ARTWORKS
Ananiya Zerihun
I am human
100×100 cm
Country: Ethiopia
Based in: Ethiopia
Artist statement
“My inspiration to this artwork was a conflict in my country. There are many people dying because of their identity and tribe that they don’t choose, of course there are many political games behind it. In my artwork I want to show that every people who lives in this world are human before any of other identity that environment and the society gave , so I represent this Idea with a half skeleton of human body , when anyone sees that they know it’s a human rather than they give any other identities and I used a yellow flowers called ” ADEY ABEBA” only found in Ethiopia that grows every year for Ethiopians new year, on the place of the skull to represent the hope and peace of afterlife of the died people in my country because of their identity.”
About the artist
Ananiya is an African Ethiopian based artist , which he graduates from Addis Ababa university school of fine art and design. Behind the canvas He mostly focuses on social chios of society, he mostly represent his ideas with leader also he uses experiential print making techniques and wood cut prints.he is an admire of Artist Francis bacon and his teacher Zerihun yetmgeta from Ethiopia.
Ben Tuge (1969)
Kumema Munda (Walking Man)
58.5x11x10 cm
Bronze Sculpture
2022
Country: Zimbabwe
Based in: South Africa
Artist statement
The sculpture talks about a man walking in the land of his birth. The feeling of belonging, ownership, and freedom to explore new ideas, strategizing, progress of his produce, anything that needs attention in the land be it life stock etc. I remember as was growing up seeing my parents walking down the fields checking if all is well after the first rains, when to start ploughing and planting. It is also a feeling of gratitude with mixed emotions. Maybe it is his first piece of land or a cow that has given birth to a health calf. Owning a piece of land for anyone gives them hope of good fortune, pride to own land that they call theirs. No man wants to live in another man’s land. You feel like you are imprisoned. So, this sculpture brings memories of my upbringing seeing my people talk about how much happiness they have realising they have a piece of land. Not only just a piece of land, but also a fertile one. It is the responsibility of the Headman led by his Chief to see that every married man has a piece of land they call their own to bring sanity, peace, and tranquillity in the community
. About the artist
“Ben Tuge (Zimbabwe, 1969) is a sculptor and master carver currently based in South Africa. The artist completed his art studies at Driefontein Mission in 1992, studying under the internationally renowned Cornealius Manguma. Deeply inspired from the spirit and the traditions of his motherland, Tuge’ disjointed sculptures remind us 900’ patterns like Giacometti’s verticality, while existing in a biometric, semi-abstract appearance which gives the observers a clear image of the depicted subjects. Working with multiple mediums such as metal, paint, bronze and stainless steel, the artist refers to wood as primary medium for carving, thanks to the texture and grain of the material. Specialized in human figures, always enriched by his own humoristic touch, the artist portraits the spirit of the African people by mixing typical physiognomic attributes with a fresh, satirical perspective which made him “one of the most promising sculptors emerged from the troubled Southern African country”. His artworks can be found in private collections in United States, Canada and Italy.”
Text written by Gloria Campedelli, The Pinna
Camilo Parra (1989)
Materias Primas a Cielo Abierto
400×750 cm
Interventions made on laser-printed images
2022
Country: Colombia
Based in: United Kingdom
Artist statement
“Interventions made on laser-printed images of the deep universe taken by the Hubble Telescope, on which I develop some procedures to remove the ink and paper layers composing them. Creasing, folding, sanding, dissolving and burning are some of these attempts to go deeper within the surface. The shape and size of the platform correspond to the room area in which the image was created –in this particular case, the living/dining room area of my parents’ house in Bogota, Colombia, where I used to live in– Thus, the work establishes multiple relationships between different types of space: sideral, architectural and pictorial; universal, familiar and personal.”
About the artist
Camilo Parra is a Colombian artist, graduated from the National University of Colombia in Bogota, currently doing an MFA in painting at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. His work focuses on the exploration of images linked to the notion of ‘the origin’, showing and explaining the functioning of alleged realities existing beyond our immediate perception. Images usually coming from fields such as science, pseudoscience, esotericism and religion. His work has been exhibited in group and solo shows in Colombia, Uruguay, Spain, France, Canada, the US and the UK. He has received different grants and fellowships from the Ministry of Culture of Colombia and the District Institute of the Arts of Bogota; and has been invited to do art residencies in Montreal, París, Marseille and Alaska. He also received the honorific mention of the Flora Arts & Natura Prize at the international art fair of Bogotá – ARTBO 2015. Camilo currently lives and works in London, UK.
Darya Cemra (1990)
Prisoner
600 x 600 cm
Installation
2022
Country: Belorus
Based in: Poland
Artist statement
I created an art object a huge mourning veil 6×6 meters with a pattern of barbed wire. This veil is a symbol of grief for a huge number of people who have been imprisoned and tortured. This veil is also like a net that a person has fallen into and cannot get out of it. This work identifies my homeland now in full. Since Belarus is now a prison. I left Belarus for political reasons in order not to end up in prison. Now I live in Poland.
There is a totalitarian dictatorship in my country, any dissent is punishable by prison. At the moment, more than 5,000 people are already in prisons for political reasons. In a Belarusian prison, people who are imprisoned for political reasons are tortured, physically and mentally mutilated, they do not transmit letters and parcels even from relatives, constantly sending them to a penal isolation cell, where it is so cold that it is impossible to fall asleep. People get sick, lose consciousness, fall hitting their heads on the tile, some can’t stand it and die. There are cases when whole families are sent to prison, parents are deprived of parental rights and children are sent to a shelter
About the artist
“My work focuses on the exploration of images linked to the notion of ‘origin’, showing and explaining the functioning of alleged realities existing beyond our immediate perception. Images coming from fields such as science, pseudoscience, esotericism and religion, in which we have been somehow forced to believe and that deeply influence our experience and understanding of the world. I use different appropriation and intervention systems in order to check and transform these visual ‘evidences’ on a pictorial basis. In this process, painting dialogues with other art forms such as drawing, printmaking, photography, video, sculpture and installation. This search of interdisciplinary strategies and mixed media experimentation depends on the context of each image and the physical possibilities of the material in which it takes form. I intuitively deconstruct these preexistent visual platforms in order to reveal new proto-structures contained in them.“
Dasha Brian (1995)
28.7.1951
Video
2022
Country: Belarus
Based in: Poland
Artist statement
The film draws public attention to the humanitarian crisis against refugees and shows that support is needed regardless of citizenship, sexual orientation, or nationality. The relevance of the project lies in the fact that nowadays people outside Ukraine often face discrimination and neglect, despite the fact that they are in the same difficult circumstances because of the war, and people because of their sexual orientation fall into an additional zone of risk due to homophobia and transphobia.
About the artist
Dasha Brian (director and curator of the art project “Revolution”) is an audiovisual artist working on the borderline of the arts. In her work she strives to go beyond the limitations of specific forms, rejecting the semantic limitations associated with the word “artist” or “director”. Working primarily in video format, Dasha creates video collages, video sketches and short films. Her works often talk about socially significant topics. As part of the political art project Revolution, Dasha creates short films on human rights, the revolution in Belarus, as well as the war in Ukraine, and works with art in crisis situations. In addition, for the premiere of each new film, Dasha curates exhibitions that touch upon the subject matter of the movie.
Maryia Kruk (producer of the art project “Revolution”) is a producer of advertising, films and art projects. She was an executive producer and director at one of the biggest studios in Belarus. She works with European companies in creating commercials, creative concepts for international directors. Maria produces events and exhibitions that are organized as part of the political art project “Revolution”.
Eva Holts (1994)
Untitled
Photography
2022
Part of In the Corners of the Destroyed Project series
Country: Ukraine
Based in: Ukraine
Artist statement
Eva Holts creates collages based on photos of a burned-out apartment (in Kyiv) combined with pictures of Barbie or other objects. In this flat, she lived 4 years before the full-scale war in Ukraine.
Who lives in flats when missiles destroy them?
Barbie in a toy resembling a wire (rainbow). Near the burnt shield with wires from which electricity came
About the artist
“Iryna Holtseva (Ukraine, 1994), also known as Eva Holts, is a photographer and writer currently based in Ukraine. The artist completed her studies at Myph School in 2020. Holt’s pictures lead the observer into a disturbing world close to the Freudian uncanny so beloved of the 900’s Surrealists. Populated by inhumanly posing marionettes, whose fractured and eviscerated bodies create a disconcerting paradox between the sweet childish memory of the doll and their violent use captured by the camera, Eva Holt’s world provides us with a genres representation as raw as the animal limbs we also pictures.
With a successful reprise of feminine objects, which brilliantly twisted angle supplies with a sense of perishability and discomfort, the artist reuses some of the most popular symbols of Pop Culture (such us Halloween, McDonalds, Chupa Chups and many others) and exposes its pessimistic outcome, not only between generations, but also and foremost in human relationships. The “always nice and friendly barbies”, as the artist describes them, reveals themselves as perfect totems of mankind, in a punctual representation which reminds of other practices before Holts, such as David LaChapelle’s.
Eva Holts already exhibited at Myph graduates online show (Myph school and gallery) 2020; THE DREAMER International Group Exhibition (LoosenArt) 2020 (Rome, Italy); Online autumn exhibition 2021 “REFLECTIONS” D31 Art Gallery 2021; Festival of Contemporary Art CHANGE 2021 (Mykolaiv, Ukraine); VOGUE WEEK lll EDITION (Boomer Gallery) 2021 (London, England); Vanguard Locals. Festival of Street Cultures and Contemporary Art 2021 (Lviv, Ukraine); Rotterdam Photo Festival 2022 XL (Rotterdam, Netherlands)”
Text written by Gloria Campedelli, The Pinna
Hangama Amiri (1988)
Sahar, Nail Salon #1
282×388 cm
Cotton, chiffon, muslin, silk, suede, paper, clear plastic, inkjet prints on paper,
marker, polyester, and found fabric
2020
Part of Bazaar: A Recollection of Home series
Country: Pakistan
Based in: USA
Artist involved by the curatorial duo Exo Art Lab (Marta Blanchietti and Carola del Pizzo)
Artist statement
Please find the statement provided by the artist HERE
About the artist
Hangama Amiri works predominantly in textiles to examine notions of home, as well as how gender, social norms, and larger geopolitical conflict impact the daily lives of women, both in Afghanistan and in the diaspora. Continuing to use textiles as the medium, Amiri searches to define, explore, and question these spaces. The figurative tendency in her work is due to her interest in the power of representation, especially of those objects that are ordinary to our everyday life, such as a passport, a vase, or celebrity postcards.
She holds an MFA from Yale University, where she graduated in 2020 from the Painting and Printmaking Department. She received her BFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is a Canadian Fulbright and Post-Graduate Fellow at Yale University School of Art and Sciences (2015-2016). Her recent exhibitions include Henna Night/ Shabe Kheena (2022) at David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO; Mirrors and Faces (2021) at Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto, ON; Wandering Amidst the Colors (2021) at Albertz Benda, New York, NY; Spectators of a New Dawn, Towards Gallery, Toronto, ON; Bazaar: A Recollection of Home at T293 Gallery, Rome, Italy, and Reminiscences at Union Pacific gallery in London, UK. Her upcoming solo institution exhibitions will open in February 2023 at Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT.
Judy Mashnouk (1999)
Chaos
Oil on Canvas
150×130 cm
2022
Country: Syria
Based in: Syria
Artist statement
As a person that witnessed war, I was forced to leave my home multiple times, which created a sense of instability within me, at that time all I could see is boxes, we packed our valuable belongings in boxes and left, so now 10 years later, boxes remind me of that time and became a symbol of instability.
The reason why I’ve chosen this painting was mainly because it’s based on life events that occurred during the war in Syria, the title is “Chaos”, referring to the chaotic life I’ve lived moving from one place to another, being unstable and having our belongings piled up in cardboard boxes.
About the artist
Born in Hama, Syria on September 30th, 1999. Currently living and working in Damascus, Syria. Studied at Damascus University, Faculty of fine arts (2018-2022), participated in two group exhibitions in 2021 and 2022 in Damascus, Syria
Khadija Baker (1973)
Behind Walls/Maps
80 clay spheres, strings spun from clothing, sand, audio and video, variable dimensions.
2008
Installation view
Country: Kurdish – Syrian
Based in: Canada
Artist statement
Please find the PDF provided by the artist HERE
About the artist
Khadija Baker is a Montreal-based, multidisciplinary artist of Kurdish-Syrian descent (born 1973 in Amuda, Syria). Baker immigrated to Canada from Syria in 2001; she completed her MFA studies at Concordia University 2012. She is a core member of the Centre for Oral History & Digital Storytelling (COHDS) at Concordia University. Her installations investigate social and political themes centered on the uncertainty of home as it relates to persecution, identity, displacement, and memory. As a witness to traumatic events, unsettled feelings of home are a part of her experience. Her multidisciplinary installations often combine textiles, sculpture, performance, sound and video, and involve participative storytelling and performance to create active spaces for greater understanding. Baker continues her research creation at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture (CISSC) at Concordia University.
Maria Gvardeitseva (1982)
Migrant’s altar. Farewell.
Installation
2023
Country: Belarus
Based in: UK
Mohamed Murshed (1987)
A place where I could hide
Digital size 10254 × 8111
2021
Country: Yemen
Based in: USA
Artist statement
Please find the statement provided by the artist HERE
About the artist
Mohamed Murshed is a Yemen American. His work addresses his PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and how he’s processing it. He wants to find a solution to heal his Trauma, shine a light, and bring awareness to the worst humanitarian crisis of all time in Yemen. he’s exploring the mental anguish he felt and how he’s trying to heal. “Art saved my life.”
Mohammed Salim Khan (1998)
Untitled
Photography
2022
Country: Rohingya
Based in: Kutupalong Camp, Bangladesh
Artist statement
Here are some widows who really needs your support to Carry their families daily cost, every day they always facing challenge in theirs hopeless refugee life. They have technic and they know, how to make dresses, but they don’t have enough equipment to carry properly.
[I chose this artwork] Because she is from my community and same ethnic, as a photograph I wanted to show the world about our horrible life situation.
About the artist
“Mohammed Salim Khan (Rohingya, 1998) is a photographer and fixer living in the world’s largest refugee camp of Kutupalong in Bangladesh where he reports the condition of the Rohingya people that fled from ethnic and religious persecution in Myanmar. Far from the Western hit-and-run reportage technique, the artist documents his everyday life with outstanding humanity and opens the door to a new world. Paternalism-free, Khan unveils the life of the camp and the ordinary struggles and hope of his people, alternating everything with balance and naturalness and giving us a conscious and elegant insight into a completely different existence.
The artist says “Hopefully, my children will grow up in a different environment. One day they will look at these photographs and remember what we went through. I hope people will see my photographs and understand our struggles and the refugee life”.
Mohammed Salim Khan’s photographs have been published in Dhaka Tribune, Aljazeera, Southeast Asia Globe, Borderless360, AFP, and The Business Standard, among others. Recently, he took part in the “The Next Generation – Young Rohingya Refugee” exhibition held by the Oxford human rights festival (2021), and his work has been exhibited online by Rohingya Action Northeast England (2022).”
Text written by Gloria Campedelli, The Pinna
Naseer Turkmani (1990)
Faces
Scan, photo, painting, digital montage
2016
Part of the Identity Collection, Kabul
Country: Afghanistan
Based in: France
Artist involved by the curatorial duo Exo Art Lab (Marta Blanchietti and Carola del Pizzo)
Artist statement
Identity is a very strange word for me and a personal experience. I was seven years old when I was forced to leave Afghanistan with my family during the first period when the Taliban came to power. I lived in Pakistan from 1997 to 2008 and was known as an Afghan immigrant there. I came back to Afghanistan in 2009 and I was known as Hazara. In Afghanistan, having small eyes and nose means not being beautiful and it means being a second-class citizen. My eyes and nose are not relatively small, I have been told in many places that I am handsome and do not look like Hazaras. Hazaras in Afghanistan have been racially discriminated against for many years, during the time of Abdul Rahman Khan between 1806 and 1901, about 62% of Hazaras were killed and these massacres continue to this day.
On the 25th of august 2021, once again I was forced to leave my country again and was exiled to France.
About the artist
Born in 1990 in Parwan Afghanistan, Naseer Turkmani is an Afghan documentary film maker, photographer and visual artist. He uses photography as one of his main mediums to address the issues of politics, personal and collective identity, and how the state tries to use the idea of identity in the public sphere. His works have been displayed in Afghanistan, and internationally at the Munch Gallery (New York), Spazio Reale Gallery (Switzerland), Etihad Modern Art Gallery (UAE), Pavillon Carré de Baudouin museum (Paris) Niawran Cultural complex (Tehran), Dominique Fiat gallery (Paris-France) and Art Academy (London). In addition, he has had two solo photo exhibitions at the French Cultural Institute in Kabul.
Rand Alkatreeb (1998)
Crows
Printmaking – linocut
30 × 45 cm
2020
Country: Syria
Based in: Syria
Artist statement
Where time passes slowly but quickly, food is plentiful but expired, where beautiful things exist but are breakable. I am a different color and I don’t belong to a place where I feel everything, but feelings no longer matter.
About the artist
I graduated from Damascus University’s Faculty of Fine Arts – department of Printmaking. I finished the first year of my Master’s Degree in Printmaking and intend to finish my Master’s abroad, and I have been privileged with the chance to participate in several major artistic events in Syria and abroad. I spent my years in Syria witnessing human emotions, sometimes feeling every possible emotion every single day. Some things are not easily spoken, and some may feel heavy to put into words, which why I strive to manifest emotions on paper as my way to tell a story.
Shiren Hussain (1998)
Expectations
Oil on canvas
120 × 100 cm
2022
Country: Syria
Based in: Syria
Artist statement
I chose this painting because it focuses on the state of individuals that they have reached during those past years, the constant distraction and anxiety about life and the constant question of whether something bad will happen after that or not. A state of waiting and anticipation, as if those people in my painting were waiting for something. Are they waiting for the hope of safety to be fulfilled at any second, or are they waiting for the horrible events that they witnessed and lived to be repeated, and they are still anxiously watching for fear of their recurrence? I chose my painting because it reflects the state – fear, waiting, distraction, anticipation and anxiety – that was the product of the painful, insecure years. I am participating in this exhibition because I see in it an opportunity to share our thoughts and our emotional and psychological states with the world, we who lived through bad and unfair conditions.
I see in my participation in this exhibition an opportunity to present my case – my painting – in a neutral framework away from politics and focusing on psychological states, in which I may find many people participating with me and for those who were not given an opportunity
About the artist
I am from Syria. I graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in 2022 ، Department of Oil Painting . I participated in some local exhibitions.
Suleiman Suleiman (1991)
Takht Project
Chosen illustrations from the book
2021/ 2022
Link Takht Project BOOK
Country: Syria
Based in: Italy
Artist statement
The idea of the work talks about the bed in general. Filmed through personal experience of travel cases and the transition that took more than three years away the idea of settling in the family home or homeland. The project conveys pictures and drawings that express certain states of feeling alienated, lonely, and desired. From considering the takht as a transitional stage to another world far from reality, it conveys the situation with its difficulty or beauty. The project was presented in the mother tongue Arabic and Italian as the language of the host country.
About the artist
Suleiman Suleiman, 31 years old, graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Damascus University, Department of Graphic Printing.
Specialist in drawing, inks and traditional printing, His techniques are based on drawing, but rather for inks and the relationship of black and white with grays, through certain engravings to add colours and layers of drawings. Through his drawings, he expresses the hidden and subconscious feelings of a person during his journey and his previous life. The drawings contain creatures similar to that of a human being, but they are creatures without specific sexual identity to give the acute human content of feelings in general, not biased to any particular gender. Most of the paintings express feelings in a dark, elegant and dramatic way, to convey emotions in one way or another He participated in group exhibitions in Damascus, and a solo exhibition in Beirut Lebanon under the name (transcending).
Tamara Safarova (1992)
Bucha, Irpin and Gostomel
Digital illustration
Part of Postcards from Ukraine series
Country: Ukraine
Based in: Ukraine
Artist statement
Illustration from my project “Postcards from Ukraine”, which is dedicated to the de-occupied Kyiv region, namely Buch, Irpin and Gostomel. The three objects in the image symbolize these three settlements.
I decided to choose this particular illustration because I am originally from the Kyiv region, and this period (russion occupation of the region) was emotionally extremely difficult for me. Church of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, where a mass burial of victims of the russian invaders was discovered after the de-occupation. As a reminder of the terrible price of our freedom. After the exhibition of this illustration on the facade of one of Kyiv’s shopping malls, I was contacted by a representative of the Irpin Bible Seminary, which is also depicted on it. He expressed gratitude and delight of the team regarding the image. It was during that period of time when I was in a moral decline, and his feedback and support helped me realize the value of my work. AN 225 “Mriya” (“Dream”) aircraft is the largest and most powerful transport aircraft in the world, created by the Kyiv Antonov Design Bureau. It was destroyed during the Russian occupation of Gostomel, but it became another symbol of the indomitability of our people. “Ukrainian mriya never dies!’
About the artist
Tamara Safarova (b. 1992, Kyiv region) – multidisciplinary artist from Ukraine. Works with graphics, painting, digital art, animation. Her works are available in private collections in Europe and the USA. In her practice, Tamara investigates and searches for truth. The artist dives deeply into the depths of human existence and history to dispel the darkness around the truth and the essentiality of social and cultural phenomena. The development of critical thinking and the creation of discourse in society are the goals of her practice. In spring 2022 took place her first personal exhibition at the Kunstmuseum, Stuttgart (Germany). Tamara’s artworks from the series “Postcards from Ukraine” were awarded in the program with the support of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany. Lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Photo credit: the artists
