M3 from Damascus

Apr 1

Year: 2021

Location : Multimedia Virtual Installation

Support: Culture Resource granted to Iyas Shahin

Prepared and edited by Iyas Shahin

“M3 from Damascus” is a participatory visual arts project concerned with borders, what they imply and how we perceive them. The indicated cubic meter resembles a volumetric formula with spatial dimensions (BORDER, MEMORY, TIME).

Through the virtual borders that the cube derives from Damascus, it intends to express barriers that confine us, edges we fear to cross, the brink of the abyss, a new lifetime, furthermore a goal we seek. M3 exemplifies an interpretive project in which participants venture to determine their borders amidst restrictions and insulation, boundaries that intend to define identity, the name of place and affiliation.

As a motivational workshop that aims to provoke reflection and imagination of its participants, the work is based on proposing a hypothesis related to its expression form; a cube within its defined dimensions (borders, memory, time) tends to express remarkable stories - experiences — states — intensively within the bounds of its realm.

To a certain extent, one can define M3 as an experimental visual artwork that attempts to observe multiple interpretations of boundaries in the eyes of a group of individuals within the borders of Syria and across - residents, refugees, migrants, and stranded at the lines. It additionally attempts to illuminate a reciprocal and changeable relationship of the borders as lines that store many concepts of forced change.

Where identity follows the side of the limits appears contradictory images of emptiness and crowding, stillness and movement, crisis and salvation, from Damascus and the diaspora.

my process developed in unexpected ways as it began to resemble an artistic and architectural adventure. The narrative of M3 proceeded to evoke the memory of a group of participants whose stories inspired me with cubic lines and features

Participants

Tala Shams El Din | Exile

Maria Al-Saleh |Water Tank

Karim Al Mouti | Abstract memories

Zaher joban | Inside My Memory Cube

Sidra Al-Ayoubi | Intense scene

Bilal Sweid | Cube of Pillows

Niewroz Monther | Dice Player

Ola Sorour Al Mallah | Cube Doors

Raneem Al-Rifai| Virtual Cube

Muslim Al riz - | Another Face

Leen Gheibeh | A Queue