Artwork: Zaher Omareen. Face / Volto. Mixed media and digital media / Tecnica mista e digitale. 2015
The Syrian Civil War has created the greatest refugee crisis of our time, as more than 3.8 million people have been forced to leave their country in order to survive. The war, which began in 2011 in the context of the Arab Spring protests has transformed into an on-going multi-sided conflict that has ravaged the nation. Add to this an on-going proxy war between the United States and Russia, as well as an internal war between Sunni and Shia powers, and the possibility of peace seems impossible.
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Many Arab countries have closed their borders to the refugees, forcing them into Europe and North America, where there is already great enmity for Islam and its adherents. In an effort to build understanding and foster a connection between the West and the Middle East, the Luciano Benetton Collection has created Imago Mundi.
Ammar al Beik. Love locks of Syria / Lucchetti dell’amore siriani. Mixed media on canvas / Tecnica mista su tela. 2015
Syria Off Frame is the story of a people living today, a people who through divide come together in unity. The artworks collected are a kaleidoscopic view of life today, as experienced by artists who must find their way. This is not the Syria we see in the news; this is not the world of war, destruction, and terror. Rather, this is the human experience of all those things—and more. As Luciano Benetton writes in the book’s introduction, “Although many artists are among the millions of Syrians who have sought refuge abroad in order to escape the war, their thinking cannot be constrained, burned, annihilated.”
Nihad al Turk. St. Dilar / Ink on paper on canvas / Inchiostro su carta su tela. 2015
Syria Off Frame features deep, heartfelt responses to the crisis by painters, illustrators, cartoonists, photographers, poets, calligraphers, theater performers and directors, graffiti artists, and filmmakers—including artists who still live in Syria, creating their works in dire conditions. Some are living under siege; others are living under the threat of death; and most are living in a shortage of basic amenities like electricity, water, and food.
As curator Donatella Della Ratta explains, “Framing is the art of choosing, of narrowing space, of determining what is outside and inside, and giving the latter the absolute power of speaking while the former remains silent…. Off frame suggests that the image goes on; it extends beyond the edges of what we see and inhabits a further space which is to be found somewhere outside the frame.”
Radwan and Jean Yves Bizien. Justice / Giustizia. Mixed media on canvas / Tecnica mista su tela. 2015
It is within this space that these artists now work and live, in the spaces we do not see unless someone asks us to look. Each artist is presented in a double-page spread, their work counterbalanced by a biography in English, Italian, and Arabic. The result is a deeply felt experience and a gentle reminder that the news media is only one version of the known.
All artworks: Courtesy of Fabrica
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer, curator, and brand strategist. There is nothing she adores so much as photography and books. A small part of her wishes she had a proper library, like in the game of Clue. Then she could blaze and write soliloquies to her in and out of print loves.
