General Information Oslo, Norway October 13-14 Contact Information www.space-org.no aleppo.space-org.no @actcentre fb.com/SyrianPeaceActionCentre info@space-org.no
Venues 1. Litteraturhuset
Wergelandsveien 29, 0167
2. Khartoum Contemporary Art Centre Bernt Ankers gate 17, 0183
3. Ringen Kino
Sannergata 6D, 0557
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Contents 01 General Information 03 Welcome to The Question of Syria 04 Syrian Peace Action Centre 05 Speakers 07 Cries from Syria 09 Aleppo: The City 11 Aleppo: Revolutionary Culture 12 One Day in Aleppo 13 Aleppo: The Fall 14 Talking Aleppo 15 Programme 16 Future Events 17 Sponsors and Partners
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Welcome to:
The Question of Syria The Story of Aleppo At the beginning of the Syrian uprising, Aleppo symbolized dissent to Assad rule culturally, with its unique plethora of artistic, cultural and civil society initiatives. The very same city that once represented hope is now the site of violence and despair. The story of Aleppo needs to be told. Only by making sense of what happened to Aleppo and its people can we make sense of the lasting impact this loss for civilization will have in the world. In our troubled world where extremism and populism are on the rise, we need to rethink the impact of the destruction of the concept of the city that we witness in Syria will have around the world. We can achieve this by amplifying the voice of Syrians and listening to their stories. We will once again use culture and art as our beautiful means to amplify these voices. The Question of Syria this year aims to address all the meanings and experiences that Aleppo embodies; from the lawless war and the Geneva Conventions, to Aleppo’s cultural heritage, passing by the heroic efforts of the first responders, medics and the civil society. Over two days, we will break away from the mystical orientalist view of Aleppo to learn more about the social and economic divisions and contradictions that define the city. We will revisit the outburst of artistic and cultural forms of expression and resistance in the city and the country as a whole. Finally, for the sake of the future of Syria, and the world, we will retrospectively analyze what happened in 2016.
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About SPACE The Syrian Peace Action Centre
The Syrian Peace Action Center (SPACE) is a non-profit, independent association established to create room for Syria and Syrian culture in exile Established in May 2015, the Syrian Peace Action Center (SPACE) is a non-profit, independent association that focuses on providing room for Syrians and Syria with the aim of combating the violent fragmentation the people of Syria are undergoing. The underlying assumption that frames the work of SPACE is that the role of the people in political questions remains at bottom the main problem facing Syria today. SPACE emphasizes that the question of Syria can only be answered democratically, and that any narrative that excludes the people is ultimately an endorsement of undemocratic and inhumane processes. In 2011, for the first time since decades the Syrian people have reclaimed the public space and started constructing their narratives, gains we believe are irrevocable and are building blocks for a democratic and just Syrian society. SPACE arranges recurring events about the Syrian cause in collaboration with key stakeholders in Norway. Through periodic change in the focus of the organized events, SPACE helps create alternative spaces for Syrian and Norwegian researchers and intellectuals, cultural producers and artistic voices to engage and interact.
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Speakers Annika Rabo is a Professor in Social Anthropology at Stockholm University. Rabo received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology in 1986 after completing a thesis on the political and social effects of a gigantic irrigation scheme along the Euphrates in northeast Syria. From the end of the 1990s she has worked on traders in the Aleppo bazaar, which resulted in the book A Shop of One’s Own Independence and Reputation among Traders in Aleppo.
Jørgen Jensehaugen (@JJensehaugen) is an Associate Professor in Modern history at the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences. He holds a PhD in history from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His forthcoming book Arab-Israeli Diplomacy under Carter: The U.S, Israel and the Palestinians will be published by I.B. Tauris in 2018. He is a board member of Babylon – Nordic Journal of Middle East Studies.
Karam Nachar is the Executive Director of AlJumhuriya.net, an online journal that covers Syrian politics and culture, and a Lecturer at Isik University, Istanbul. Nachar completed his PhD in Modern History at Princeton University in 2014, with focus on Cultural and Intellectual History of Modern Syria and Lebanon. Nachar holds a Masters in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from Oxford University.
Kristin Bergtora Sandvik is a Research Professor in Humanitarian Studies at Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and a professor of Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo. Sandvik obtained her doctorate from Harvard Law School in 2008, and she is the co-founder and former Director of the Norwegian Center for Humanitarian Studies.
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Leila Nachawati Rego (@leila_na) is a Spanish-Syrian writer and storyteller. She is a communications officer at the Association for Progressive Communications and a Professor of Communications at Madrid’s Carlos III University. She is cofounder of the news portal on Syrian civil society SyriaUntold and has just published her first novel on citizen mobilisations and the Arab Spring, Cuando la revolución termine (When the revolution is over).
Lina Sergie Attar (@amalhanano) is a Syrian-American architect and writer from Aleppo. Currently living in the US, she is the co-founder and CEO of Karam Foundation. Attar frequently travels to the Syrian border in southern Turkey to run Karam’s Smart Aid programs. Her articles and essays have been published in the NYT, Foreign Policy, Politico, and BBC. Attar is a co-founder of the How Many More? project and serves on the Board of Directors of The Syria Campaign.
Marius Von Der Fehr is a Norwegian artist and writer based in Norway and Spain. He works with socially and politically engaged practices. He does workshops and seminars on political art and he runs the international event series New Frontiers/Nuevas Fronteras. One of his last works, the controversial National Apology: The National Theatre of Norway’s official apology for the cooperation with Habima (in cooperation with Pia Maria Roll) confronted the use of culture as a tool for whitewashing Israel’s violent policies.
Mohamad Katoub (@mhdkatoub) is a dentist and medical worker from Douma, in Eastern Ghouta. He’s an advocacy manager for the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), a humanitarian organization harnessing the talents of SyrianAmerican health care professionals to provide medical relief.
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Cries From Syria Film Screening and Talk Director: Evgeny Afineevsky Speaker: Karam Nachar Ringen Kino Thursday 12 October, 18:15 Cries From Syria is a searing, comprehensive account of a brutal five-year conflict from the inside out, drawing on hundreds of hours of war footage from Syrian activists and citizen journalists, as well as testimony from child protestors, leaders of the revolution, human rights defenders, ordinary citizens, and high-ranking army generals who defected from the government.
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Their collective stories are a cry for attention and help from a world that little understands their reality or agrees on what to do about it. A documentary by Evgeny Afineevsky, director of the Oscar-nominated film Winter on Fire, Cries From Syria premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Before the film, Karam Nachar will give a short introduction and update on the situation in Syria today. The film screening is organized by Film fra Sør and Tour de Force, in collaboration with SPACE.
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Aleppo: The City Speakers: Lina Sergie Attar, Annika Rabo and Karam Nachar Moderated by Jørgen Jensehaugen Litteraturhuset - Room: Nedjma Friday 13 October, 17:00 (Free Admission) My Aleppo: When Memory Becomes Resistance - Lina Sergie Attar You know Aleppo as a vast landscape of bombed and burning historic buildings, cratered streets, and endless lines of fleeing, destitute families. But I will tell you about a time when things were different — when Aleppo was my home. Since 2011, Syrians witnessed firsthand the simultaneous rebirth and destruction of their country on every scale: from home to nation. How does one express the collective and personal losses, hopes, regrets that have directly affected every Syrian? How does one absorb the traumatic everyday events devouring a country, preserve memories of the past, and look towards the future all at once? How do we reexamine the theories of urban trauma and national identity, collective memory and constructed memorial, heritage and reconstruction, under the harsh reality of ongoing war and global mass displacement? Let us begin, with a map of my Aleppo.
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Aleppo City Market: Defining Space and Time - Annika Rabo Author of A shop of one’s own, Rabo will share insights from her fieldwork during 1997-2002 in Souk al-Medina (the city’s market) as one of Aleppo’s key social urban institutions. As a site for social interaction and formative human experiences, how do traders and customers interact and define time and space around them in the market? What does this tell us about the multifaceted relationship between the state, the people and the economy? Snapshots of Aleppo’s Social Urban History - Karam Nachar From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, Aleppo was the most important city in the Ottoman empire boasting an extremely rich and complex history. By universalizing the discussions of Aleppo, Nachar will undo nostalgic historical accounts and demystify the charming discourse of the ancient oriental city. Like any other city, Aleppo has its entangled worlds and complex class struggles. Nachar will take us in a journey through the last four hundred years which gave rise to Aleppo as a world trade center. We will hear about the class- and sect-related tensions that this rise engendered in the city and continued to inform its social politics until our present day.
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Aleppo: Revolutionary Culture Speaker: Leila Nachawati Rego Moderated by Marius Von Der Fehr
Litteraturhuset - Room: Nedjma Saturday 14 October, 17:00 (Free Admission) Long before March 2011, Syria was known as the “kingdom of silence”. All forms of artistic and public expression were controlled by the regime, only those who mastered the regime’s censorship rule-book managed to sneak in their subtle message through the many red lines. From the outset of the uprising against tyranny in 2011, public expression and art became a daily practice. Self-expression has been, in essence, the motor of the uprising; the creative spirit of the Syrian people was unleashed by the wave of protests around the country popularizing art and culture to become a defining face of the protest movement. But where are we today? With the population facing endless repression and the world seeming increasingly indifferent, is art still a powerful tool for Syrians? Spanish-Syrian professor and activist Leila Nachawati Rego will reflect on culture and communication in times of repression, revolution and war, with a special focus on Aleppo, “the Syrian Guernica”.
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FUNDRASING
One Day in Aleppo Director: Ali Alibrahim (2017) Film Screening
Litteraturhuset - Room: Nedjma Saturday 14 October, 18:15 (Free Admission) After five months of the suffocating siege and daily bombings of the city of Aleppo a group of children take it upon themselves to start painting colors in their city as a game in order to forget their daily struggles and to sow some optimism among the hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the city. This film documents such episodes and other stories of civilians inside the besieged neighborhoods of Aleppo. More than 280,000 civilians languishing under siege imposed by the Syrian regime forces and Russia, cutting off the supplies of food and medicine though the daily bombardments. One day in Aleppo is a film about a devastated city with no food, no fuel, no water, no place to bury ones dead, and nowhere to treat the wounded and where hospitals no longer function. Thousands under siege expressing their hope though daily endeavors such as a small groups of kids with their colors.
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Aleppo: The Fall
Speakers: Mohamad Kattoub , Karam Nachar and Lina Shamy (via Skype) Moderated by Kristin B. Sandvik Litteraturhuset - Room: Nedjma Saturday 14 October, 19:00 (Free Admission) Last year, one of the worst human tragedies took place in Aleppo. After a few months of siege and indiscriminate shelling, tens of thousands of people were evicted from the city. Beyond the horrific scenes of bombardment and forced mass eviction, little reflection has followed on how and why these violations happened and what the implications are for the present and future Syria. Why did Aleppo fall? Who is responsible and how to be held accountable? What was the role of the local armed factions in Aleppo? Who was negotiating on behalf of the civilians? Who was forced to leave eastern Aleppo and who was allowed to return after the fall? What is happening in Aleppo today? What are the protection needs of civilians living in Aleppo under Assad? Lina Shamy will give a personal testimony of living under Aleppo’s siege before she was forced to leave with the last buses in December 2016. Dr. Mohamad Katoub will address the inhumane situation under the siege and put it into context with the use siege as a war tactic against civilians in many other locations around Syria. Finally, Karam Nachar will reflect on the meaning and implications of Aleppo’s catastrophe ending with an outlook on the near future of an increasingly fragmented country.
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FUNDRASING
Closing Event: Talking Aleppo Meet and Chat
Khartoum Contemporary Art Center Saturday 14 October, 21:00 (Free Admission)
In our closing event, we will have an informal gathering at Khartoum Contemporary Art Center to mingle and chat. Wind down over pop music fused with traditional Aleppian songs by DJ Daeva, chat with our guests and have a drink prepared for the occasion.
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Programme Oslo October 2017 Time
Venue
Event
Thursday 12 October 18:15
17:00
17:00
Ringen Kino
Film Screening and Talk Speaker: Karam Nachar Friday 13 October Litteraturhuset Aleppo: The City Nedjma Speakers: Lina Sergie Attar, Annika Rabo and Karam Nachar Moderated by Jørgen Jensehaugen Saturday 14 October Litteraturhuset Nedjma
Litteraturhuset 18:15
19:00
21:00
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Cries from Syria
Nedjma
Litteraturhuset Nedjma
Khartoum Contemporary Art Center
Aleppo: Revolutionary Culture Speakers: Leila Nachawati Moderated by Marius Von Der Fehr
One Day in Aleppo Film Screening
Aleppo: The Fall
Speakers: Mohamad Katoub, Lina Al Shami (via Skype), Karam Nachar Moderated by Kristin B. Sandvik
Closing Event: Talking Aleppo Meet and Chat
Future Events
Last Men in Aleppo Director: Feras Fayyad In collaboration with Film fra Sør
Winner of the Grand Jury Documentary prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad’s breathtaking work – a searing example of boots-on-the-ground reportage – follows the efforts of the internationally recognized White Helmets, an organization comprised of ordinary citizens who are the first to rush towards military strikes and attacks in the hope of saving lives. Incorporating moments of both heart-pounding suspense and improbable beauty, the documentary draws us into the lives of three of its founders – Khaled, Subhi, and Mahmoud – as they grapple with the chaos around them and struggle with an ever-present dilemma: do they flee or stay and fight for their country. The screening is part of Film fra Sør Festival (09-19 November, 2017). Follow SPACE and Film fra Sør for more details!
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Sponsor
Partners
The Story of Aleppo Team Frida Stavang Flatjord Murhaf Fares Rana Issa Zeina Bali
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