Ettijahat participates in a panel session and workshop in Slovakia

Represented by the executive director, Abdullah Al Kafri, Ettijahat-Independent Culture will participate in a panel session on Strategies of Survival: Independent Syrian Cultural Work in Slovakia supported by The Goethe Institut in Bratislava, on November 23^rd, 2016.

The session aims to share Ettijahat’s experience in exploring effective approaches to cultural work despite the crises the Syrian cultural sector suffers, to develop cultural and art practices; and to look at the challenges of working in times of political and social change.

The session will focus on Ettijahat’s experience since 2012 in empowering the independent Syrian cultural sector, considering the challenges and dangers civil activists face, through studying the case of an agreed upon document on the priorities of Syrian cultural work, made by the organisation.

Ettijahat will also organise the hands-on workshop, Outside the Box. It aims at working with artists and independent cultural organisations in Slovakia to share experiences that may be useful to the development of independent cultural actors’ work. Syrian artists will be invited to participate, organise cultural events, and benefit from creative retreats.

The workshop will focus on the major changes that occurred to the Syrian independent cultural sector, before and after 2011. It will also work on identifying problems and will suggest mechanisms to solve them by being open to independent experiences in other countries that have seen, or been seeing, profound changes in the role of culture, namely Slovakia. The workshop is an opportunity to develop joint mechanisms to support Slovakian and Syrian artists, and learning from the experiences of independent artists in Slovakia to develop alternative, effective mechanisms.