Majd Abdel Hamid: ‘Nothing is more present today than violence’

Regional Conversations is a new series of online articles by the Ruya Foundation. Through interviews, studio visits, essays and online galleries, the series addresses issues surrounding art and conflict in the region.

EXTRACT: Majd Abdelhamid is an insomniac. In the evenings, he trawls through Youtube videos and the news on television, collecting images and videos of the conflict in Syria. In the early mornings, he watches documentaries, listens to podcasts and embroiders, often for hours, before going to bed at sunrise. For the past year, the Ramallah-based Palestinian artist has been rendering war photographs from the conflict in Syria into colourful, abstract embroideries. ‘Why? Because nothing is more present today than violence,’ he explains while stirring his coffee during our meeting in Beirut ‘our world today is more violent than Europe was during WWII, but the violence is more subtle.’

Read more here: https://ruyafoundation.org/en/2017/03/4727/