Omar Imam - Natalie Naccache Duo Solo Exhibition
08/04/2016 - 27/04/2016
In connection with the special events by Middle East Now, the international festival of contemporary cinema and culture in the Middle East, are two photography exhibitions present the conditions of the Syrian refugees aside from the numbers and statistics:
– “Our Limbo” by the Lebanese Natalie Naccache
The protagonists of the project are a group of young Syrian women – Diana, Tala, Nadia, Daniela and Sima – who grew up together and belonged to the middle class of the country, but left Syria just before the outbreak of the war to study in Lebanese universities. They planned to return to their families in Syria and find a job, but the war are preventing them from achieving their dreams. After the graduation, the group broke up and they moved to different countries: Qatar, Dubai, Lebanon, London and New York. In their new status as “refugees” they realize their privilege compared to other Syrians who no longer have a home, yet they still daily live with the psychological burden of not being able to return to their home nor express their feelings. Through their archived material, a collective diary, interviews, videos and portraits, the photographer Natalie Naccache tells their story.
– “Live, Love, Refugees” by the Syrian Omar Imam
Live, Love, Refugees overturns the normal representation of Syrian refugees by replacing numbers, reports and statistics with their deepest fears and dreams. In the Lebanese refugee camps, Omar Imam involves the refugees in a process of catharsis and asks them to recreate their dreams: dreams of escape, dreams of love and hate. The result is symbolic, and often surrealistic, pictures which evokes the deepest and darkest inner of persons that have lost their roots and struggle every day to survive. “The people I have met live nightmarish lives but in all of them I have always grasped the desire and the strength to continue living as human beings”.
A photographic project of the psychological impact it has to being forced to leave your country and the difficulty of adapting to a new one.
