Art as a Tool for Peace: Exhibition Launch and Reception
Location:
Edinburgh Law School
Date/time
Wed 24 November 2021
16:00-17:00
Art as a Tool for Peace: Exhibition Launch and Reception
Young artists from Syria and Yemen illustrate the transformative power of art in some of the world's most protracted conflicts.
About this event
PeaceRep and the Global Justice Academy are proud to announce a new art exhibition highlighting the role of art as a tool for local peace. This powerful exhibition brings together a series of works by young artists from across Syria and Yemen, offering a glimpse into everyday life in some of the world’s most protracted conflicts.
Join us for a launch reception in to hear from young artists themselves about the significance of their work and the transformative power of art.
About the Exhibition
The works from Syria were created by a group of young Syrian artists called the Blue Team (Fariq Azraq in Arabic), who have collaborated to illustrate life in opposition-held areas of Syria during the Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier in 2021, the artists produced two exhibitions in Syria – combining art, music, and activities – that offer powerful insights into the daily lives of Syrian displaced and ethnic minorities, and demonstrate how art can bring people together and act as a tool for local peace. Now, in their first exhibition in Scotland, is an opportunity to view the paintings and hear the stories of these extraordinary young people.
The exhibition also features the work of award-winning Yemeni artist Shatha Altowai, an IASH Artist Protection Fund Fellow. In “The White Canvas”, Shatha addresses issues that she has experienced and observed throughout her life in Yemen, specifically focussing on the last seven years since the eruption of the current war. She aims to highlight the lifestyles of Yemeni families living through the war, their solidarity, and how they seek to overcome the lack of basic necessities, such as food, water, electricity, fuel and security. Her work conveys the contradictory emotions of strength and fear that Yemeni families grapple with as part of their everyday experience.
Together these two sets of paintings offer a unique perspective on life in conflict zones, and on the power of art to bring people together and contribute to local peace.
Event Format
The reception will begin with introductory remarks by Shatha Altowai and Dr Juline Beaujouan, who will offer insights into the paintings themselves and the role of art as a tool for peace. This will be followed by a showing of the paintings on a large screen during a musial performance by Yemeni musician Saber Bamatraf, as well as a drinks reception and an invitation to mingle and speak with the artists.
Hosted by The Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep) and the Global Justice Academy at the University of Edinburgh.
About the Artists
Shatha Altowai is a Yemeni artist based in Edinburgh, UK. She has presented at several art galleries in Yemen and beyond. Shatha graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology with Honours from the University of Utara Malaysia (2014) in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen. After earning her degree, Shatha held several administrative and technical positions in the Yemeni private sector. In 2018, she left those positions and decided to fully engage in her passion for art. Much of Shatha’s work reflects aspects of life in her society, and the suffering caused by the ongoing civil war in Yemen. Through her figurative, cubist, and abstract paintings, Shatha seeks to shed light on issues such as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), women, coexistence, and families in Yemen. Shatha is an IIE-Artist Protection Fund (APF) Fellow in residence at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh.
The Blue Team is a group of young artists aged 16 to 25 based in Azaz, Syria. Their work offers powerful insights into the daily lives of Syrian displaced and ethnic minoroties, and demonstrates how art can bring people together and act as a tool for local peace.
About the Project
This exhibition is part of a research project supported by the FCDO-funded Covid Collective Research Platform, and forms part of PeaceRep’s work on the nexus between the Covid-19 pandemic, peace and conflict and the interplay between several layers of crises. In Syria, PeaceRep Research Fellow Dr. Juline Beaujouan and two of her colleagues – Abdulah El hafi and Eyas Ghreiz – built on collaborations with local communities in opposition-held areas in the northwest of the country to investigate the shifting role of local civil society during the pandemic. Read more about the exhibitions and the research.
To learn more about this work, visit the PeaceRep website.