Art & Freedom

Amer Matar

By revealing their true identites on a Facebook page artists both support a revolution and endanger themselves

Wissam al-Jazairy, Freedom Bird
102 x 57 cm, Mixed media on canvas
Posted 2 August 2012

At a time when many Syrian artists have been working in anonymous collectives to support the uprising, the Facebook page ‘Art & Freedom’ takes a more direct and, for some, a more dangerous approach. Artists sign their names to paintings, drawings, sculptures and digital illustrations, among an array of media that are featured on the page. Doing so is an act of solidarity with the victims of the uprising, and has not been without consequences. Some artists have been forced to flee the country while others have been arrested and detained.

‘Syria is now living through a critical moment in its history,’ explains the veteran artist Youssef Abdelke. Abdelke started the Facebook page with a group of other artists in order to ‘chronicle all works of art that deal with this current moment’. Because of the uprising, Syrian artists have had to tackle tough subject matter with which they had never contended before, or which they had not previously attempted to address in their work.

The title of the Facebook page, art.liberte.syrie, was inspired by both a 1940s Egyptian artists’ group and the 25 January 2011 achievements of people in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. The initial concept behind ‘Art & Freedom’ has changed since the first exhibitions of work online. Initially, the project was posted on social media platforms to make it publicly accessible to everyone everywhere; now, the site and its contents are exhibited in actual art galleries, not virtual ones, to raise global awareness about the events taking place in Syria.