Preview
Image Date
2-3-2020
Description
Sinan Hussein (Iraq) Just a Concert 2018, acrylic on canvas
Exhibit Date
February 3 – June 9, 2020
Exhibit Description
Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me) is a culmination of curator Biba Sheikh’s collaborations with Mediterranean refugees, thirteen Arab-world artists have created a body of work that weaves her poetic texts, shared immigrant experiences, and their own testimonies into visual works of art. Collectively, they illuminate stories of indignation, systemic discouragement, human trafficking, gender biases, exodus, and survival of life as human flotsam in an ever changing, turbulent political ocean. Together with Sheikh, the artists are discussing Refugees, America, and Cultural Hybrid Theories. The artists of Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me) communicate through a variety of media delivering messages rich in thematic subjects. One theme that dominates the refugee experience, that of landscape arrives on canvas where architecture, political apparatuses and history are dismantled with the destructive revelry of a toddler. The theme of landscape is revisted by several participants with such concerns as the constant metamorphosis of social structure, moving boundaries between capitalism and culture, war, and the facets of the human psyche. Sheikh spent years conducting ‘creative interventions’ with Syrian refugee youth detained on the Greek island of Mykonos and in Athens, and Beirut. Certain of the healing property of story telling, Sheikh has employed Hakawati (a traditional storytelling platform that engages the community in problem solving), dance, art, and sound to assist the youth in finding their own voice of liberation. The resulting script of Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me) is a theatrical fusion of personal reflection melded with Arab flamenco rhythms and sound poetry which will be used in continuing workshops with youth refugees. The artists of this exhibition, many of whom are current residents of occupied territories and refugee camps, include: Hani Alqam (Jordan), Thameur Mejri (Tunisia), Sinan Hussein (Iraq), Taghlib Oweis (Jordan), Wael Darweish (Egypt), Ahmed Nagy (Egypt), Klaudja Sulaj (Albania), Lucas Paleocrassas (Greece), Manal Kortam (Lebanon), Abbas Yousif (Bahrain), Basel Uraiqat (Jordan), Mohammed Al Hawajri (Palestine), Haitham Khatib (Syria), May Murad (Palestine), Hassan Meer (Oman). All have been given a voice through this Detroit based endeavor. in Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me), we have witness to how their situations reverberate with refugees world-wide.
Recommended Citation
Sheikh, Biba, "Mediterranean Fire, Mitli Mitlak (Like You, Like Me)" (2020). Past Exhibitions. 41, Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University.
https://scholarship.depauw.edu/peeler_exhibit/41
Medium
Sinan Hussein (Iraq) Just a Concert 2018, acrylic on canvas