Sanad in the Digital Realm: A Free Space for Defiance | 2023 Edition
Selected Projects
Ammar Abaza | Urban Dystopia
It is an interactive website. The project examines inequitable social and spatial practices, market dynamics, and environmental degradation in urban life. It stems from the current reality characterized by political and economic turmoil, which leads to the inability to make any positive change. These visions constitute an awareness factor about the catastrophic consequences of these practices - which have become regular- in the short, medium and long term. The project covers three cities: Damascus, Beirut, and Al-Quds. In each city, several perceptions of how these policies will crystallize in the future are developed, through illustrations and animations.
Nawar Alhusari | Missrad
A digital platform that provides conceptual solutions and contemporary visual proposals in facing the political discourse and prevailing social narratives affecting us as individuals, by creating a digital realm for multimedia art practices, which adopt language and text as a methodology. The outputs and accompanying research studies are presented and documented both virtually and interactively with the receiver in a glossary.
In addition to presentation and documentation, the platform focuses on supporting and enabling projects and collaborations in this field with the aim of enshrining this type of practices and experiences as a tool of expression, accountability, and motivation, and as a contemporary artistic medium within a political and social context entailing transformations and crises.
Nada Zino | Confined
A short animation film metaphorically expresses the feeling of being trapped inside the body with the inability to communicate or express feelings. It also highlights the struggle of patients' families as well as the psychological and financial pressures they face. Additionally, it is an attempt to amplify the voice of people who are unable to express themselves.
Rawan Alqabbani | Manic Depression
A multimedia comic book project that follows the story of a woman suffering from manic depressive disorder, in all its aspects and contradictions full of challenges, rejection, euphoria, wildness, self-expression, and lack of expression.
The project covers the woman's journey with illness, mental stress, and her constant attempts to confront a traditional and patriarchal society and to find herself despite the rejection she constantly faces.
Zain Saleh | Misk Salon - Syrian Queer Dialogues
A project that aims to exchange and document the experiences of Syrians from the LGBTQI community through participatory dialogue sessions, with discussions and personal stories as its basic structure. The project consists of group meetings focusing on the life experiences of LGBTQI people. The topics of these meetings will be addressed later in podcasts while avoiding intrusiveness, inquiry, and bias by providing a safe space and a free internal climate for exchange and participation.
Jury Statement
The selection committee consisted of Ranwa Yehia: co-founder and director of the Arab Digital Expression Foundation (ADEF), Yasmeen Fanari: visual creator, animator, and illustrator, and Ziad Moukarzel: music producer and co-founder of the Beirut Synthesizer Center. The selection committee members met in July to evaluate and select eligible projects, and issued the following statement:
The selected projects were able to address sensitive issues related to creativity within a social, political, and cultural context, in Syria and in the diaspora. They were notable for being critical and daring in conveying personal experiences and sharing them with a broader audience.
The projects are so powerful that they challenge societal norms, stereotypes, and oppressive systems. Through their artworks, applicants questioned the authorities, challenged oppressive ideologies, and encouraged critical thinking. The projects feature alternative perspectives and narratives that help dismantle prejudices and inspire social change.
The selected projects have a unique ability to overcome language barriers, emotionally connect people, and trigger reflection and social change. They allow us to challenge, re-imagine, and think about the world, which makes them a tool in dealing with topics related to freedom of expression, censorship and promoting the cross-sectoral relationship between arts and other fields such as technology, law, sociology, psychology, and other fields.
