General

Graffiti turned Syrian way to defy destruction

By Faris Rifai, Zamanalwasl, 16 March 2017.





Graffiti turned Syrian way to defy destruction


(Zaman
Al Wasl)- One of the Syrian revolution’s distinctive outcomes was the
art of graffiti that first used by a school children in Daraa six years
ago, such an inscription sparked the regime anger to start from that
date a relentless war on the Syrian people.

Graffiti has accompanied the changes in the Syrian revolution over the last six years, reflecting people’s suffering and hopes.

Southern
of Damascus had its own story about graffiti, as after the agreement
between the regime and rebels 2013 and controlling the rest of the
Yarmouk Camp for Palestinian refugees in Damascus by the Islamic State,
people lost their enthusiasm and fear of repeating the difficult time of
siege, therefore, they started to draw on walls to express their pain
and feeling and keeping the soul of the revolution in a peaceful way.

The
Revolution Spring gathering is a collection of 9 graffiti artists,
started its activities in the end of 2013, after controlling Yarmouk
camp by the Islamic State and displacing the majority of its population,
they wanted to work on encouraging people and give them hope, besides
keeping the soul of the revolution by drawing on walls to deliver their
messages. Their first graffiti was a picture named: “we and Yarmouk the
same, brother”.

Sami Darkashli, a graffiti designer within the
Revolution Spring gathering told Zaman al-Wasl that he can draw a
graffiti with very effective and important message by using simple
artistic methods, as such picture encourage people and increase the
feeling of solidarity with other disastrous areas like Aleppo.

“drawing
on walls in the simplest way to deliver required messages, away from
the complexity of Social media of other news channels” Darkashli added.

He
detailed that they have a designing team who decide what, when and
where to draw a graffiti according to circumstances, for example,
encouraging one are drawn on destructed places, while for delivering
particular message, pictures are drawn in busy places like streets and
markets.

Darkeshli confirmed that people had reacted to their drawing as some of them asked them to do the graffiti near their houses.

he
considered the graffiti one of the main artistic forms of the Syrian
revolution, as its simplicity facilitate its delivery to all people in
all ages, added to the familiarity and cosiness people feel toward a
picture close to them.

Mohammed Abo Qassim one of the Graffiti
team in the Revolution Spring gathering, considered graffiti as a form
of peaceful activity, similar to demonstrations and brochures, as it is a
completion to the primary revolutionary movement.

He added that
the “Spray man” who used to put his own writing and drawing on walls
despite the close monitoring of regime intelligence, using very simple
methods.

“but we first draw the picture on cartoon board, then we
make as template to spry in between spaces, then we add minor details
by using our hands.