BEGINNING

13 Sept - 07 Dec 2014

A group of Norwegian and Danish artists circle about the Syrian colleague, poet Moustafa al Yassin. The story is personal and universal. How do we maintain our identity and how can the faith in the future be retrieved after a fate of exile and separation from family? Will there be a spring, when winter is over? Participants: Gerda Thune Andersen (DK), Annette Skov (DK), Tine Kjølsen (DK), Tormod Solløs (N), Meta Norheim (N), Marit Benthe Norheim (N / DK), Hagbart Solløs (N) and Moustafa al Yassin (SYR / FIN / N).

THE POTENTIAL OF NARRATION

The exhibition BEGINNING raises the question of what happens when cultural heritage, architecture, cities, life, and places disappear as has been the case in the now molten-down country of Syria. Can the locations be conjured back through narration and reconstructed through recollection? Can mankind reconstruct the locations and thus the lost values by narrating them back?

THE NEW FAMILY

Norwegian and Danish artists with many personal mutual connections meet like a family of the spirit. They all revolve around the colleague, Syrian poet Moustafa al Yassin, and his story. Moustafa hails from the now vanished Syrian city of Homs. Artistically, he has become a spellbinding storyteller.

THE ARTISTS

The artists represented in the exhibition are: Gerda Thune Andersen (DK), Tine Kjølsen (DK), Annette Skov (DK), Marit Benthe Norheim (N/DK), Meta Norheim (N), Tormod Solløs (N), Hagbart Solløs (N), and Moustafa al Yassin (SYR/FIN/N). 

A DIFFERENT WORLD

Moustafa has given his Norwegian and Danish family an insight into a different world. – A world in which his country and family play an important role, even though he has been separated from them for more than 25 years. He left a Syria that was already then marked by threats and terror against those of “the wrong mindset”. His parents died during his exile, one brother was killed in the recent Syrian war, and another brother and his family recently managed to flee the country. His Syrian family believes in freedom, and they pay the price.

The presentation of the works differs widely. There are movies, installations, sculpture, graphics, painting, and photos. Visual art even meets with the expression of poetry. In this landscape, one can wander, find narrative, consolation, and hope from artist to spectator, from human being to human being.

BEGINNING is supported by the Committee of Culture-, Leisure- and Sport in Silkeborg Municipality and the Oticon Foundation.