Vera List Center Presents Exclusive Exhibition from Anonymous Syrian Film Collective Abounaddara

What: Vera List Center exhibition opening for Abounaddara: an anonymous collective that emerged at the onset of the revolution in Syria. Every week they post one video about individual Syrians on all sides of the conflict, providing an intimate record of this ongoing humanitarian crisis.

The exhibition, titled “Abounaddara. The Right to the Image,” opens with:

• A reception to launch the three-week exhibition of video and related content. Viewers will be presented with the first segment of programmed video installations surrounding the topic of "Subverting Images.” The exhibition is both an artistic and legal action that uses Abounaddara's films to reflect on crises happening around the world – connecting the Syrian conflict to what is happening in other countries around the world.
•   A prize ceremony to honor Abounaddara as second winner of The New School's biennial Vera List Center Prize for Art and Politics. The sole public representative of the collective, Charif Kiwan, will be present to receive the award and deliver remarks – along with Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.  Yoko Ono created the prize object.

 Cost:  Free

RSVP: Not required

Additional Programming

This event is the first part of a three-day prize conference: Abounaddara. The Right to the Image. For the remainder of the conference, there will be programming and panels grounded in the work of the collective, reflecting the themes of the exhibition. It will analyze various aspects of Abounaddara’s methods and connect them to other global practices. Panel highlights include:

• Portraiture and Participation
• Subverting Images
• Open-endedness as “Tactic”
• Ways of Organizing in Post Democracy  
•  The Right to the Image 

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More Information and Complete Programing: http://www.veralistcenter.org/engage/event/1979/abounaddara-the-right-to-the-image/

About the Vera List Center for Art and Politics:

Founded in 1992 and named in honor of the late philanthropist, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School is dedicated to serving as a catalyst for the discourse on the role of the arts in society and their relationship to the sociopolitical climate in which they are created. It seeks to achieve this goal by organizing public programs that respond to the pressing social and political issues of our time as they are articulated by the academic community and by visual and performing artists. The center strives to further the university's educational mission by bringing together scholars and students, the people of New York, and national and international audiences in an exploration of new possibilities for civic engagement.

About Abounaddara:  

As self-styled "emergency cinema," Abounaddara seeks to transcend mainstream war reporting by making use of both the wide reach and anonymity afforded by online video platforms. Collectively these weekly video missives fight for the freedom and dignity of all Syrians, implying that the Syrian revolution is far from "local" or "isolated," but is a matter of global concern and global doing.

The group's work depicts daily life in a society wracked by ongoing atrocities: a sniper – whose interview is intercut with images of a shooting video game – who estimates that he has killed up to 600 people but still cries for his wife's miscarried child; an "unknown soldier," depicted in shadows and tortured by memories of the atrocities he has seen; an Alawite woman discussing how she became a rebel sympathizer.

Their work is also driven by a campaign to defend the “right to the image” as a human right. They seek to counter mainstream media images used in war reporting with tactics that allow individuals to defend their right to a dignified image, independent of any political or media agenda.