from.sham.with love

“from.sham.with love” is an international collective committed to peace through art, with a focus on the Sham region.

While the conflict in Syria has been going on for four years and the “international community” loses interest in it, the Syrian civil society does not give up its faith in life. Its artists, from inside and outside Syria, keep on creating. Their works bring us some alternative representations to the sadly widespread war images and give us the opportunity to improve our understanding of the situation. Art, as an universal language, is able to build bridges between cultures and expose their similarities. It also constitutes an immortal registration of the period for future generations.

We aspire to create a space of reconciliation through art, a window of expression for artists who agree to share their work with the world. Art has charms to soothe the savage breast. We want to promote them in order to show how human beings are able to develop the best achievement of humanity in its worst situation and prove that art can remain the only beacon of hope in the darkness.

Artworks shared here will help us to think about what is the role of art in a conflictual environment and what is the impact of it on the creative process. Does the conflict inspire artists consciously or not? Do artists decide to commit through their work and use art as a peaceful means of resistance against the war or for one of the warring parties? Or do they choose to develop an “art for art’s sake” conception and consider their production as an escape to the horror of the reality?

As peace defenders and reconciliation seekers, we stay non-partisan and we do not promote propaganda. We also insist on exposing all artistic disciplines to reveal the diversity and high creativity of artists.

We dedicate our website to the people in Syria and the whole Sham region.