kitev in Beirut!

Stella Cristofolini (kitev) & Mudar El Heiji (Ettijahat)

Zur geplanten Arbeit:

«Now T...here» is a research on what is happening within the Syrian society. A dig into genuine everyday life experiences under the conditions of war.

To stay or to leave? This is a question that touches every Syrian and, in a different way, European individual.

To stay or leave- the house, the city, the country? What is the moment that makes you decide? And where do you leave for? Do you have the chance to rent an apartment in Beirut, or do you have to go to a refugee camp? How do you leave? What do you take with you? How can your friends and family find you when you do not know where you will go? Will you go back sometimes? And how will your life change when you leave? Or when you stay? Your daily routine, your habits? Which feeling is strongest? Fear? Hope? Longing? Stand up for what you wish for or go into inner immigration?

Thousands of stories of that kind are happening in Syria every day…

Working together as Ettijahat and kitev (and lots of others) will give us the chance to look at these things from the inside and from the outside.

We will, together with young syrian writers and artists, search for stories around the crucial question of staying or leaving in different cities in Syria, Lebanon and Germany (interviews with Syrian people). We will put down the stories and other signs and try to find the right tools to transform what we find on the street into artistic expression, into an “artistic transformation of the collected materials".

About the programme initiative:

Tandam/ Shamel initiative contextualises the project. This initiative supports the cultural managers’ exchange between Europe and the Arab region. It gives the opportunity for institutions to produce joint cultural and creative productions. The initiative is supported by: European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam), MitOst (Berlin), Anadolu Kültür (Istanbul), Robert Bosch Stiftung (Stuttgart), DOEN Foundation (Amsterdam), Mimeta (Norway), Al Mawred Al Thaqafi (Cairo), starting from the Revolution of 25 January 2011, which led to overthrowing Husni Mubarak; the president for more than 30 years when the cultural policy of the country did not receive enough attention and development, to the contrary, culture back then was abused to serve the system`s political interests and propaganda to help it establish itself more and more.