Life, Death and Art in Syria - Art Exhibition Organized by Fanack

Family Without a Home
by Rafaat Bilal

By now hardly anyone can deny knowing about the terrors of the Syrian civil war, which has been raging among different factions since 2011. The number of killed, wounded, and refugees has been rising over the years. Accurate numbers are hard to come by with various sources using different numbers.

Wikipedia states:" .....a 2014 U.N. study concluded that at least 191,369 people have died in the Syrian conflict.The UN thereafter stopped collecting statistics, but a study by the Syrian Centre for Policy Research released in February 2016 estimated the death toll at 470,000, with 1.9m wounded (reaching a total of 11.5% of the entire population wounded or killed)."

In addition, approximately 4 million Syrians are refugees who mostly left for Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. Then there are refugees trying to move to Europe, many seeking to go to Germany, but a smaller portion of approximately 40,000 Syrian refugees have fled to the Netherlands.

It is in The Hague, in the Netherlands, that an art exhibition, Life, Death and Art in Syria, is organized by Fanack, an independent online media organization that provides balanced and informed analysis about the Middle East. (Fanack is a content partner with Cosimo, with whom we released a collection of classic books about the Middle East. See also Syria, The Desert and the Sown, 1907 travel literature by Gertrude Bell of the highest order.)

In this exhibit, jointly organized with Nieuwspoort, the Dutch parliamentary press club, and art gallery Frank Taal,  Syrian artists and their stories are brought together showing their interpretations and experiences of being Syrian post 2011. Both images and stories are poignant and worth your visit to Nieuwspoort, literally at the doorsteps of the Dutch parliament in The Hague - till September 15 - or visit it online. If you want to meet the artists and hear their stories over a traditional Syrian dinner, there will be a closing dinner held on Monday September 12.