SYRIA: A SILENCED SCREAM

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Logan Watts
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3 SYRIA: 6 A SILENCED SCREAM The exhibition Syria: A Silenced Scream documents the diversity of revolutionary art coming out of Syria since the beginning of protests against the regime of President Bashar al-assad. Shown in the United States for the first time, the exhibition is organized around key themes that have emerged from the multitude of political posters published online from 2011 to the present. Syria: A Silenced Scream is brought together in a series of six volumes that provide insights into these ongoing struggles in Syria. Each volume communicates these struggles authentically and unmediated, accompanied only by a brief introductory text and translation. Books 1 and 2 contain a representative collection of posters from the anonymous collective The Syrian People Know Their Way. Book 3 reflects concerns with the conflict s international dimension, more specifically with the threat of foreign intervention, with regional and international actors, as well as with solidarity with protest movements in other states. Book 4 gathers works dealing with non-violence, that is, with anti-sectarian pleas, with civil disobedience, and with calls for a civil (non-religious) state and society. Book 5 contains a call to solidarity, emphasizing individuals who have been either killed or arrested, as well as labor movements, students, and Syria s Kurdish minority. Book 6 unites works that are characterized by their typography that is mostly calligraphic in nature. Mana Contemporary s Middle East Center for the Arts (MECA) was introduced to The Syrian People Know Their Way by the Master s Program in Integrated Design at the Holon Institute of Technology and greatly benefited from its Spring 2013 exhibition The Syrian People Know Their Way, curated by Yael Eylat Van-Essen. We are grateful to Yael, as well as Dana Arieli-Horowitz, Dror K. Levy, and Reuven Givati for their generous assistance in making this exhibition possible. 3

5 TYPOGRAPHY im- and in solidarity with Syrian protesters. Although digital, the first أسلوب الطباعة ages in this book are set against a gray background similar to a house or wall, and aesthetically mimic street graffiti. A significant number of posters in this book reference cities in Syria that are hotbeds of anti-regime activity. One set features either cityscapes or iconic images from cities juxtaposed with well-known slogans Homs shall not kneel, It [the massacre of Hamah] shall not be repeated. In essence, they represent visual representations of rallying cries from the revolution. Arab and Islamic culture have a rich calligraphic tradition, and the swooping lines and curves of the Arabic alphabet allow it to serve an artistic as well as a functional purpose. Coupled with the revolutionary penchant for short, impactful slogans and the preponderance of graffiti in the visual culture of rebellion, the written word serves a critical purpose in revolutionary art from Syria. Whereas the majority of revolutionary posters from Syria superimpose Arabic script over bold colors and provocative images, frequently making the words secondary in their visual impact, the posters in this book utilize script as the primary mechanism to deliver bold messages against the regime of Bashar al-assad. Conscious of the fact that their posters were being downloaded from their online platforms and carried in protests, members of The Syrian People Know Their Way and other artists began designing simpler posters to reduce printing costs. However, simpler backgrounds resulted in increasingly creative script. While the writing is calligraphic throughout the book, it becomes progressively more so as the images of the cities are replaced with white backgrounds. Letters become increasingly sloping, playful, and artistic. The color scheme of black, red, and green mirrors the colors of the Syrian flag. The messages reflect a variety of themes seen throughout the previous books calls for freedom, prosecutions of the regime, opposition to sectarianism stripped down to their most direct expression. The first series of posters in this book reflect the important role of graffiti in the Arab Spring. Indeed, the earliest protests in Syria are widely attributed to the arrest and torture of 15 schoolchildren in the city of Daraa for spraying anti-government messages on the walls of a school. In April 2011, artists and activists launched the Week of Freedom Graffiti, when artists across the Middle East, Europe and the United States spray-painted messages in opposition to the al-assad regime TYLER WAYWELL 5

7 AND A HUMAN WILL BE BORN AMONG US THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 7

9 GRAFFITI OF FREEDOM WEEK OF FREEDOM GRAFFITI THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 9

11 STOP THE KILLING WE WANT TO BUILD A COUNTRY FOR ALL SYRIANS THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 11

13 WE ARE THE PEOPLE 13

15 DARIYYA IS A CANDLE THAT SHALL NOT BE EXTINGUISHED THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 15

17 THE PEOPLE WANT TO OVERTHROW THE REGIME ( Regime is being kicked apart) THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 17

19 HAMAH SHALL NOT KNEEL THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 19

21 THE SOUND OF OUR NORIAS (Famous ancient waterwheels in Hamah) STOPS THEIR CALLS-TO-PRAYER THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 21

23 HOMS SHALL NOT KNEEL 23

25 NO VOICE IS LOUDER THAN THE VOICE OF THE REBEL ( The Rebel (Al-Aasi, or Orontes) is the name of the river pictured that flows through Homs and Hamah) THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 25

27 IT SHALL NOT BE REPEATED (Image of Hamah, site of the 1982 goverment-directed massacre) THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 27

29 MAHMOUD THE LONELY ONE IS UNDER TWO OCCUPATIONS THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 29

31 GAZA THE MARTYRS HAVE NAMES THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 31

33 BESIEGE YOUR SIEGE (Excerpt from a Mahmoud Darwish Poem) DOUMA DARAA TALBISA BANYAS HOMS MU ADDAMIYYA HARASTA RASTAN HAMA (Names of Syrian cities) THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 33

35 DERAA THE ETERNAL THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 35

37 FROM THE GOLAN COME GOOD OMENS THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 37

39 DARAA O OUR COUNTRY, O PRECIOUS ONE THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 39

41 WE WILL PUT YOU ON TRIAL THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 41

43 YOUR BULLETS ONLY KILLED THE FEAR IN US THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 43

45 REVOLUTION THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 45

47 FREEDOM THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 47

49 WE WON T PICK UP ANYTHING BUT OUR VOICES (i.e. not weapons) NON-VIOLENT REVOLUTION THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 49

51 NO TO OPPRESSION THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 51

53 DEATH RATHER THAN HUMILIATION THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 53

55 GOD-GIVEN RAIN SPRING THEREFORE IS NEAR THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 55

57 NO TO ASSAD, TYRRANY, SECRET POLICE, DETENTION, KILLING, OPPRESSION, SHABIHA LATTAKIA (The red letter - la in Arabic - both means no and is also the beginning of the word for the city of Lattakia) THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 57

59 YES NIGHT IS COMING TO AN END THERE IS NO INTERROGATION ROOM LEFT, NOR IS THERE A LINK OF CHAIN (Excerpt from the Mahmoud Darwish poem About a Human ) THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 59

61 FREEDOM THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 61

63 NO DIALOGUE WITH THE EXECUTIONER THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 63

65 CURB YOUR DOGS THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 65

67 THE SYRIAN REGIME THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 67

69 MY NAME IS MUHAMMAD GEORGE ALI AL-ATRASH AND SCREW SECTARIANISM! (Muhammad = Sunni Muslim, George = Christian, Ali = Shi i/alawi, Al-Atrash = well-known Druze surname) THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 69

71 NO AESTHETIC OUTSIDE OF MY FREEDOM THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 71

73 HOWEVER MANY YOU KILL SYRIA IS FRUITFUL (Producing many offspring) THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 73

75 FREEDOM IS A SACRED RIGHT THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 75

77 IF THE PEOPLE ONE DAY WISH FOR LIFE, THEN FATE MUST RESPOND ( must is in red) (First line of the poem Melody of Life, by Tunisian poet Abu Qasim Al-Shaabi that was a rallying cry/slogan during the Tunisian revolution and others since 2011) THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 77

79 ENOUGH SECRET POLICE THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 79

81 DARAA THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 81

83 HOMS IS SLEEPING WHILE THE FASCIST DAGGER WAKES THE SYRIAN PEOPLE KNOW THEIR WAY 83

85 Syria: A Silenced Scream September December 2013 Middle East Center for the Arts (MECA) at Mana Contemporary In collaboration with the Research Gallery, Master s Program in Integrated Design, Holon Institute of Technology Curated by TYLER WAYWELL YAEL EYLAT VAN-ESSEN Designed by YELIZ SECERLI Translations by RICHARD COZZENS Edited by SELENA RICKS HEIKO STOIBER Printed at DREW & ROGERS Thanks to: DANA ARIELI-HOROWITZ, REUVEN GIVATI, EUGENE LEMAY, DROR K. LEVY MECA The texts and translations in this book may not be used or reproduced without written permission from the authors, except in the context of reviews. The Middle East Center for the Arts (MECA), Mana Contemporary, and the Holon Institute for Technology make no copyright claims on the images in this book, which are reproduced from the following sources: The Flickr PhotoStream of 3aref 6ari2o, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: The Facebook page of الشعب السوري عارف طريقه (The Syrian People Know Their Way), Intifada If proper acknowledgement has not been made, we ask copyright holders to contact Mana Contemporary. 85

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SYRIA: A SILENCED SCREAM

1 SYRIA: 2 A SILENCED SCREAM The exhibition Syria: A Silenced Scream documents the diversity of revolutionary art coming out of Syria since the beginning of protests against the regime of President Bashar