What does it mean to keep a library alive while bombs fall around it? To film a war through women eyes? To explore a river as an archive?
This dossier, produced by Ettijahat. Independent Culture and published in partnership with UntoldMag, brings together ten interdisciplinary research papers that document how in Syria and Lebanon artists, archivists, filmmakers, scholars and activists rewrite the rules of producing memory, meaning, and creative resistance.
The pieces are organised around three threads. The first looks at archives — institutional, environmental, grassroots — and the people who build them, from Metropolis cinema in Beirut to the Syrian Cassette Archive. The second focuses on women, bodies, and creative practice in times of crisis, from Syrian filmmakers after 2011 to Bedouin storytellers in the Lebanese countryside. The third turns to institutions, cities, and political movements, from the Damascus Theatre Festival to the slogans of the 2019 Lebanese uprising.
Together, the contributors make a case for plural archives, for narratives told from inside rather than from above, and for the stubborn work of cultural life in times of crisis and upheaval.
For each essay, the UntoldMag team prepared a long article summarizing its main points and reflections, that can be read online as the rest of our content. However, we strongly suggest downloading the entire essays, available as pdf in a link included in the introduction of each article, as they offer a much more complete experience.
Translation note: The ten research papers included in this publication were originally written in Arabic and translated into English by DOCstream, with the exception of the papers by Nour Ouayda and Nathalie Rosa Bucher, which were originally written in English.
What does it mean to keep a library alive while bombs fall around it? To film a war through women eyes? To explore a river as an archive?
This dossier, produced by Ettijahat. Independent Culture and published in partnership with UntoldMag, brings together ten interdisciplinary research papers that document how in Syria and Lebanon artists, archivists, filmmakers, scholars and activists rewrite the rules of producing memory, meaning, and creative resistance.
The pieces are organised around three threads. The first looks at archives — institutional, environmental, grassroots — and the people who build them, from Metropolis cinema in Beirut to the Syrian Cassette Archive. The second focuses on women, bodies, and creative practice in times of crisis, from Syrian filmmakers after 2011 to Bedouin storytellers in the Lebanese countryside. The third turns to institutions, cities, and political movements, from the Damascus Theatre Festival to the slogans of the 2019 Lebanese uprising.
Together, the contributors make a case for plural archives, for narratives told from inside rather than from above, and for the stubborn work of cultural life in times of crisis and upheaval.
For each essay, the UntoldMag team prepared a long article summarizing its main points and reflections, that can be read online as the rest of our content. However, we strongly suggest downloading the entire essays, available as pdf in a link included in the introduction of each article, as they offer a much more complete experience.
Translation note: The ten research papers included in this publication were originally written in Arabic and translated into English by DOCstream, with the exception of the papers by Nour Ouayda and Nathalie Rosa Bucher, which were originally written in English.
Preserving memory while opening new avenues for critical reflection, by documenting threatened archives, analysing artistic practices, tracing transformations in urban and cultural landscapes, or amplifying voices that have historically remained marginalised
Read moreDetailsAs dams drain the Orontes and deforestation strips timber sources, Syrian and Lebanese boatmakers' traditions vanish, erasing generations of craft knowledge that shaped communities' relationship to water and land
Read moreDetailsSix Bedouin women become co-researchers using photography to document their own identities, challenging urban stereotypes and reclaiming the right to narrate themselves against extractive research
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