Loading ...The last refuge? Zaatari camp art preserves Palmyra and Syria's lost treasures
When a team of young Syrian artists living in Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp set out to preserve the rich cultural heritage of their besieged homeland, they had no idea the sites would be wiped out by war, or how prescient their project would prove to be.
The group began a project last year to create a gallery of paintings and models of the growing roster of at-risk antiquities, hoping that refugee parents living in the camp would view the exhibition and share their triggered memories with their children.
According to UNESCO, at least five of Syria’s six World Heritage sites have been irreparably damaged after clashes among Daesh (ISIS), rebels and Assad regime forces.
More than half of the 80,000 refugees in Zaatari, the world’s second-largest refugee camp, are under 17 years old, according to the World Health Organization. Since most of the population is too young to remember much about the nation their families fled, the project would bring some of Syria’s history to life.
The artists are members of “Art from Za’atari,” a camp club for young refugees organized by NGO International Relief and Development. Many are former art students and teachers whose careers were derailed by civil war.
Source: www.albawaba.com