I was born and raised in the 1970s-1980s war in Lebanon. My experience as a war survivor has marked my writing and art, as has fueld my quest for peace. As I see it, peace is not only about ceasefires, the end of bloodshed, the absence of hostilities, and a state of mutual concord between governments, as war is both “physical” and “psychological”. Peace is about accountability for violence, openness, generosity, clemency, and catharsis. Peace is and should be a transformation process within mindsets, a celebration of interconnected life and unity in the diversity of complex identities. As long as the legacy of violence is not addressed within ourselves and our societies, we will remain lost, cut off from connection, living in a never-ending apocalypse of carnages and tortured souls and bodies.
Dr. Pamela Chrabieh is a scholar, writer, visual artist, and activist. Author of several books and papers with a 20+ year experience in higher education, communication, content creation, and the arts, she has exhibited her artworks in Canada, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Italy. Previously Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the American University in Dubai, she currently owns and manages a Beirut-based company offering expertise in Learning and Communication. http://pamelachrabiehblog.com and http://spnc.co
Positive vibes, fruitful dialogue, critical thinking, and a beautiful blend of identities united in their differences around a common goal: building a better inclusive society.
Amazing day with the inhabitants of Qalamoun, shooting videos, interviewing “Qalamoun in colors” project’s beneficiaries, tasting authentic bread and lemonade, and enjoying the hospitality of the mayor and the locals. “Qalamoun in colors” is a Cash for work employment project that focuses on the rehabilitation and beautification of the Qalamoun market and public spaces. It creates ownership as youth and the community are actively involved in the design and execution of the project, generates short-term income opportunities, and aims to strengthen community cooperation. Implemented by GIZ Local Development Programme for Urban Areas in North Lebanon in partnership with Utopia Lebanon and the Municipality of Qalamoun through financial support of the European Union and Germany. #eastlinedigital
Duwama Collection by Pamela Chrabieh ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL 2019 – VISIONS ITSLIQUID International Art Festival Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi, Venice – Italy | October 04 – November 24, 2019 OPENING October 4, 2019 @ 6 p.m.
About Duwama
I was born and raised in the 1970s-1980s war in Lebanon.
War disconnects lives, memories, and experiences by creating endless cycles of violence, murderous identities, and wounded memories.
I have come to believe that these memories are inevitably transmitted from generation to generation in private and public spaces, and that socio-political conviviality and peace need both individual and national healing processes. Or else, the load of traumas that we carry will prevail, fueled by the continuous local and regional crises and State-sponsored amnesia.
Growing up in war left me with a thirst to discover the truth behind the endless years spent in shelters and displacement, the survival techniques I learned, such as how to avoid snipers and land mines, the suffering following the destruction of our houses and the horrific deaths of loved ones, the fascination with war games I used to play, and the hours spent with my parents trying to look for bread.
War has definitely marked my identity, world vision, and visual expression, and it has fueled my pursuit for connections between cultures and religions; the contemporary and the traditional; the physical and the mental; the visible and the invisible; the past, present, and future; the logos (word) and the eikon (image); humanity, the natural and the spiritual… My pursuit for peace…
Contrary to war, peace is the art of connecting. It is a continuous process encompassing historical subjectivities and energies in interpenetrative modes; a process of interacting dynamics, fragmented and common truths, voices, paths, and pathos.
A Duwama (spiral or vortex) is a visualization of this peacebuilding process. It symbolizes life versus death, positive movement towards the manifestation of connections, and therefore, towards forgiveness, healing, and conviviality.
Every Duwama is a story of transformation, from a shattered and disconnected situation, event, emotion or experience, to a connected realm.
Biography
Pamela Chrabieh is a Lebanese & Canadian Doctor in Sciences of Religions, scholar, university professor, visual artist, activist, writer and consultant. She has exhibited her artworks in Canada, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates, and has organized and participated in art workshops and art therapy sessions in North America, Europe and the Middle East. She was selected as one of the 100 most influential women in Lebanon in 2013, and won several national and regional prizes in Canada and the United Arab Emirates. https://pamelachrabiehblog.com/
OPENING: ANIMA MUNDI FESTIVAL 2019 – VISIONS ITSLIQUID International Art Festival THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space | October 03 – November 24, 2019 Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi | October 04 – November 24, 2019
ITSLIQUID Group, in collaboration with Venice Events and Ca’ Zanardi, is proud to announce VISIONS, third appointment of ANIMA MUNDI 2019 – International Art Festival, curated by Arch. Luca Curci (founder and director of THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space, ITSLIQUID Group and Luca Curci Architects) that will be held at THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space from October 03 to November 24, 2019 and at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi from October 04 to November 24, 2019 in Venice.
The Festival will run from May to November 2019, in the same period of the 58th Venice Art Biennale, “May you live in interesting times”, curated by Ralph Rugoff and organized by La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, hosted at the Giardini and at the Arsenale venues.
The festival focuses on the concept of ANIMA MUNDI, that according to several historical cultures, religions and philosophical systems, is an intrinsic connection between all living entities on the planet, which relates to the world in a similar way as the human soul is connected to the human body. Plato expressed his thought about the ANIMA MUNDI in the Timaeus, “this world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence… a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related”.
ANIMA MUNDI is the invisible energy behind all the natural and the artificial elements that allows the planet to live. Thanks to the hidden connections of ANIMA MUNDI, all the ecosystems of the Earth, before and after the appearance of the mankind, found their equilibrium, their ways to live and to develop themselves, to transform and to evolve. All the beings of the planet, plants, minerals, animals are permeated by a secret force that has always stimulated the human thought and research.
ITSLIQUID Group is running a charity initiative aimed to support some of the most important no-profit organizations that are internationally involved in the environmental protection, such as United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, One Tree Planted, The Ocean Cleanup and Plastic Oceans. This choice comes from the essence of ANIMA MUNDI in which everything is related to the living entities of the planet. Click here for more information.
organized by ITSLIQUID Group curator Luca Curci in collaboration with Venice Events, Ca’ Zanardi project manager Giulia Tassi project coordinators Amaride Ferrante, Virna Manattini, Gaia Persichetti, Viola Persico collaborators Ottavia Marilungo, Irene Scilipoti, Martina Moratello graphic designer Fabio Murgolo supported by Rare Art Inc., Sixteen, Soledad Senlle Art Foundation, St1
VENUES THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space Calle Larga San Marco, 374 – 30124 Venice, Italy October 03 – November 24, 2019 09:30 AM – 05:30 PM | Monday – Friday OPENING October 03, 2019 | 06:00PM Click here to follow our event live
Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi Cannaregio 4132 – 30121 Venice, Italy October 04 – November 24, 2019 10:00 AM – 06:00 PM | Monday – Friday OPENING October 04, 2019 | 06:00PM Click here to follow our event live
SELECTED ARTISTS
THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space Hala Alhomoud . Kuwait | India Blake Johnson . USA | Alexandre Castagna . Mexico | Izabela Chamczyk . Poland | Maria Clauss . Sweden | Benjamin Elron . Israel | Mehrnoush Esmaeili . Iran | Gabriela Farnell . Argentina | Stephan Geert van Riezen . The Netherlands | Basim Ghomorlou . Germany | Corinne Holthuizen-Habermann . Germany | Suzy Hug Levy . Turkey | Ewa Jaworska . Poland | Alice Karveli . UK | Kimberlee Koym-Murteira . USA | Katarzyna Kroczek-Wasińska . Poland | Nina Kuo & Lorin Roser . USA | Hyobin Kwon . USA | Jeongsoo Lim . South of Korea | John Lundquist Coey & Fredrik Sundqvist . Sweden | Małgorzata Łuszczak . Poland | Adam Marelli . USA | Catherine Meehan . Mexico | Vanesa Moreno & Nasrine Kheltent . Belgium | Elio Parodi . Portugal | Mr. Praphan Rakarin . Thailand | Jelena Rakić . Bosnia and Herzegovina | Marcos Rivero Mentado . Spain | Jacek Ludwig Scarso . UK | Deborah Sfez . Israel | Alex R. Small . USA | Sebastian Theisen . Germany | Fu Wenjun . China | Cutelyn White . UK | Haejin Yoo . Germany | Hanife Neris Yuksel . Turkey
Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi Misa Aihara . Japan | Natalia Alf . Germany | Hala Alhomoud . Kuwait | Vito Ascencio . Mexico | Ali Asi . Palestine | Ena Ban . Slovakia | Francoise Berlanger, Caroline Daish, Daya Halle, Katia Lecomte Mirsky . Belgium |Oriane Biangonga . France | India Blake Johnson . USA | Darina Bout . USA | Michele Brega . Italy | Edelweiss Calcagno . USA | Michele Camusso . Italy | Taner Çamsari . Turkey | Tommy TC Carlsson . Sweden | Izabela Chamczyk . Poland | Magali Chesnel . France | Pamela Chrabieh . Lebanon | Cía. No bautizados . Spain | Maria Clauss . Sweden | Cristina Collao . Germany | Ali Osman Coşkun . Turkey | Tomas Danielis . Belgium | Clara de Bobes . Spain | Raymond de los Santos . USA | Annamarie Dzendrowskyj . UK | Amani El Bayoumi . UAE | Haddas Eshel . Israel | Filip Firlefijn . Switzerland | Livia Freschi . Italy | RRicardo Garcia . USA | Danisa Glusevic Ferreira . Germany | Angela Götz . Germany | Marja Hakala . Finland | Allison Harrell Mistier . USA | Helen Adove Hawk . UK | Lukas Horst . Germany | Paul Howard . Australia | Robin Howard . USA | Suzy Hug Levy . Turkey | Monica Ikegwu . USA | Shlomo Israeli . Israel | Ewa Jaworska . Poland | Nick Kacic-Miosic . USA | Athina Kanellopoulou . Greece | Alice Karveli . UK | Alina Kashitsyna . Greece | Joan Kaufman . Canada | Zsuzsa Klemm . Germany | Kimberlee Koym-Murteira . USA | Katarzyna Kroczek-Wasińska . Poland | Marija Krtolica, Florence Benichou, Despina Stamos . USA | Nina Kuo & Lorin Roser . USA | Monica Levy . Germany | Jeongsoo Lim . South of Korea | Cara Louwman . The Netherlands | John Lundquist Coey & Fredrik Sundqvist . Sweden | Małgorzata Łuszczak . Poland | Michael Dwayne Markham . USA | Tabea Mathern & Matthias Heumeier . Germany | Petra Mattes . Germany | Richard S. McWherter . USA | Neva Mikulicz . USA | Judith Minks . The Netherlands | Minou Modarressy . Austria | Karin Monschauer . Switzerland | Vanesa Moreno & Nasrine Kheltent . Belgium | Alice & Sofia Nappi . Italy | Merel Noorlander, Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Artémise Ploegaerts . The Netherlands | Attila Olasz . Hungary | Setsuko Ono . USA | Elio Parodi . Portugal | Hannah Perry Saucier . Spain | Valérie Pitre & Roger Cournoyer . Canada | Jelena Rakić . Bosnia and Herzegovina | Magali Reales . Spain | Vincent Robbins . USA | Robert Romano . USA | Jordina Ros & Pere Estadella . Spain | Jacek Ludwig Scarso . UK | Madeleine Schachter . USA | Deborah Sfez . Israel | Einar Sira . Norway | Kerstin Sokoll . Germany | Nyk Sykes . Australia | Ayaka Tajiri . Czech Republic | Louis Thallon . Germany | Melek Toraman . Turkey | Estefania Valls Urquijo . Guatemala | Nancy Van Wichelen . Belgium | Anne-Kristin Vaudour . Hong Kong | Daria Vorobyeva . Russia | Cutelyn White . UK | Maciej Winek . Poland | Ai-Wen Wu Kratz . USA | Tina Zimmermann . Germany
Indelible is a new literary journal edited by my friends at the American University in Dubai. A special thank you to Dr. Roula Maria Dib for publishing a photo of one of my paintings and a short prose poem.
“Les portes”, by Dr. Pamela Chrabieh Oil and acrylic on canvas, Beirut – Lebanon, 2012
“Doors are the keepers of secrets, memories of the past and dreams about bright futures. Doors’ closures give the feeling of fences that speak. Behind doors, there are people who live, love each other, argue, are sad or happy; there are furniture and objects, sounds of voices, smells of soup … Doors are boundaries, presence, absence, call, communication, access, defense, rupture, transition, intimate, and universal. Doors are protective shelters, guardians of passages between the profane and the sacred. Doors are chances to do something different, they are places of departure and entrances into new worlds.
Doors are ecumenical images of life’s immanence.”
Dr. Pamela Chrabieh is a scholar, writer, visual artist, and activist. Author of several books and papers with a 20+ year experience in higher education, communication, content creation, and the arts, she has exhibited her artworks in Canada, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. Previously Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the American University in Dubai, she currently owns and manages a Beirut-based company offering expertise in Learning and Communication. http://pamelachrabiehblog.com and http://spnc.co
Dr. Pamela Chrabieh, a Beirut-based writer and activist, told The Media Line that young people in the Arab world are using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp and Snapchat at an increasingly faster rate despite government controls and restrictions.
“Several studies conducted in the last decade have shown that pop culture and social media have helped Arab youth express and promote alternative political and social discourses and practices to the ‘official, normative, and institutional’ ones,” she said.
Although social media offers opportunities for creative expression and interaction, Chrabieh explained, there are many young people who must use these mediums while constantly negotiating complex and layered pressures to maintain online identities that meet the expectations of their societies, especially in the Gulf region.
“Fageeh’s work [generating online videos, for example] is one of many initiatives in the Arab world that addresses social and political issues. In fact, there has been an explosion of artistic and cultural productions since the 2000s in the forms of music, poetry, theater, graffiti, movies, etc.,” Dr. Chrabieh noted.
“There are of course cultural icons or ‘figureheads’ but we are witnessing the rise and proliferation of cultural democratization and transnational cultures [global cultures], especially when it comes to street art, videos and digital expression.”
Popular culture in the Arab world should not be viewed as byproduct of the Arab Spring, she explained. Even before the uprisings, it played a significant role in creating social and political transformations in response to what she termed “Ottoman and European colonialization.
“Lastly, it is hard to characterize Arab pop culture as one category given the diverse political institutions, regional history and the many different discourses about identity. Nevertheless, popular culture can help make sense of this complexity.”
