A third edition of Artists Fellowships has been launched in 2023, with the participation of the following artists: Carla Aouad working with Lebanese artist, graphic designer, and illustrator Jana Traboulsi, Celine Aljamil working with Lebanese cultural feminist organization Haven for Artists, and Zein Majali working with Lebanese-American artist and musician Joe Namy.

Carla is a Beirut-based art director and illustrator interested in crafting visual poetry at the intersection of reality and fiction. She holds a master’s degree from the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in graphic arts and advertising (2015), and has been working since with communication agencies. In 2017, she set up monthly drawing concerts with a group of Lebanese illustrators, where she also performs. Carla published a short comic in Samandal #16, and is now co-editing Samandal #18 as a member of the collective.

Celine is curious about community engagement and experience design. She uses storytelling to navigate the world and writes narrative nonfiction essays as well as prose. Celine is currently researching ways of mobilization among art practitioners and cultural institutions in Lebanon.

Zein is a London-based Jordanian-Palestinian artist. Through video, sound, and installation, Zein examines the accelerated cultural shifts online and in the Arab World.

 

A fourth edition of Artists Fellowships was launched in fall 2023, with the participation of the following artists: Abdelrahman Dnewar working with Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Shawky Hassan, Lydia Mardirian working with the Arab Image Foundation, Samuel Georgy working with Egyptian visual artist Mohamed Abdelkarim, and Sarah Ibrahim working with Egyptian choreographer Shaymaa Shoukry.

Abdelrahman Dnewar (b. 1993, Egypt) is a filmmaker from Egypt based in Berlin. He received international recognition for his short film in postproduction My Brother, My Brother. He is currently studying at the DFFB Film Academy in Berlin.

Lydia Mardirian (b. 1996, Lebanon) is an Armenian-Lebanese researcher and writer who grew up in Melbourne and is now based in Beirut. Her research revolves around the affective, sensorial, and mimetic qualities of vernacular photographs. She has mobilized this interest in various research appointments, such as in her work for RIWAQ’s sibling project in Australia, Counter-Cartographies; and for the University of Melbourne, where she assisted in the development of an art history course on photography.

Samuel Georgy (b. 1994, Egypt) graduated from EDHEA in Switzerland with a Bachelor’s degree in visual arts and is currently studying at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. His installation, video, performance, and curatorial work approach with humor the themes of self-sufficiency, the creative arrangement of energies, and the training of the artist in movement and heritage vis-à-vis the culture of a given society.

Sarah Ibrahim (b. 1989, Egypt) is a visual artist who explores relations, connection, a body’s capability, attainment, lack of desire, and consumption and being consumed. She looks at how we move and movement in film. Currently, Sarah is exploring the body’s natural connection to the cosmos and ground.

 

This program is part of our project “Future Acts,” which is partially supported by the Federal Foreign Office, Germany.