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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.
Program
Opening Video: Art Is The Answer. Presentation of Syria.Art Association by Khaled Youssef.
Waref Abu Quba, Darmstadt
-Silent Thoughts (2009). An old man stuck in a vicious loop trying to write. This film was co-directed and co-realized with Antoine Entabi. it was funded and produced by the General Secretariat of “Damascus Arab Capital of Culture” in 2008.
-City, Light & Movement (2016). Is an experimental/artistic film, which handles three concepts in three chapters, the city, the light and the movement in an experimental approach. The film uses the city of Darmstadt as the background for the scenery.
-Self-imprisonment (2014). A man lost in a desert place in search of a shelter, and then he faces the strangest coincidences.
Ghaida Karmeh, Damascus
-(Blue). has been realized for a graduation project in visual communication at Damascus University. It’s a stop motion video that includes makeup, body painting and some digital works in the background. It’s about the life of four famous artists (Andy Warhol, Egon Schiele, Frida Kahlo, Vincent Van Gogh. The body painting representing each artist is done in the artists’ own style.
Fadi Al Hamwi, Berlin
-Artificial Sugar (2016).
Jalal Maghout, Berlin
-Canvas On Mixed Media (2013). Crows are more humane than we think. There are many logical reasons to explain why this creature is not a bad omen. Today, even if we believe in the traditional superstition, in the midst of the surrounding destruction, we still beg for hope and salvation from this ominous creature. Here, the crow no longer collects shiny things. Shiny things automatically make their way to a deserted place instead of hitting their targets. They travel to a dark spot far away so that life can continue.
-Selfie Attempt (2016). An attempt to take a selfie, could be an exhausting mission. Which side of myself or more precise: which self of me should it capture? But can it actually be still? Is it able anyway to be captured? A Selfie Attempt, is a try to present a self-portrait in a temporal context, was inspired by a request from someone, who asked to borrow one day from my life, to see how it would look like for them.
-Strive (2017). A lifelong striving for something which is apparently the ending itself.
Manhal Issa, Paris
-Par cours Tracés (2016). During one of my visits to Angers, I discovered that an ant colony from the garden has invaded the house. This has brought a childhood memory in Syria, when I used to contemplate the journey of the ants, where do they come from? Where do they go? And I asked myself: Can I eliminate them if I impose other situations of conflict? Like in the daily life of our time, with other animal species. I then amused myself to look for other types of insects, to snatch them from their natural environment, to uproot them, keep them alive and try to experiment by feeding them some basic foods like flour, sugar… Before the caused chaos, all of them have had the reflex to flee. It’s a question of relativity, time and pain to affirm our human identity. A test of survival in full freedom, without limits.
-In-Out (2012). Through the drama of the media I have followed the events in my homeland of Syria. I am now in France, but my memories are of a peaceful life in my country. The transparency between Syria and France is now broken. The speeches of politicians and buzz of the media are embedded in my brain as the sound of insects, dirtying the purity of my memory. In this work, the insects symbolize the perversions of humanity directed towards my country, and the bees are active Syrian workers who continue to have faith the conflict will end with hope.
Julie Nakazi, Budapest
-The Effects Of Social Media. The idea depicts a sensitive area in society, which is how technology, the media, and social networking sites are affecting our lives, taking over our time and the disadvantages that create when people misuse it, also its effects on our society, human relationships and people. Social media sites were created for a reason. it was to connect people and help to bring them closer, and transport data faster. Nowadays it’s breaking us apart, and it’s causing, even more, isolation. This project was made to show how much we can be misused in technology; it is somehow a satire of how people lose themselves into technology sometimes, as well as social media like Facebook and Twitter.
Huda Takriti, Vienna
-A Storytelling; I Only Wish I Could Be There (2016). Is an attempt to explore my memory in the period between 2013 and 2015, the year in which I had returned to Syria. The project is a video installation project which attempts to show how one reflects and struggles with traumatic events and how they ultimately have a lasting effect on our memory. The videos explore the role that memory and narrative can have within discourses of conflict. The Monologues used in each video are recordings of telephone conversations with friends and family members. The background of the videos makes absence from what country it is, thus emphasising the value of the conversations, depicting not only the geographical displacement but more importantly the emotional one.
Abdalla Al Omari, Brussels
-I’m alive! (2013).
On August 21, 2013,
While we were all busy,
Youmna, a little girl from AlGhuta, Damascus
On one of the hospital beds, she was screaming:
I’m alive!
Kept on checking her face and her body,
Didn’t believe she was still alive.
Youmna has survived from the deadly chemical
Weapons attack on AlGhuta, one of the suburbs of Damascus.
1,300 have been killed at 3:00 am,
Almost half of the victims were children.
Youmna, a little girl from AlGhuta, Damascus.
-Extremely Happy With War (2012). An illusive title takes us to the most contradictory feelings, paradoxical truths and actions are happening everyday in the whole universe, and this all make us schizophrenic, stuck between our dreams and our reality… You laugh when you are supposed to cry, you dance when you are supposed to mourn and vice versa… At 04:08 minutes, the video shows us a little girl being painted by an artist, she tries to show her attitude towards war in a soft, timid, yet strong way, when she writes a word on the wall, a little word of three letters… three letters word which tells the whole story.
Sulafa Hijazi, Berlin
-Drops (2017).The human body has two functions in the role of the game: The player and the object. The act of falling could be a sign of surrendering for the player after a hard journey of gaining points, moving through levels. And the act of falling could visualize the abstract fact of death when the dead bodies (the objects) become insignificant numbers during the game.
Photo Exhibition
Maison des Associations Garibaldi
Date: 13/05 – 20/05/2017
Artists: Khaled Youssef (Nice, France) – Nizar Ali Badr (Latakia, Syria)
SYRIA.ART 