Starting point
The artistic project was inspired by Allam Fakhour’s own biography. Fakhour taught three-dimensional design and sculpture from 2005 to 2006. In 2014, he immigrated to Switzerland via Lebanon and has been living in the Canton of Glarus since 2015, where he is now starting to establish himself as an artist. The complexities of the challenges of his existence are also incorporated into his profession as an artist. How are other artists faring who also fled from Syria and are now living in Europe? Are they experiencing similar challenges? If so, how are they coping with them? Fakhour would like to collect answers to these questions in an artistic form using his own experiences as a basis.
Introduction
The project will investigate the presence of Syrian contemporary art under two conditions: forced migration as well as the global reception of contemporary art by the Western-oriented art system. The aim is to offer a digital publication in which the works of art and the related findings can be summarized up to the year 2021. The investigation will focus on the works of art of 14 Syrian artists who now live in Europe. Fakhour will investigate their artistic practice and their transformation in three phases: Before the war, during the war (2011 until today) as well as after their displacement or in exile. The artistic project “Transformation of Syrian Contemporary Art” aims to get people talking about a phenomenon of contemporary art that has been neglected by research. The fact that contemporary art is recognized worldwide as a diverse, global system but is actually dominated by the values of the West requires artists of the Global South to implicitly adapt.
Artists
The artistic project will observe and document the effects of the Syrian tragedy in the professional context of the following artists, who are living in exile in Europe. Tammam Azzam, Sulafa Hjazi, Iman Hasbani, Reem Yassouf, Hazem Alhamwi, Yaser Safi, Khaled Dawwa, Asaad Ferzat, Alqumait Alhamad, Ibrahim Aldandal, Khaled Arfeh, Nagham Hodaifa, Randa Maddah (awaiting confirmation) as well as Moussa Ramo (invitation pending).
Classification in phases
The archive set up for the project will classify the artists’ works of art into three phases:
1. Works of art produced before the war that broke out in 2011.
2. Works of art that were created after the war broke out, on the run and in the stations that the artists passed through before they arrived in their host country.
3. Works of art that were produced in European exile, i.e. in the new societal context as well as in the permanent process of integration. These three creative phases will make it easier to perceive and understand the transformations as well as the classification of the works with regard to the respective artistic practice.
Methods
In light of the current relevance of the subject, the shortage of resources as well as the lack of similar research projects, this investigation will be based on interviews with artists. The majority of the questions will be standardized. However, further revealing information is expected to arise from the unstructured sections of the interviews. Additional actors of cultural education (organizations, institutions and curators) who work or have worked with artists from Syria or the Global South will be included during the third phase of the project. For example, Helmhaus in Zurich, which offered exhibition spaces solely to refugees in 2019. The discussions with artists and cultural mediators will be carried out predominantly in virtual form. The project is to be developed further afterwards, depending on the information that is already available about the artists.
Objective
The aim is to compile a publication with various parts: Transcribed texts of the interviews and photographs of the works of art or stills of the video work as well as texts of third parties on the subject up to the year 2021.
Content of the publication:
1. Artistic investigation of the changes that the artistic practice of Syrian artists experienced during the three phases.
2. Compilation of the experiences of these Syrian artists with a migration background who use artistic means to give Syrians a voice in international forums despite the difficult circumstances.
3. Artistic investigation of the role of communication in the artistic practice of artists from the Global South. For example, Syria. Possible perspectives include social integration: (Example: The trial semester “Access for Refugees” of ZHdK, (in which Fakhour himself has taken part), the concept of cultural empowerment of people with a migration background or the concept of diversity, which is starting to prevail among the actors of art education.
Target audience
The study is aimed at the artistic environment in Switzerland and in neighbouring European countries, at students, curators, art museums and artists alike.
Schedule
The artistic project will start on 01.05.2021 and finish on 30.04.2022 (due to the coronavirus pandemic, it has been postponed for three months). Interviews will be carried out with artists who live in 5 European states between 01.06.2021 and 30.08.2021: In Switzerland, Germany, France, Sweden and the Netherlands.