Abounaddara
Abounaddara (translated as "the man with glasses"[1]) is a Syrian video art collective best known for its documentation of life in Syria. The collective's members are self-taught and anonymous.[2] At the start of the Syrian popular uprising, Abounaddara posted a new short video on Vimeo in April 2011 and distributed it via social media every Friday. Their films are the antithesis of amateur footage from the Syrian civil war, often recorded by a shaky camera, with a poor or completely unnoticed tone of a moment of intense violence or emotional release.[3] They won the 2014 Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics.[4] The next year, it withdrew from the Venice Biennale after one of its short films did not screen as agreed during the Biennale's Arena opening program.[5] The group also returned its special mention from the Biennale jury.[6] The group exhibited at New York's New Museum in 2014 and removed its videos from the Internet in 2017 after they were used in a show at Milan's La Triennale contemporary art museum.[2]
History[edit]
Beginning in 2010 in Damascus, Syria, a volunteer collective of Syrian filmmakers began working on "emergency cinema." They wished to document the life Syrians were forced to endure during the country's civil war. Abounaddara was chosen as the projects name from the first Arabic-language satirical revue, which originated in Cairo, Egypt during the 19th century. In English Abounaddara means "the man with glasses."
The anonymous collective releases one video per week on the internet whose aim is to show individual Syrians on all sides of the war in order to show an immediate image of Syrian society.[7]
Selected exhibitions[edit]
- documenta 14, 2017
- New Museum, 2014
References[edit]
- ^ Oz, Zeynep (July 10, 2016). "Revisiting Internationalists". Ibraaz. Retrieved August 31, 2019.
- ^ a b Ryzik, Melena (December 22, 2017). "Videos of Syrian Life Pulled from Internet in Protest Effort". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- ^ Jurich, Joscelyn Shawn Ganjhara (2019). "Abounaddara and the global visual politics of the 'right to the image'". Journal of Visual Culture. 18 (3): 378–411. doi:10.1177/1470412919886602. S2CID 213363841.
- ^ Kennedy, Randy (December 22, 2017). "Prize for Migration Project That Weaves Art and Politics". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- ^ Nayeri, Farah (May 13, 2015). "Syrian Film Collective Pulls Out of Venice Biennale". ArtsBeat. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
- ^ Nayeri, Farah (May 10, 2015). "Venice Biennale Pavilions for Iraq, Ukraine and Syria Reflect Strife at Home". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- ^ LensCulture, Abounaddara Collective |. "Abounaddara: The Lives That Remain in Syria - Weekly films by the Abounaddara Collective". LensCulture. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
Further reading[edit]
- Bramley, Ellie Violet (March 26, 2014). "Behind the scenes with Syria's 'emergency cinema'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
- Carrington, Daisy (April 8, 2014). "The Syrian filmmakers aiming to change your view of the war". CNN. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
- Holland, Jessica (July 18, 2014). "Syrian video collective brings glimpse of life during wartime". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
- "Immagini resistenti". Il Sole 24 Ore (in Italian). September 9, 2011. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
- Kennedy, Randy (October 27, 2014). "Syrian Filmmaking Collective Wins Social Justice Art Prize". ArtsBeat. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
- Lange, Christy (March 18, 2016). "Emergency Cinema". Frieze. No. 178. ISSN 0962-0672.
- Le Brun, Lily (September 19, 2014). "Abounaddara brings 'emergency cinema' to Syria". Dazed. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
- Lorch, Catrin (May 30, 2016). "Geheime Filme aus dem umkämpften Syrien". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). ISSN 0174-4917.
- Ryzik, Melena (December 21, 2017). "Syrian Film Collective Offers View of Life Behind a Conflict". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- Watson, Ryan (2021). Radical Documentary and Global Crises: Militant Evidence in the Digital Age. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253058003.
External links[edit]
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