Opening: Point d'orgue
Sound installation by Farah Hazim & Wissam
Sader
After/images
Artists: Sadik Alfraji, Khaled Barakeh, Chaza Charafeddine, Ghassan Halwani
Re/visions
Artists: Hanaa El Degham, Jeanno Gaussi, Manaf Halbouni, Soudade Kaadan
Naked Cities
Artists: Sherif El Azma, Tammam Azzam, Rabih Mroué
(in cooperation with Galerie Kornfeld and House of Taswir)
Bodies That Matter
Artists: Hela Ammar, Marwa Arsanios, Tagreed Dargouth
In December 2010, the Tunisian street vendor Mohamad
Bouazizi poured petroleum over himself and set himself on fire. He later died
of his injuries in the hospital. Protests on the streets and squares of Tunisia
followed and developed into the so-called “Jasmine Revolution”, which led to
protests in other Arab countries. Young people took to the streets to
demonstrate for more individual rights, for jobs and social justice. It seemed
as if a broad social front against ossified power structures was forming, hopes
were high that things could actually change. But the setbacks came quickly,
followed by new authoritarian structures and wars with devastating
consequences. At the moment the situation looks quite bleak for human rights
and democracy in the region. And yet, changes have happened on different levels
in the societies of the Arab world, and the recent protests in Iraq and Lebanon
have shown that the spirit of defiance is still alive. With the project Where
Have All the Jasmines Gone, we want to investigate what remains of the
initial hopes 10 years after the protests of the “Arab Spring” began and,
together with artists and intellectuals, to investigate where and in what form
changes are noticeable as well as the possibilities of participation for art and
artists in these processes.
The Arab revolutions did not occur in a vacuum, but
happened in an international climate of change that was felt in the broader
Middle East and other regions of the world. In 2009, a protest movement had
formed after the presidential elections in Iran, the "Green
Revolution", in which the country’s youth expressed their frustration with
the prevailing conditions. When revolutionary movements formed in Tunisia and
Egypt in December 2010 and were successful in disempowering the rulers Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak, they became an inspiration for further
protest movements in the region and internationally. In the United States, the
“Occupy Wall Street” movement formed to protest against the power of the
financial world and in Spain the movement of the “Indignados” (outraged) stood
up against economic and social grievances. In Turkey, the protests against the
planned building projects at the Gezi park in Istanbul was a protest against
the selling out of communal urban spaces, but also a rallying cry against the
increasingly authoritarian state. In the Arab world, protest movements were
also formed in Bahrain, Libya, Syria and Yemen, which were carried by the young
generation, a generation which, regardless of being well-educated, often saw
themselves excluded from the job market and social and political decisions.
At first glance, there is not much left of the
original hopes fuelling these protests. Syria has sunk into a devastating war,
which has brought extreme misery to the population, and civil wars raged in
Libya and Yemen, which led to international interventions, again with
catastrophic consequences for the civilian population. In Bahrain, the protests
were brutally suppressed and the royal authoritarian regime seems as strong as
before. Yet, as seen in last months of 2019, protests have broken out in Iran,
Iraq and Lebanon with similar aims as those of ten years ago, against
authoritarianism, lack of transparency in political decision making and
overcome structures. The revolutionary movements of the early 2010s seem to have created a heightened critical
awareness in which people dare to speak about topics that have so far been
taboo. And while the focus has mostly been on social problems and political
structures, changes are also visible in other spheres, such as sexuality and
gender relations. More people have a feeling that it is in their power to
change things, something which has been powerfully illustrated in the recent
protests in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon.
With the long
history of conflicts, waves of displacement and forced migration in the Middle
East, its people have also developed remarkable measures of resilience and
particular strength faced with an insecure future. This history, its lessons
for the present and the future will be the starting point of the project,
during which we will take a closer look at the possibilities of art to overcome
the past and work for change.
Supported by Hauptstadtkulturfonds
