Charlotte Bank is an art historian and independent curator. She holds a PhD in Arabic from the University of Geneva, where she was a research assistant on the project Other Modernities: Patrimony and Practices of Visual Expression Outside the West from 2013 to 2016. She is currently preparing the publication of her monograph, The Contemporary Art Scene in Syria: Social Critique and an Artistic Movement, to be published with Routledge. Since 2012 she has been the co-director and curator of the artistic project space Art-Lab Berlin im iPhonedoctor.
www.artlabberlin.wordpress.com
Charlotte Bank, There is no Syrian Cinema. Syrian Filmmakers Since the Civil War, Sight and Sound Magazine 08/2017
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/syrian-filmmaking-act-resistance
Charlotte Bank, Wide Field of Vision
https://eng.majalla.com/2010/11/article55192713/wide-field-of-vision
The Things Left to Say. A walk through 40 years of cinema in Syria
Curated by Soudade Kaadan and Charlotte Bank
Film programme
Nidal Hassan, Salty Skin, 2003, 70’41”
Soudade Kaadan, Two Cities and a Prison, 2008, 40′
Hala Alabdallah/Ammar Al-Beik, I Am the One Who Carries Flowers to Her Grave, 2006, 105′
Khaled Abdulwahed, Tujj, 2012, 2’10”
Thaer Alsahli, MiG, 2013, 11’39”
Saeed Albatal and Ghiath-Had, Frontline, 2014, 12’40”
Bassam Chekheis, Waiting for P.O. Box, 2012, 15’41”
Bahraa Hijazi, Abortion of the Soul, 2013, 31’27”
Liwaa Hijazi, Haunted,2015, 112′
Ziad Kalthoum, The Immortal Sergeant, 2012,72′
Oussama Mohammad, Stars in Broad Daylight, 1988, 105′
2016
Syrian cinema belongs to the lesser-known film traditions in the world; it has even occasionally been called Syria’s best kept secret. However, since the beginning of the uprising in the country in 2011, more and more films by Syrian film makers are making their way into international film events and festivals. While the new productions present a notable change in Syrian cinematic practice, they also build upon the work of former generations of film makers.
The state had a quasi-total monopoly on film production in Syria for many years. But with an average output of one to two feature films per year (plus some shorts and documentaries), the production of the National Film Organization in Damascus remained quite modest. And yet, Syria produced a number of remarkable auteur films, aesthetically intriguing and politically surprisingly critical: a seeming paradox for a country firmly in the hands of an authoritarian regime. As film makers were struggling to create despite the rigorous censorship, every film produced in Syria can be seen as a victory over censorship.
With the new millennium came an opening towards independent film production, in part made possible by the facilitated access to new digital media. Young, aspiring film makers began to produce films and videos, often with a strong emphasis on documentaries and a search for a new visual language. While censorship continued to be an issue, the new generation strove to push the boundaries of what could be expressed and by doing so, provided an important basis for the strong, outspoken language of more recent production. Since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in March 2011, film makers are faced with the necessity to speak out against the ongoing violence, while struggling with increasingly precarious situations for artists and film makers.
The program, The Things Left to Say, presented a number of films by Syrian film makers, ranging from examples of auteur cinema over the independent productions from the first decade of the millennium up to recent productions that reflect on the ongoing conflict in the country.
Further readings
Alkassim, Samirah and Andary, Nezar: The Cinema of Muhammad Malas. Visions of a Syrian Auteur, London: Palgrave Pivot 2018
Bank, Charlotte: The Contemporary Art Scene in Syria: Social Critique and an Artistic Movement, London and New York: Routledge 2020
Boëx, Cecile: Cinéma et politique en Syrie. Écritures cinématographiques de la contestation en régime autoritaire (1970 – 2010), Paris: L’Harmattan 2014
Cooke, Miriam: Dancing in Damascus. Creativity, Resilience, and the Syrian Revolution, New York and Abingdon: Routledge 2017
Cooke, Miriam: Dissident Syria. Making Oppositional Arts Official, Durham and London: Duke University Press 2007
Dickinson, Kay: Arab Film and Video Manifestos: Forty-Five Years of the Moving Image Amid Revolution, New York: Palgrave, 2018
Dickinson, Kay: Arab Cinema Travels. Transnational Syria, Palestine, Dubai and Beyond, London: British Film Institute 2016
Halasa, Malu; Omareen, Zaher and Mahfoud, Nawara eds.: Syria Speaks. Art and Culture from the Frontline, London: Saqi Books 2014
Salti, Rasha ed.: Insights Into Syrian Cinema: Essays and Conversations with Contemporary Filmmakers, New York: Ratapallax Press 2006
Wessels, Josepha Ivanka: Documenting Syria: Film-making, Video Activism and Revolution, London : I.B. Tauris 2019
Where Are We Now? A New Physicality
Visual essay
Published in: Pas de Deux: 5 x 2 x 2, Mediterranean dialogues, argobooks, 2014
2013
The notion of public space seemed to undergo major metamorphoses during the past two decades, with buzzwords such as virtual reality and cyberspace implying that the space where we were going to live our lives in the future would be located in the non-physical realm of the artificial worlds created by scientists and computer programmers. However, with the disenchantments of the Internet as a free space of which the recent surveillance scandals are just the latest, and the renewed interest in real-space civic actions, it would seem that we are re-discovering the physical space of our towns and cities. The protests of Occupy Wall Street and its offshoots in European cities, Avenue Bouguiba, Tahrir Square, Taksim Square/Gezi Park, just to name a few, have all shown us the importance of the physical presence of masses of bodies in real space, and despite the current setbacks of these movements, they seem to have changed our perception of the term “the public space”….
PAS DE DEUX: 5 x 2 x 2 was a residency project encouraging Mediterranean dialogues between artists from the southern Mediterranean and curators from the northern and eastern sides of the Mediterranean Sea.
Participating artists and curators: Anna Raimondo (curator and artist, Italy), Younes Baba Ali (artist, Morocco), Basak Senova (curator, Turkey), Simohamed Fettaka (artist, Morocco), Yasmina Reggad (curator, France), Ismael Leamsi (artist, Tunisia), Charlotte Bank (art historian and curator, Germany/Switzerland), Younes Atbane (artist, Morocco), Nora Razian (curator, Lebanon), Atef Berredjem (artist, Algeria). They met for a two-week residency to create a dialogue about artistic approaches to the question: “Where are we now?”. That question – central to the Marrakech Biennale in 2014 – prompted collaborative reflections focusing on the artist’s creative process as well as on the curator’s more theoretical reading of it. The conversations and themes of the residency finally took material form in a book: each artist/curator pair produced an essay evoking the key themes addressed during the residency. The first book launch took place in Marrakech in February 2014, during the Marrakech Biennale.