Cross-Border Art Project in the Middle East
The Cross Border Arts Project was developed as part of the Build a Bridge Campaign launched by the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures in the aftermath of the Israel-Lebanon war of summer 2006. The Cross Border Arts Project aimes to use artistic expression to reflect the situation of a society coming out of a major conflict, and to encourage social engagement and dialogue through participation in cultural activities. The first stage of the project took five artists from the Euro-Mediterranean region on a month-long tour of Lebanon, Israel and Palestine where they worked with local artists, writers and community groups.
In the second stage, the Art & Conflict Workshop and round table debate focuses on the role of art and culture in conflict situations. LAF is cooperating on the Cross Border Arts Project with the Anna Lindh Foundation for the Dialogue Among Cultures, Fondazione Pistoletto / Cittadellarte, Solidarité Laïque and Goethe Institut in Beirut.
In July 2007, four Euro-Mediterranean artists - Florence Aigner, photographer, Belgium; Said Ait El Moumen, dancer, Morocco; Isabel Andreu Roglà, video artist, Spain; Secil Yaylali, visual artist, Turkey - and their coach, Marianne Cosserat, Belgium/France, began a month-long journey to one of the most difficult conflict areas in the world. They travelled to The Cross Border Arts Project is part of the Build a Bridge Campaign, launched by the Anna Lindh Foundation in the aftermath of the Summer 2006 War during which hundreds of people died and thousands were left without shelter and basic provision. While humanitarian aid to war-stricken areas generally attempts to meet material needs, our campaign focuses on a different kind of re-construction, using artistic expression to reflect in a subjective way the situation of a society coming out of a major conflict, but as well to encourage social engagement, and to bring psychological relief. In each country the four Euro-Mediterranean Artists worked with local artists and set up workshops with local youth and communities affected by the military operations in the area. The activities in the three locations were coordinated by the Goethe-Institut Beirut in Florence Aigner is an audio-visual artist with an academic background in Refugee studies. She has been working on different projects in the Middle East such as developing photo workshops for Palestinian refugees in the West bank, a personal photographic work on the meanings of home for Palestinian refugees living in the region within the project ‘100 artists in Palestine’, supported by IETM. Now, she is based in Saïd Ait El Moumen is a musician, dancer and choreographer. After working as a percussionist for ten years, he decided to give his career a change of direction by taking part in contemporary dance workshops organised by some leading choregraphers such as, G. Appaix , Hella Fattoumi, Sam Louwick, Bernardo Montet, Mathilde Monnier and Fatou Traoré, to name just a few. He founded the first Moroccan contemporary dance company ANANIA with T. Izeddiou and B. Ouizgan in 2003. In 2004, he was invited by the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier to attend the EX. E. R. CE. training course for professional contemporary dance dancers. Since then, his work has been an exploration of dance, music and video art. During his first residency at the Pistolletto Foundation in 2005 he developed his main line of research which encompasses exchange and closer interaction with the public. In his artistic work He has worked in close collaboration with Fatou Traouré, Mathilde Monnier, the Cie Générique Vapeurs and Taoufiq Izeddiou, as well as taken part in the organization of the Marrakech choreography event "On Marche" in 2006 Isa Andreu is a Spanish-born artist currently based in For more information: Anna Lindh Foundation e-mail: solera@euromedalex.org / rasha.shaaban@bibalex.org - website: www.euromedalex.org/Networks in e-mail: il@beirut.goethe.org - website: www.goethe.de/beirut in e-mail: nurit_s@staff.oranim.ac.il / leerimon@actcom.net.il - website: www.oranim.ac.il in e-mail: gucc@mail.com - website: www.guccpal.org Tour Coordinator: Ms. Marine Cosserat e-mail: voila@voilavoila.org
Secil Yaylali is a visual artist from