Projects tagged "Middle East"

Poetry and silence: Iran's Kurds tread the line between art and activism
Practitioner:
Iranian Kurds
Date:
Feb 26 2016
In a sleepy town in Iranian Kurdistan, people take off their winter coats. It is evening, and outside one can just about discern the silhouettes of the mountains that lead to the Turkish and Iraqi borders. Inside, some 60 people fill the small community centre with a clammy heat. But it is not just warmth they are after. They have come for poetry.
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Home Improvement Service
Practitioner:
WochenKlausur
Date:
Jan 1 2012
In 2011 a protest movement started in Israel. Citizens expressed their demand for a fair distribution of resources, claiming for the lack of housing and maintenance of the buildings and apartments, due to the privatized housing schemes. In these instances no one feels responsible for maintaining buildings and those in need are forced to live under poor and risky conditions.
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4
Guerilla Projections for Palestine
Practitioner:
Decolonize This Place, Within Our Lifetime
Date:
May 13 2021
As the death toll from Israel’s attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip continues to rise, a guerrilla projection on May 13, 2021 illuminated a building in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood with messages of solidarity with Palestinians.
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4
Can Graffiti Remake Egypt?
Practitioner:
Women on Walls
Date:
Feb 15 2014
Last week, a dozen of female artists turned the walls of a downtown parking lot in Cairo into a street art gallery. Colourful group murals carrying personal stories and spreading messages to increase women’s visibility, and positively affect public consciousness.
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Turkey's Artists Protest Islamist Censorship After 'Secret Obscenities'
Practitioner:
Turkish Artists
Date:
May 2 2012
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A 'new poetry' emerges from Syria's civil war
Practitioner:
poets
Date:
Sep 10 2013
"Today there is literature coming out of Syria that we could have never even dreamed of just a few years ago," Atrash says.Rather than relying on metaphors and allegorical images, these new poems rely on literal, visceral descriptions, with a newfound emphasis on a united Syrian identity instead of religious symbols. Ghada al-Atrash, a Syrian-Canadian writer and translator, has been studying Syrian poetry for decades.
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Waltz with Bashir
Practitioner:
Ari Folman
Date:
Nov 21 2008
He had served in the army, either as a full-time soldier or as a reservist, for 22 years when he finally decided he wanted out. In 2003, Ari Folman, who had just turned 40, asked his commanders in the Israel Defence Forces to release him from the obligation to do a month's military service every year. They agreed - "so long as you go to the army therapist and talk about everything you went through".
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4
Mi Minor - a deMOCKracy play
Practitioner:
Meltem Arikan, Pinar Ogun, Memet Ali Alabora
Date:
Jan 1 2013
Mi Minor is a play that is set in the freedom in a box democracy Pinima. The moment you enter ‘the playground’ you enter the country Pinima.
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4
Bug Splat
Practitioner:
Bug Splat Project
Date:
Apr 12 2014
A giant art installation targets predator drone operators In military slang, Predator drone operators often refer to kills as ‘bug splats’, since viewing the body through a grainy video image gives the sense of an insect being crushed.
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'Can You Hear the Screams?' Physician Says Western Leaders Complicit in Israeli Attacks on Gaza Hospitals
Practitioner:
Dr. Mads Gilbert
Date:
Nov 11 2023
A Norwegian physician who has volunteered in Gaza for decades said Friday that Western leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, are complicit in Israel's intensifying assault on the Palestinian enclave's hospitals, which are overwhelmed with airstrike victims and displaced people seeking refuge.
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2
Avy Search and Rescue Drone
Practitioner:
Paul Vastert, David Wielemaker, Christian McCabe and Patrique Zaman
Date:
Feb 17 2018
A rescue drone for refugees in danger whilst traveling across the Mediterranean Sea. Last year alone, 3,500 refugees perished attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea. The Avy Search and Rescue Drone is specifically designed to help refugee boats. The drone is capable of flying long distances, detecting vessels, and can drop life jackets, life buoys, food supplies, medication and communication devices. Drones for Good Competition
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Silent vigil at Saudi Embassy to Free Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja
Practitioner:
Front Line Defenders
Date:
Apr 10 2012
Former colleagues of Abdulhadi Al Khawaja from Front Line Defenders today held a silent vigil at the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Dublin to urge the King of Saudi Arabia to use his influence with Bahrain to enable Abdulhadi to travel to Denmark for medical treatment.
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4
Protests and Posters in Kafranbel, Syria
Practitioner:
Activists in Kafranbel, Raed Fares
Date:
Dec 30 2011
A town in northwestern Syria has become the creative center of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. Since the beginning of the uprising, the residents of Kafr Anbel have drawn signs that skewer the Assad regime and express outrage that the world has not done more to stop the killing in Syria.
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Spec Ops: The Line
Practitioner:
Walt Williams; Richard Pearsey
Date:
Jun 26 2012
Often in military style video games we kill without much regard for the enemy. They are faceless or stereotypical, the Nazi or evil Cold War–era Russian. They are enemies that were fought on the battlefields of great wars, or they are aliens that have no resemblance to humans save for a general humanoid form.
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Hearing impaired man is moved to tears after discovering his entire neighbourhood has learned sign language so they can talk to him
Practitioner:
Samsung
Date:
Mar 12 2015
A deaf man was moved to tears after learning that his neighbourhood had learned sign language just for him to promote the heartwarming message: 'A world without barriers is our dream'. Muharrem was unwittingly placed at the centre of an elaborate stunt in which he was secretly filmed encountering a host of strangers in a series of staged meetings through Istanbul.
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Art in Exile: Women Without Men
Practitioner:
Shirin Neshat
Date:
May 31 2009
For third world artists who are forced into exile, the creativity process could be greatly challenged due to displacement in language, community and history. Many filmmakers in exile tend to look at their connection to the homeland in strictly political terms, or give up making films overall.
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ChallengeAccepted: empowering women
Practitioner:
Women in Turkey, global online users
Date:
Jan 1 2016
#ChallengeAccepted, also known as the Challenge Accepted campaign, is an Instagram tagged challenge as well as an awareness campaign on empowering women involving sharing posts of black-and-white selfies.
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2
Healing Torture Through Art
Practitioner:
Najah al-Bukai
Date:
Feb 1 2018
Najah al-Bukai cannot forget. As an accomplished artist in Syria before the war, Mr. Bukai had long thought his photographic memory was his greatest asset, allowing him to recreate scenes on his sketch pads and canvases days, months and even years after he witnessed them. But now, after he has survived two stretches in the Syrian government’s notorious detention centers, his sharp memories only serve to haunt him.
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HarassMap
Practitioner:
HarassMap
Date:
Jan 1 2012
Acknowledging that sexual harassment is a serious problem in Egypt, the volunteer based organization HarassMap has created a series of strategies -both on site and online- to stamp out the social acceptability of sexual harassment in the country.
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6
Women of Allah
Practitioner:
Shrine Neshat
Date:
Apr 7 1993
Shirin Neshat’s Women of Allah is a photographic series exploring the complex identities of Muslim women in post-revolutionary Iran. Combining black-and-white portraits, Persian calligraphy, and symbolic elements such as guns and veils, Neshat interrogates themes of martyrdom, violence, femininity, and resistance.
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Coronavirus: Activists launch ‘digital protest’ to end US sanctions on Iran
Practitioner:
Iranian Activists
Date:
Mar 25 2020
Activists have started an online campaign to pressure US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to lift sanctions on Iran to help it contain the spread of coronavirus. Coronavirus: Are US sanctions hurting Iran's response to the pandemic?
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Dubai Man Aims to Enable Filmmaking Skills Among West Bank Youngsters
Practitioner:
Handheld Stories
Date:
Jul 4 2011
Youngsters on the West Bank will have the chance to benefit creatively from a new project this summer. From the beginning of July, Handheld Stories plans to teach filmmaking skills to groups between eight and 16 years old from youth centres and refugee camps in East Jerusalem, Nablus and Hebron, while also giving them video equipment, computers and software.
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When artists go to war: inside the PLO's information department
Practitioner:
Palestine Liberation Organization
Date:
May 12 2014
I was 24 years old. We were in danger. The Israeli planes were flying raids overhead. And I was designing posters." Hosni Radwan won't easily forget the conditions in the Beirut offices of the PLO Information Department, as an exhibition of the work it produced opens in London.
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4
Standing Man - Duran Adam
Practitioner:
Duran Adam
Date:
Jun 18 2013
On June the 18th 2013 in Istanbul, Turkey suddenly a man appeared on Taksim Square, just standing there. After more than 2 weeks of peaceful protest against the ruling Prime Minister and his party AKP Taksim Square is still the focus point of attention.
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Mashrou’ Leila
Practitioner:
Mashrou’ Leila
Date:
Sep 1 2018
CAIRO — Seven Egyptians were arrested on charges of promoting homosexuality after concertgoers waved rainbow-colored flags at a rock concert in Cairo last week, Egyptian officials said. The arrests were the latest assault on social freedoms in Egypt under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whose government has imposed harsh restrictions on free speech and led an aggressive campaign against gays.
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