Artists band together to give Syria’s ‘lost generation’ a voice
Groundbreaking Beirut exhibition draws on inspiring testimony of refugee children
BEIRUT: The horrors of the Syrian civil war have been put on vivid display in an art exhibition that highlights the suffering of children caught up in conflict.
Haneen, which means “nostalgia” in Arabic, showcases paintings and drawings inspired by the poetry of children who make up some of the 1.1 million Syrian refugees living in Lebanon.
Sponsored by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the exhibition is being held in one of the Lebanese capital’s landmarks, Beit Beirut, an ornate Ottoman-style building that was reduced to ruins by Lebanon’s own period of fratricidal violence from the ‘70s to the ‘90s and later restored.
Soha Bsat Boustani, coordinator of the exhibition, told Arab News the display brought different generations from the neighboring countries together and allowed them to “speak in one voice.”
The idea grew out of three-year therapy program run by UNICEF and the Beyond Association, a Lebanese organization that helps 20,000 Syrian refugee children in the country.
When Boustani looked at the benefits of the program, which used writing, drawing, music and singing to help children deal with their trauma, she decided it was worth developing further.
“I said to myself that I should interpret these words in an artistic presentation that will bring them to life, so we started exchanging e-mails with Syrian artists living in Turkey, Europe and inside Syria, in addition to Lebanese artists,” she said.
The results of this unique collaboration can now be seen in Haneen, which opened on Wednesday and runs until March 4.
The Beit Beirut cultural center is located on the so-called Green Line that once separated Lebanon’s Christian and Muslim neighborhoods in the country’s civil war. With its walls still marked by bullet and shell holes, the building stands as a testament to the long-term impact armed conflict can have on society.
Haneen features the work of 47 Lebanese and Syrian artists, based on 39 stories and poems written by Syrian children. Among those attending the exhibition this week was Nada Al-Nouaiem, from Raqqa in Syria, once the center of Daesh’s self-declared caliphate.
The 13-year-old stood before a blackand-white digital painting inspired by her writing, showing a refugee camp under rain-filled skies. Reflecting on her own experiences living in a camp for displaced people, she told Arab News the shape of the raindrops reminded her of the medicine her sick father once took.
Now enrolled at a technical school in Lebanon, where she learns vocational skills, including sewing and hairdressing, she said: “The war taught me to be strong, ambitious and full of hope. I will build my life with my own hands, armed with my studies, and I will stand on my own feet regardless of any difficulties and obstacles placed in my way.”