RE-DIRECTING: EAST. Conversations # 8:
Abir Boukhari, Syria 
Isolation, breath to die

July 17, 2013 at 6 p. m., Laboratory Building CCA
The presentation is held in English.

RE-DIRECTING: EAST Conversation # 8: Abir Boukhari from CSW TV.

Abir Boukhari: Isolation, breath to die

An expert who would like to present general image of the current art scene in Syria, has to gain some knowledge about the circumstances related to the recent history of the country: the isolation period in the 80's-90's; "the dream to breathe" period (the change and the reforms), and finally, the Syrian uprising caused by demand for reforms and freedom which turned into a conflict for power.

From the early 80's till the late 90's, the art scene in Syria has been isolated from the international art scene because of the political, economic and international situation. This isolation influenced the development of the Syrian arts in many ways: through the lack of cultural process (education – production – diffusion), with the studies in fine arts faculty being purely academic and not using any new technologies, basically rejecting contemporary art as such; the nonexistence of education in art (technical- media – contemporary arts); the lack of art spaces and sources of reference materials (art libraries - books- CDs - DVDs…); the bad press of the arts, and the simple fact that art critics, curators, professional art directors, nonprofit and independent spaces - all of these are missing.

By the end of the 90`s and in the beginning of the new millennium, there was some optimism in the country with voices about reforms, the change of the system, becoming more connected with the world and getting more freedom of expression started to rise up again. Also, we have to say, that the internet succeeded to create a platform to communicate and become connected with the rest of the world.
I could say that this period was like a breath of fresh air, the beginning of a discussion, a time of work and progress in the art scene in Syria. A Syrian businessman who lives abroad deciding to open a gallery to promote Syrian paintings abroad, and then some other investors, collectors and gallerists opened their galleries in Damascus. But all these places failed to create a local art market, concentrating on foreign buyers instead (especially from the Persian Gulf region).
Some international workshops organised by European institutions and organisations took place; many independent artistic practitioners visited the country, and cooperated with local artists and professionals, co-organising events or projects. The internet helped a lot to stay in touch with the art world.
During all this movement and change, there were no non-profit spaces in the art scene which would concentrate on contemporary art, helping young artists to learn about the new media, except "AllArtNow" – an initiative found in 2005 as a reaction to a series of various limitations placed on artists and cultural production in Syria.
AllArtNow is considered to be the first and only independent collective space for visual arts, multimedia and contemporary arts in Syria. Since its beginnings, the initiative aims to create greater opportunities for emerging Syrian artists and the development of the contemporary art practice in Syria.

AllArtNow has succeeded in creating opportunities for Syrian artists to:

• Learn by structured or informal training, especially in the fields of art and new media;
• Produce new artworks;
• Diffuse artistic production and show artworks of Syrian artists abroad; and
• Exchange with international artists via residencies, projects, workshops, etc.

In the recent years, AllArtNow has been selected to participate in many international events, and it produced the first contemporary art festival in Damascus, and an informal school for local artists where they could learn and practice contemporary art and participate in an exchange residency program.

The local art scene has been strongly affected by the recent uprising. Almost all activities were cancelled or stopped, almost all galleries closed their doors or moved out of Syria. International organisations and institutions stopped all their support to all activities in Syria, and a lot of artists seized to work out of fear they would either get arrested by the authorities, or be accused of supporting the government. Finally, a lot of artists left the country because of the violence.

For AllArtNow, we continue our creative work using other available spaces; because of the unrest and for logistical reasons. In June 2012, AllArtnow space opened its doors to some families of the refugees and we stopped all our activities since it became impossible for the local businessmen to support us.
Now, we start to think about coming back to work in a virtual space to create opportunities for artists in Syria to continue their work, express themselves, communicate with the world and to be able to give them some hope for survival.

Abir Boukhari - director, curator and co-founder of AllArtNow organization in Syria, founded in 2005. Through AllArtNow, she succeeded to create platform for contemporary arts in Syria, develop different artistic cooperation and exchange around the world and help the emerging artists to learn, produce and diffuse their artworks. It is a hub for contemporary arts to encourage artistic creativity. She was the artistic director for Living Spaces festival for contemporary arts, the artistic director of "Studio" an informal school for contemporary arts in Syria as she is the co-founder for 2 other artistic spaces( Maktab; Creative Zone and Boukhari house for artistic residency). She works also as independent curator in many projects with different spaces as Arab Short Festival in Cairo and Les Instants festival in Marseille. For more info, please visit www.allartnow.com