This performance by the Syrian-born and Cambridge-based artist Issam Kourbaj was created to mark one decade of the Syrian uprising. It was performed and livestreamed on 15 March 2021 – the tenth anniversary of the first day of unrest. Filmed during the second COVID-19 lockdown at The Howard Theatre at Downing College, Cambridge, it was watched live across the world. In collaboration with the composer Richard Causton and the soprano Jessica Summers, as well as Kettle’s Yard, The Heong Gallery and The Fitzwilliam Museum, the original performance also coincided with the artist’s display of 366 eye idols created from Aleppo soap (Don’t Wash Your Hands: Neither Light Agrees To Enter The Eyes Nor Air The Lungs, 2020) at the Fitzwilliam Museum (2 December 2020 – 5 September 2021).
In March 2021, Kourbaj said: “To mark the tenth anniversary of the Syrian uprising, which was sparkedby teenage graffiti in March 2011, this drawing performance will pay homage to those young people who dared to speak their mind, the masses who protested publicly, as well as the many Syrian eyes that were, in the last ten years, burnt and brutally closed forever.” Imploded, burned, turned to ash Performance, duration, 36 min and 8 sec.
The recording of this performance will be screened in multiple locations worldwide, including cultural institutions and churches across the UK, Europe, Middle East and USA, throughout Refugee Week (20 – 26 June 2022). The ash produced during the original performance will also be installed in a glass vessel next to the screen at selected locations, including St James’s Piccadilly, London, and Great St Mary’s Church, Cambridge. The performance will also be available to watch virtually on associated websites that will be accessible to anyone unable to make it to one of the physical locations. The idea of screening it in multiple locations and on the internet reflects the diaspora of many Syrians forced to leave their destroyed homes and erased cities, who are now scattered across the world, while the glass jar of ash casts light on war’s terrible continuity (even when it is no longer mentioned in the media) and the destruction of all cities and livelihoods, which we see repeated time and again (as is now tragically happening in the Ukraine) and throughout human history. Multiple screenings of recorded drawing and sound performance in various locations, worldwide will take place throughout Refugee Week.
In 2015, I supported Issam Kourbaj with the installation Another Day Lost:1579 and counting… The installations were over five several sites in London and celebrated during the Shubak Festival. This assignment counts to one of my most cherished projects.
Image: Issam Kourbaj 2022, Eleven years and counting, digital image, 2022.
Courtesy and ©Issam Kourbaj and Renée Pfister Art & Gallery Consultancy, 2022.
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