Abounaddara

The Abounaddara collective whose works were on display on the Venice Biennial last year are now invited by the documenta 2017.  Abounaddara is an anonymous collective of volunteer, self-taught artists whose practice is founded on the principle of emergency and an attitude of defiance towards established powers and the culture industry. Since April 2010, Abounaddara has produced self-funded, weekly short films and made them freely available to the public online. These films are anonymous and open-ended. They offer a glimpse of ordinary Syrians without restricting them to political or religious affiliations, while focusing on the details of daily life and evoking horror without ever showing it.

2015 the collective had withdrawn from All the World’s Futures, the 2015 Venice Biennale’s central exhibition curated by Okwui Enwezor, claiming that their opening short film, “All the Syria’s Futures,” was “censored” by not being screened on May 5. In a letter to the Biennale’s organizers members of the collective expressed concern that their films will be “screened to the public in 30 minutes blocs, scheduled between readings from Marx’s Capital  and various musical interludes.” The group is also concerned that they were awarded a “special mention” without their first film being screened.

All the Syria’s Futures by Abounaddara