LEBANON: Syrian artists forced to abandon their craft in their homeland begin a new career in Beirut

Record ID: 276521

  • Title: LEBANON: Syrian artists forced to abandon their craft in their homeland begin a new career in Beirut
  • Date: 21st July 2013
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN ARTIST, WAEL TOUBAJI, SAYING: "I faced a lot of difficulties while trying to settle down, as I was forced to leave the country to escape military service. For the first five months, I couldn't feel settled. During these five months, I was writing a script for a film called 'One Hand', and I started making it after I arrived in Lebanon."
  • Embargoed: 5th August 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACIIHHG53Y8KZDGE19I90E7X5Q
  • Story Text: Syrian artist and filmmaker Wael Toubaji, fled his country to escape military service and start a new chapter in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
    The 29-year-old said when he was in Syria he would join anti-government protests and now feels his art should reflect not only his experiences, but the crisis in his homeland.
    ''For me, what happened in Syria was a big change for me. I felt as if it has changed something in my personality. For the first time in my life, I felt that I needed to do something for the people and not for me," he said in his Beirut studio.
    After he fled Syria, Toubaji started working on his first animated short film called 'One Hand'.
    The film expresses his idea of the relationship between the Syrian military, represented by a boot, and the people, represented by plants.
    "I faced a lot of difficulties while trying to settle down, as I was forced to leave the country to escape military service. For the first five months, I couldn't feel settled. During these five months, I was writing a script for a film called 'One Hand', and I started making it after I arrived in Lebanon," he said.
    Hiba Akkad, another Syrian artist who fled her country, left to Jordan at the start of the uprising and then came to Lebanon.
    Akkad said that, through her art, she tries to send a message rejecting the use of weapons and arms in Syria.
    "I have been working in the field of art for several years. I use things that I then build on the surface of the painting. When the events began, I started to think how I can create work that can reflect the life conditions that I have been through,'' she said.
    Akkad, like many Syrians, has lost friends during the 28-month-old conflict but says that she's been able to see hope and beauty in her grief.
    She has produced art works out of written obituaries of friends she knew in Damascus, which are usually hung on walls outside churches and mosques.
    Akkad also created art from letters she received from friends who are in prison in Syria.
    "I constructed art pieces from letters I got from my friends who are in prison. I called them walls - wall 1,2,3 and 4. That is how I started and that is how events have influenced me," she said.
    Syria's revolt has transformed from a peaceful protest movement into a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people, and uprooted hundreds of thousands from their homes and land.
    Both artists said they're hoping for a better future for their country and want to reflect their hopes and experiences through their art.
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