Rousl Group - "Douma I Love U"

Rousl Group

The idea to establish the Messengers’ Group began in 2012 with a series of projects entitled “Posters of Madaya”, “Sam’s Camera Lens”, and ”Messengers of Arts”, launched on the social networking website Facebook. The group then undertook a number of artistic projects in Eastern Ghouta, including a graffiti project entitled “The Desert,” a second project called “Garden Decorations,” a third project called “Messengers’ Studio” involving sound recordings as well as a number of short films and pieces of video art and, more recently, a fourth project entitled “The Human in Syria”.

The regime that has prevailed for decades has done away with the people’s intellectual innovation, especially among the younger generation who have experienced a complete collapse of organised life in their country following the Syrian Revolution; they are now presented with serious questions regarding the possible alternatives which are available to them in the current circumstances. The war has created a large vacuum, the result of which is that most youths have aligned with any ready alternative with which they are presented – particularly those living in besieged areas and conflict zones. These alternatives are provided by religious institutions and supported by the peripheral cultural incubator, and here came the urgent need to work on passing parallel thought that carries a civilian character within an atmosphere of

militarization, as well as to provide these young people with an opportunity to see other intellectual trends.

Messengers’ Group aims to transmit a new and different intellectual vision among these young people through its activities. The project will accomplish this through independent, collective action, where a group of young people from Syria, Lebanon and Turkey try to complete artistic projects with an intellectual goal, raising the cultural and artistic taste among young people and contributing to increase of cultural awareness. 

"Douma I love u" project

The project is based on work with a group of civilian activists with artistic interests. The project enables them to produce artistic projects in the form of short film clips which revolve around the theme of “the city” and “everyday life”, within the same framework as the many “*Location*, I Love You” films of a similar theme.

The project also aims to provide a film consistent with the passage of time, away from the usual media rationalisation of events. It provides a unique perspective of the reality of city life from different angles not posed by the media, with no attempt to deal with ideas such as fatigue, suffering, and fear, with which people have been struck for the four years since the beginning of the revolution. This project also seeks to focus on three aspects of life: first, the culture of life and love – both present on the part of the civilians in spite of the harsh conditions and suffering they have experienced on a daily basis; second, their steadfastness in the face of fear; third, it will document their surrender. This film will become an artistic / civil document.

The participants of the project are a group of activists who have lived against the backdrop of the revolution, the war and the siege for a long time, of whom each has their own specific voice and distinctive style with which each of them will produce their short film. As such, every participant will produce a film they think expresses the spirit of the city, and thus the films will be linked by one key theme: the city itself, the main hero of the piece.