Syrian artist to work with refugees

Syrian refugees are to join forces with a Damascus-born artist for three months to create work inspired by the conflict in the Middle East.

Manaf Halbouni, a Germansyrian artist, will work with a number of families who moved into the Huntly area of Aberdeenshire last year.

A special performance event and a film screening are expected to take place at the end of the three-month project, which is being run by the Huntly-based Deveron Arts group.

It will be partly inspired by the 101-year-old secret Sykespicot agreement between Britain and France, made with the assent of Russia, which helped create the modern-day Middle East.

It will explore what would have happened had it been Europe that was instead broken up.

Halbouni, who recently sparked controversy with three towers of rusting metal erected in the German city of Dresden, where his mother was born and where he lives.

He said: “My project reacts to a time when many people from the Arab-middle Eastern world are confronted with conflicts resulting from the colonial and post-colonial era.

“Wars, conflicts and the resulting migration to Europe compel us to explore and explain our rarely questioned history.”

Claudia Zeiske, director of Deveron Projects, welcomed Hablouni’s move.