Syria Today | Virtual Arts

Syrian artists find new platforms to showcase their works online.

By Sarah Abu Assali

Untitled - Azza Abou Rabi'aTo its creator, “Cuffs” is an installation consisting of a handful of rusty, twisted nails bound together with a rusty iron band. However, Habib al-Rai’s piece, along with hundreds of other recent works, cannot be found in any traditional gallery.  Rather, these pieces are exhibited online: the newest “virtual” exhibition space where many established and emerging Syrian artists are turning to show their pieces. Many artworks are inspired by the country’s upheaval and dedicated to its victims; others simply document this stage of Syrian history.

Meanwhile, some virtual art festivals are not only compensating for the lack of cultural activities in the country, but aim to replace state-run cultural institutions.

Visual politics
“Art and Freedom” is one such Facebook page created last June to function as an online gallery for Syrian artists "Freedom" - Mohan Dehnito exhibit works of painting, photography, sculpture and calligraphy. Every day a new work is published depicting its artist’s reflection on and reaction to violence, random detention and bloodshed, the page states.

The page is home to recent pieces by famous Syrian artists such as sculptor Mohammad Omran, who on January 22 posted a black and white ink drawing titled “Tale of the child and the king”. However, it also hosts less renowned and amateur artists. 

Besides being motivated by a desire to claim the artistic significance of their works, artists who would normally have remained anonymous because of security concerns are now signing their real names to their pieces as a sign of defiance and fearlessness.
"How Many Blood Bags" - Amjad Wardeh“Signing with real names is a must, as it is an act of solidarity of which people, protestors, detainees and all victims are in need,” declared the page, which has attracted more than 5,000 fans to date.

In the same vein, Jaber al-Azmeh, a Syrian artist and photographer, shot a set of photos called “Jirah” (wounds) through which he was committed to colours of “love, blood and death, the colours of most liberation movements throughout the history of all people,” he told Syria Today.

The shots, which are exhibited on Azmeh’s own Facebook page, reflect on the reality on the ground, such as particular incidents and street slogans, as well as on universal values and concepts to which people commonly aspire. “I am motivated by love, anger, sadness, pain, hope, friends and homeland,” Azmeh says.

“Art is a form of communication and transmitting ideas,” he argued, explaining that showcasing his works on social networks and the Internet solves certain technical problems posed by traditional modes of exhibition, allows artists to be more up-to-date and, most importantly, ensures greater outreach.

"A Displaced Girl" - Samar Dahdouh Other examples of emerging virtual arts include “Stamps of the Revolution”, a collection of virtual stamps designed in Photoshop, which their creators describe as “the smallest documents to honour people and cities that had a profound and remarkable effect on the course of the Syrian revolution”, according to their Facebook page. Some stamps are dedicated to “martyrs” or activists like Najati Tayyar, human rights activist and former political prisoner. One stamp depicts Syrian refugee children in a Turkish camp, while another says “Your camera is your weapon”.  

An artistic boycott 
On December 17, an online festival called “The First Free Syria Film Festival” was launched under the title “Cinema in Freedom Square”. Organisers said it was meant to honour young heroes who are jeopardising their lives to film protests and document violations that are being committed against the Syrian people, according to their Facebook page.

The festival was a substitute for the 19th annual "Creation of Freedom" - Jaber al-AzmehDamascus International Film Festival that was due to take place in November but was cancelled. 12 short films competed in the first edition of the virtual festival, all made by young Syrian filmmakers.

The films were distributed through Facebook and people voted during the five days of the festival for their favourite one. The winner was “Hell on Earth” by Mohammed Kheir Diab, and two other films won the festival’s special prize.
Renowned Syrian filmmaker Ousama Mohammad told the AFP that the festival was “an alternative cinema which seeks freedom through its own freedom.” Pictures, he said, are now “the lungs of popular movements...In certain moments, [images] look extraordinarily beautiful...being the sole witness of a time where images ensure that justice remains unshaken…All those anonymous people are essential composers of the song of human survival,” he said about amateur videos documenting the uprising.

"Syrian People as One" - Jaber al-Azmeh
Artist Ammar al-Beik said that although virtual, the Free Syria Film Festival is important mainly because it “eliminates the role of the General Establishment for Cinema in controlling the industry in the country.”

The Cinema Establishment, which organises the annual Damascus International Film Festival, was formed in 1963 as an arm of the Ministry of Culture to oversee the production and distribution of Syrian films.

On January 14, a number of Syrian artists signed a declaration announcing the formation of an independent entity for Syrian plastic artists that can better “represent and promote their artistic and creative options at this crucial moment of the [Syrian people’s] history,” London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported.

     "Scream" - Amjad Wardeh This declaration also called for the replacement of the government-run Artists Union “which has emptied art of its real role and meaning” and claims that this new entity will be a substantial part of real Syrian contemporary culture, according to the daily.

“Signatories of this declaration dream of comprehensive change and refuse killing, internationalisation and sectarianism,” the declaration stated.

Cyber talent
Far from politics, some found in social networking sites a way to attract people in the industry to emerging talents in different spheres of art.

“Syrian Art Channel” is another Facebook page established as a platform for Syrian artists to pitch their talents in music, painting, plastic arts, acting and other genres. The page hosts short videos of young amateur musicians and promises them opportunities to promote their talents.

“Make the opportunity, don’t wait for one,” the page declares, while also encouraging producers and other experts to invest in the artists it exhibits.

Other non-political Facebook pages include the “Syrian Museum” and the “Current Syria Virtual Museum”. Both seek to document Syria’s current history online by sharing artworks of various genres, pictures and documents without becoming an opinion-sharing space for polarisation.

"Strike" - Khoudr Abdel Karim But regardless of the means or objective, Jaber Azmeh believes that virtual arts are a revolution against traditional forms of art.

“Alternative, untraditional arts stemming from the street are highly innovative and creative, and are a means for art to evolve and step outside the borders of art galleries or picture frames to present itself on the street or online in new forms that surpass traditional art and artists,” he says.

As for audiences, Azmeh believes that virtual arts attract a broader range of people, not limited to “the cultivated elite”.

On December 16, Syrian journalist Zeina Erhaim wrote in London-based Lebanese daily Al-Hayat that “2011 is over, but the uprising in Syria is not...the popular and artistic consciousness is still breeding a protesting creativity”.