THE NARRATIVE | Aya Haidar on developing a social integration programme for Syrian refugees

  • "As part of a 4 month residency, I was invited as creative practitioner alongside anthropologist Marc Higgin to develop a social integration program for 120 Syrian refugees newly settled within a local Scot community, across rural Aberdeenshire. We decided to bring these two extremely disparate communities round the table together by literally bringing them round a table. We set up No.11 Café, a donations based hub for local, vulnerable and isolated community members to come together, transcending language and borders in a bid to share stories, customs and culture through food and communality.”- Aya Haidar 

     

    Film by Mohammad Homouda, 2018

     

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  • The residency served as a pivotal moment for Aya, propelling her into the creation of two distinct bodies of work: the Soleless series and the Kiass series. These works were later showcased at 21,39 in Jeddah, KSA, under the curation of Maya El Khalil.

     

    Soleless series, 2018, sizes variable, embroidery on shoe soles.

    The Soleless series was produced in response to a three-month artist residency program with Deveron Project, working directly in reintegrating newly arrived Syrian refugee communities into the UK.  From this experience, firsthand accounts and interpersonal exchanges over the perilous passages ventured stories of separation, loss and everyday realities are intimately embroidered on the underside of worn shoes.

    Kiass series, 2018, sizes variable, embroidery on plastic bags.

    This body of work grew from the curiosity of identifying what people take when forced to leave their home. During a three-month residency program, working to reintegrate Syrian refugee communities into the UK, firsthand accounts were shared and this precise question was explored. With the vast majority of refugees fleeing with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a plastic bag containing ‘essentials’, this notion forms the central theme around this work. Plastic bags are commonly used, over an otherwise more practical suitcase, for fear of drawing attention to their fleeing which would be interdicted by the government forces.

    From period pads to cigarettes, needle and thread to a falafel maker, a Rakweh (coffee pot) to heart medication; these salvaged items span the sentimental, to the practical, essential and desired, each carefully embroidered onto their respective owner’s bag.