KNIPSU AND THE SYRIAN CULTURAL CARAVAN 2015
Festplassen Friday - Sunday 13:00 - 17:00
Landmark/Bergen Kunsthall Friday 12:00 & 19:00, and Sunday 18:00
Can art make a change, or is it just a cliché? Does art have the power to redefine identities from fragments of what was once a belief? Is it a strategy to change a miserable exile by recreating memories?
Artists, with an eye trained to look at life alternatively, can seize opportunities of social openings. Their sensibilities insists on rewriting the world they live in, a survival technique. But what happens when this technique enters the machinery of the art world? KNIPSU will this weekend gather art professionals from Syria, Lebanon and Europe to exhibit Syrian art and culture in public and to discuss the mutual effect of art and society.
Participants: Ahmad Kaddour, Akram Al Halabi, Ali Kaaf, Amanda Abi Khalil, Amélie Duhamel, Amjad Wardeh, Ammar Abd Rabbo, Andrea Lange, Assem Al Bacha, Bahram Hajou, Dino Ahmad Ali, Dona Timani, Emad Mustafa, Eyas al Mokdad, Firas Jabakhanji, Iman Hasbani, Jaber Al Azmeh, Khaled al Jaramani, Khaled Al Khani, Khaled Takreti, Khouloud Al Zghayare, Kjetil Selvik, Mey Sefan, Meyar al Roumi, Mohamad al Roumi, Mohamad Omran, Mohanad Aljaramani, Monif Ajaj, Muzaffar Salman, Nayssam Jalal, Omar Nicolas, Shada Safadi, Tammam Azzam, Walid el Masri, Walaa Dakak, Yaser Safi
Curated by Maya Økland, Wiam Alaridi and Mohamad al Roumi
The event is generously supported by Bergen City, the Freedom of Speech Foundation, Oslo and Festspillene i Bergen.
Thank you to Pernille Myrvold, lecturer in Arabic Language at the Universty of Bergen
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PROGRAM
Festplassen May 29th – 31st
The Syrian Cultural Caravan will be standing at Festplassen Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 13:00 to 17:00. Artists Walid el Masri, Walaa Dakak, Shada Safadi, Emad Mustafa, Mey Sefan, Meyar al Roumi and Mohamad Al Roumi will be present and open for dialogue.
A cultural caravan called “Freedom for the Syrian People” set off from Paris on July 12th 2014 for a tour that passed through France, Italy, Germany and came to an end in Brussels, Belgium on September 28th.
Artists of all disciplines (visual artists, actors, musicians, filmmakers, writers etc.) participated in this tour producing at each stage exhibitions, musical performances, street theatre performances, debates, film projections and poetry readers.
The warm welcome that they received and the positive exchanges that the caravan brought has led the participants, those who supported them and those who contributed to its success to create a cultural and artistic movement entitled the “Syrian Cultural Caravan”. Its goal: to promote Syrian culture and contemporary art and to create a platform for exchange with all cultural and artistic organisations and associations in Europe and the World.
Participating artists: Ahmad Kaddour, Akram Al Halabi, Ali Kaaf *, Ammar Abed Rabbo *, Assem Al Bacha *, Bahram Hajou, Dino Ahmad Ali *, Firas Jabakhanji *, Iman Hasbani *, Jaber Al Azmeh *, Khaled Al Khani, Kaled Takreti, Khouloud Al Zghayare, Mohamad Al Roumi *, Monif Ajaj, Mohamad Omran, Muzaffar Salman *, Shada Safadi, Tammam Azzam *, Walid El Masri, Walaa Dakak, Yaser Safi
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Landmark/Bergen Kunsthall May 29th
KNIPSU will hold a roundtable discussion at Landmark/Bergen Kunsthall Friday 19:00 Participants: Mohamad al Roumi, Andrea Lange, Dona Timani, Amanda Abi Khalil, Omar Nicolas, Wiam Alaridi, Maya Økland ++
The discussion will be followed by a concert by Nayssam Jalal, Khaled al Jaramani, Mohanad al Jaramani and Kjetil Selvik.
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Landmark/Bergen Kunsthall May 29th – 31st
The Syrian Association for Cultural Support will keep office hours at Landmark/Bergen Kunsthall Friday, Saturday and Sunday 12:00 – 17:00. Official opening: Friday 12:00
The “Syrian Association for Cultural Support” is an artistic work that came up as a result of the encounter “On Lost and Mutable Things”, curated by Omar Nicolas. That encounter gathered eight Syrian artists and cultural producers from inside and outside of Syria. It took place last September at the Mansion art space in Beirut, Lebanon. The association is concerned with questions about cultural identities during times of crisis, the relation of arts and politics and of artists and institutions. The work of the association focuses on the current artistic practices of Syrian artists and cultural producers and how these practices are getting established within the local and global art and cultural context. The association releases itself from being an actual association. Instead it travels as a space, an application, slogan, a performance, a newspaper, a film and an intervention.
Founded by: Dara Abdalla (poet, author), Fadi Al-Hamwi (media artist), Kenan Darwich (curator, publisher), Sulafa Hijazi (video and animation artist / producer), Omar Nicolas (artist, curator, and book designer), Sari Mustafa (theatre maker), Sami Rustom (journalist, archivist), Nowar Yusuf (performance artist).
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Landmark/Bergen Kunsthall May 31st
Filmscreening 18:00
War on Famous Canvas by Amjad Wardeh, 2 minutes
Cocoon by Mey Sefan, 6 minutes
Progress by Ali Kaaf, 6 minutes
Letter Form The Inside by Mey Sefan, 12 minutes
Silent Cinema by Meyar al Roumi, 45 minutes
The Other Half of Your Shadow by Eyas al Mokdad, 30 minutes
For a presentation of the participants please go to http://knipsu.no/cultural-caravan/
KNIPSU is an artist-run initiative from Bergen, Norway that functions as a nomadic art space. It provides an interdisciplinary meeting point for artists across national borders, producing exhibitions, events, screenings, concerts, workshops and publications. It is run within the framework of collaboration and DIY by artists Hilde Jørgensen and Maya Økland since August 2010. KNIPSU is generously supported by the Norwegian Arts Council and Bergen City.