On November 10. 2012 Ayyam Art Center hosted the extravaganza solo exhibition ‘Syria’ by Tammam Azzam, curated by established artist Safwan Dahoul. A show cascades the sadness and sorrow of Syrians who were forced to leave their country after the revolution in March 2011 and still ongoing. Over-50 artworks including installations and video art, Azzam shares with viewers his vision of the crisis as an artist, a Syrian who left his country & memories and as a human.

Azzam started working on the artworks one year ago, ‘Syria’ exhibits selected art pieces under three different themes where each hall in Ayyam Art Center was utilized for this purpose.

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The first collection of digital art works titled ‘Syria Uprising’ are an influence of different events happened during the Syrian revolution. The series include the famous ‘Bleeding Syria’ artwork, depicts the map of Syira covered with blood. In addition to the artwork, Azzam created a mural of ‘Bleeding Syria’. Other famous artworks that spread all over social media are ‘Cease Fire‘, ‘The Syrian Spring‘, ‘I.. The Syrian’, ‘Target’ and more.

Artworks in ‘Syria Uprising’ are displayed as a sequence; for example ‘We Were Here’ shows two children pointing on Syria represents the feeling of displace and fleeing from homeland, whereas the artwork hanged next to it shows hope and determination to go back to the wrecked home in ‘We’ll Stay Here’.

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Accross ‘Syria Uprising’ series lays the ‘Syrian Revolution Places’ series which is based on a facebook page by Azzam followed by the name of the area that witnessed the revolution, these retro, over-saturated works present an overall sentiment of longing, echoing to a distant past which no longer exists amidst the present turmoil.

Azzam selected 31 artworks from the ‘Syrian Revolution Places’ out of approximately 120 other. Each artwork illustrates only an icon famous in the area – ancient places, people, plants… etc and under each artwork the name of city, village hand written on the wall.

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Before you climb the stairs for the third part of the exhibition, at the end of hall facing the last 8 artworks of ‘Syrian Revolution Places’ you will stand against a video art inspired by ‘Truce’ artwork. The video was done by anonymous and sent to Tammam to exhibit it!

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The final part is ‘Syrian Museum’ incorporates iconic subjects from the greatest European masters such as da Vinci, Matisse, Goya and Picasso, paralleling the greatest achievements of humanity with the destruction it is also capable of inflicting.

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Al Mahha on Tammam Azzam’s ‘Syria’

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Although there is a variety of artworks, installations and video art, viewers don’t feel distracted or jammed with the amount of works because all fall under one major theme in a smooth harmonic way. It is obvious that there was a lot of efforts put in curating the exhibition to make sure that it won’t look disturbing, too much or irrelevant.

Azzam is known for his abstract works, but in ‘Syria’ he utilized digital art to serve a specific purpose. Digital art is a two-sided weapon that either makes a piece powerful or poor. In Azzam’s case, this method strongly supported any idea he creates! You look at a simple picture that holds a strong message, sometimes direct such as ‘Bleeding Syria’ or indirect like ‘I,The Syrian’, or sarcasm – contradiction meaning as seen in ‘Beautiful World’ picturing Earth covered with dirty flies! Azzam succeeded through his art in echoing his voice, thoughts & opinions straight to viewers presenting deep, meaningful and timeless art that goes beyond geographic borders. Moreover, documented Syria as a country and its revolution.

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The exhibition is running in Ayyam Art Center, Dubai, until December 31, 2012. Click here for directions.

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Cheers