An exhibition drawing attention to the plight of Syrian refugees is due to launch next week beneath Waterloo train station in London. The London-based charity International Alert is behind the show, Create Syria (22 September-2 October), which includes works by Syrian artists based in Lebanon.
Animations, photographs and audio installations will be dotted around the House of Vans exhibition space, which consists of a series of tunnels located underneath the train station.
The artist Abed al Aziz Aidy has produced a film in collaboration with young adults based in a Lebanese refugee camp. The work, entitled The Camp and the Stories of its Inhabitants is “dedicated to archiving oral memories and aims to shed light on the suffering”, according to a project statement.
The painter Mohamed Aloosh will show a series of works made in workshops for displaced Syrian children in Lebanon. "These helped develop the creative skills of Syrian children," he says. The Syrian animator Karim Qabrawi and Ossama Halal, the director of the Koon Theatre Group, will also participate in the show.
“A constellation will link together each of the Syrian artists and their stories, symbolising their shared hopes and dreams for a future without violence,” says the London-based curator Ying Hsuan-Tai, who has organised the show.
The exhibition is inspired by a project run by International Alert in collaboration with the British Council and the independent, Lebanon-based cultural organisation Ettijahat. “In Lebanon, the refugee crisis continues to put pressure on the country and its people, so the need to support both refugees and host community relations is pressing,” says a statement on International Alert’s website.