Open source archives are important because they are the memory of revolution and counter-revolution. They allow future generations to recollect fragments of resistance so they can stand up tall against regime propagandists and snooty Western intellectuals. These tenacious memories might just be what it takes to prevent the world from sinking into fatalistic notions of futility.
Read MoreThe depiction of constant movement and decamping, drove artists to come up with nascent tools under shifting and tense conditions. With a clear tendency to overcome that rigorous relationship (identity, self, roots) towards a freer and more direct interaction with the artwork, immersing a new sense, realizing aesthetic and sensational details. Finally, processing them on the canvas or into sculpture.
Read MoreTo many like Alaa who have witnessed the brutality of the Assad regime first hand, what is happening in Syria is not just a war, but a revolution. He chuckles, visibly proud of the fact that the uninitiated eyes of Turkish art dealers can not locate the 'war' in his pictures. "How could it not be there, yani?" he muses. "It is a part of me."
Read MoreAt 7:30PM it was already getting dark. Since we lived in the area, we just had to leave our houses. We had hidden the masks on the route on the side of a church and we had written slogans on the wall like, “May the regime fall,” “Freedom,” and “Free Syria.”
Read MoreThe amphitheater is once again facilitating what it used to facilitate during its heydays, namely, notions of collective identity formation, participatory social spectacle and politicized popular assemblies.
Read MoreWhen tears are wept for the destruction of 'Roman' antiquity (the temple is dedicated to a Near Eastern god), there is no thought to the destruction of Syrian Islamic history which is taking place simultaneously.
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