Damascus Walls

Damascus Walls is an exhibition of images and texts. It assembles fragments from home and reflects on how our memories of a city are affected by conflict and displacement. The exhibition navigates the journey of two characters: She, a Syrian traveller and He, a Syrian refugee. They both left Damascus, and live in a foreign city. She wants to go back while he risked everything to escape. Damascus Walls is a journey into their memories, hidden thoughts, and a look back to Damascus, through their eyes. These two humans are an extension of my soul; and their lives are inspired by many Syrians I talked to and read about, and also by what I lived through during the Syrian conflict.

The images I created for this project are photos of Old Damascus stone walls that I captured when I last visited home. I divided them into two visions: her colourful recollections and his grey and red thoughts. Short texts accompany the images and uncover inner conflicts and suspended questions that my two characters are dealing with since March 2011. This work sets what she remembers about her country up against what he wants to forget.

With this exhibition, I explore the new realities imposed on Syrians since 2011. The similarity and contrast between the ones who left before the conflict and others who witnessed the destruction. I try to uncover various states of being and what I think of as a mosaic of a truth.