Artistic activism and satirical politics for change

The Syrian case imposed a form of traditional and rigid political performance due to its severity. But at the same time it witnessed an artistic and expressive movement, despite the limited work until this moment in the context of war and conflict, but its climax was in the days of the peaceful movement in 2011, where many were connected One of the nonviolent activities that Syrians practiced with creative work.

NESWA, act-1, and through its effort to support Syrian women in leadership, proposes a number of new mechanisms to deal with politics in relation to the Syrian situation, by exploiting the experiences of the participants and project managers in creative and public affairs fields, to present its question about the possibility of using creative and artistic work. To convey political messages by activists, and the ability to use political comedy to bring about some form of change within the current scene.

In order to understand the forms that can be worked on,NEWSA – act 1 – hosted in its second session two active models from Germany, Both guests are from the field of Aktionskunst, which are Die PARTEI and the Center for Political Beauty, presented their organizations, work principals, and explored the relation between art, satire, sarcasm and criticism with sociopolitical activism. They discussed examples of how artistic freedom makes political action possible

The presentations gave examples of how art legislation enabled the possibility of many actions to be taken and executed within the frame of art

This concept was completely new for most of the participants, leading to very interesting and creative discussions

We found that there were many impossible matters that could not be done by women, but since the syrian Revolution 2011 they have become possible. And now we are aiming for more impossible actions to make them real

The session ended with an open discussion about the implementation and strategic mechanisms that women leaders can follow in mobilizing public opinion, gaining support, the effectiveness of such actions in the complex Syrian context full of violence and political impotence, and the possibility of benefiting from other experiences and reformulating them in proportion to the local audience.