé’s embroidered canvases, Ali Darwish’s and Samer Tarabichi’s paintings and drawings, as well as Amir Elnour Adam’s documentary photographs.

Please join ArtisTree Gallery in welcoming these works of humanity and connection.

ArtisTree Community Arts Center & Gallery Purple Crayon Productions
2095 Pomfret Road/PO Box 158,
South Pomfret, VT 05067, USA

Exhibition: May 26th – June 8th
Opening Reception: Friday, May 26th, 5:30-7:30pm

On the occasion of  “Nice Solidaire du Monde”  week and in collaboration with the Maison des Associations Garibaldi and the city of Nice, SYRIA.ART presents “L’Art en Mouvement” event featuring the work of Syrian videographers and photo artists.

Event: L’Art en Mouvement
Video Screening: 17/05/2017
Photo Exhibition: 13/05 – 20/05/2017
Venue: Maison des Associations Garibaldi
12ter Place Garibaldi
06300 Nice, France

L’Art en Mouvement

L’Art en Mouvement presents the remarkable work of Syrian videographers and photographers on May 17 at 7 pm at Maison des Associations in Nice, followed by a casual and convivial discussion around a shared glas. The City of Nice supports the event as part of its annual Nice Solidaire Du Monde campaign.

Works by renowned Syrian video artists and filmmakers

Waref Abu Quba, Ghaida Karmeh, Fadi Al Hamwi, Jalal Maghout, Manhal Issa, Julie Nakazi, Huda Takriti, Abdalla Al Omari and Sulafa Hijazi

are complemented by a photo exhibition with Nizar Ali Badr and Khaled Youssef.

Today, video as a medium has taken an important position within contemporary art.

In a world in motion, the perspectives and evolution of video art remain sensitive to technological and computing developments. Advances in these fields are renewing the possibilities of the medium as an innovative means for artistic expression and seemingly augurs a new language to express the world’s ills, convey a message or bring colors of hope.

The Syrian videographers, despite the war that ravages their country, remain connected, too, with the world. They follow the constant technological mutation of video art and its emerging forms of art, and participate in the renewal of both the language and the modes of production and diffusion of this discipline.

The aim of this screening is to present examples of Syrian artistic work in the field of short and animated films. All of the works concerned are of different forms and address diverse issues. Some focus on the disorder of the world, others are interested in the state of mind of the postmodern Man in the era of globalization, while another part revisits the classics of contemporary art by offering a new vision full of colors.

In a surge of hope, the artists from Nice Christine Lidon and Johanna Piraino, La Strada, Cinema de Beaulieu and SYRIA.ART association took the initiative to support the migrant 06 collective in their efforts with the refugees.

The “Cabaret Solidaire” event will take place on May 7, 2017 at 5:00 pm at 
Cinéma de Beaulieu
Avenue Albert 1er
06310 Beaulieu-sur-Mer

The “Cabaret Solidaire” will take place on May 7, 2017 at 5:00 pm at the Cinéma de Beaulieu and is an artistic event in support of migrants living in the Maritime Alps. The program includes poetry performances, music, songs, dance, short film screenings and exhibitions of photographs. The funds will be entirely transferred to non-profit solidarity organisations.

This event is supported by La Strada and the Cinéma de Beaulieu and initiated by Nice’s artists Christine Lidon (singer-songwriter-composer) and Johanna Piraino (singer-songwriter). SYRIA.ART association highlights its presence with the screening of a short film entitled “Art is the Answer”, as well as a photo exhibition of the works of Syrian artist Nizar Ali Badr.

When the Cinéma de Beaulieu offered us several dates to host the “Cabaret Solidaire”, we obviously chose May 7! We, artists and performers, have modestly chosen to support the citizen 06 movement with our own means, our poetry, our dances and songs. We support them because they have demonstrated that it is possible in our country to enforce the laws, in particular those protecting minor refugees. Certainly, to win they had to fight, but they acted for democracy and therefore for us! We have no ambition other than to unite, to share, to ensure that hope arises from our hearts. Like the phoenix, which is reborn from its ashes, refugees who have returned from hell have shown us that joy and life can take precedence over horror and bitterness.

All together, artists, performers, cultural stakeholders, participants, volunteers, the public, La Strada, Cinema de Beaulieu and SYRIA.ART association… we pay tribute to migrants for their courage and the lessons of life they give us!