Yara Said
Syria/SOCIAL DESIGN/
Yara’s body of work encompasses diverse media, subjects and methods, such as music production and sound design, film and video production, DJing, live performance and painting, as well as education and community organization with the Salwa Foundation, which she co-founded in 2019. In 2020 Yara graduated from the Sandberg Institute's Fine Arts master's degree, with research into sound as a tool for contemporary emancipatory practices. This topic arose from her own experience and memory of sound and noise, confronted with the oppressive systems at play in both the Middle East and Europe.
Said's work revolves around violence, disruption and interference, and seeks ways to transcend identity politics. It addresses the trauma caused by "sound terrorism" and the suppression of freedom of expression that populations face. Yara believes there is a lack of research on these issues, and when there is, often produced from a Eurocentric point of view.
PRESENTING
“The last supper”, an interactive installation, is an iteration of the project child’s play that invited people to experience a dinner that almost never happened.
An audio-visual installation where people can experience the objects arranged in the room, stimulating all senses, taste, touch, hearing, smell, and seeing.
The objects have been collected by the artists following the ancient art of memory; these images that she manipulated are planted in the installation room to invoke imaginative pictures by adding sound.
The audience is invited to share the memory of the artists from her early memories when she was a child to when she left her home town. Because of that, the work is never finished; every time the artists stumbled upon a Middle Eastern supermarket, these different small spaces and encounters can hardly encapsulate a full, once vibrant country.
Stimulating and facilitating top talent with affordable living and working space, a budget, and a network – that is the goal of the 3Package Deal. This successful program of the Amsterdam Fund of the Arts (AFK) and Bureau Broedplaatsen in collaboration with renowned Amsterdam institutions is now regarded as the best practice in the field of talent development.
The Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK) invests in the arts which enrich the experience of life in the city of Amsterdam. The AFK encourages the quality, dynamism and diversity of the arts in Amsterdam, and contributes to the city's strong and richly varied cultural climate. The fund is available to all disciplines within the cultural sector, for cultural organizations and artists. The AFK supports both experimentation and proven quality, established organizations and those that are relatively new, the professional arts and amateur arts - from every district of the city. As a metropolitan cultural fund, the AFK offers support to high-quality cultural activities, it functions as a booster for the arts within the city and is an investor in a sustainable future for the cultural sector.
Bureau Broedplaatsen is part of the municipality of Amsterdam. Its task is to realize more affordable studios and (residential) workspaces for artists and incubator groups. Bureau Broedplaatsen does this in collaboration with target group organisations, city districts, central services, corporations, real estate agents, developers, and banks.
We thank our partners, the renowned Amsterdam cultural institutions listed below who take part in the 15 coalitions that select the participating artists and provide them with guidance and a supportive network. They are of vital importance to the program.
Film and Interactive Media: Filmacademie / IDFA / EYE / Fashion: HTNK / OSCAM / AMFI Visual Art: FOAM / Rietveld Academie / De Appel Arts Centre / Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam / Kunstverein / Rijksakademie / Engaged Art: Veem House of Performance / De Balie / De Ateliers / Urban Realm: NDSM-Werf / Over het IJ Festival / Das Arts (AHK) / Theatre: Academie voor Theater en Dans/ Amerpodia / Theater Bellevue / Dance: ICK Artist Space / Frascati Theater / AHK / SNDO (AHK Dans) / Music: Conservatorium Amsterdam / Muziekgebouw aan het IJ / Melkweg / Cabaret: Academie voor Theater en Dans / De Kleine Komedie / Amsterdams Kleinkunst Festival / Interhistoricity: Oude Kerk / Museum van Loon / H401 / Reinwardt Academie / Publishing Performance: Werkplaats Typografie (ArtEz) / If I Can’t Dance / Sandberg Instituut – Critical Studies / Social Design: Waag / Hackers&Designers / Framer Framed / Self-taught: Likeminds / Theater Bellevue / Theater De Meervaart / Bio Art and Design: Waag / Mediamatic/ VU Amsterdam
Event credits:
Curated by Bogomir Doringer.Event production by Rafael Kozdron.
Felix Meritis production by Rivka van der Berg.
Press contact: Charlie Thole (AFK.
Project leaders: Johanna Brils (AFK) and Naïma Bouchtaoui (Bureau Broedplaatsen).