Contemporary Artists from Syria
Imago Mundi - Luciano Benetton Collection

Texts by Luciano Benetton, Donatella Della Ratta, Malu Halasa

140 works that Imago Mundi collected between the spring and summer of 2015 thanks to the commitment and enthusiasm of a tenacious and courageous human chain. A unique collection that, right from its title, tells the story of a Syria that exceeds the boundaries of common perceptions and the news reports: war, destruction, refugees pressing at our borders. For beyond this physical and metaphorical frame is a country that responds to the conflicts and the paralysis of diplomacy with the force of beauty, with the vital passion of art. There are painters, illustrators, cartoonists, photographers, poets, calligraphers, actors and theatre directors, street artists and video makers who still explore, see and express themselves. And above all they create, even without electric lighting, even under the bombardments, to bring us an extraordinary culture and the hopes, but also the pain, of a people who want to cease being the victim and become instead the protagonist of their own fate.

Syria off frame is an Imago Mundi collection, a cultural, democratic, global, non-profit project, promoted by Luciano Benetton with the aim of creating the widest possible mapping of the different contemporary artistic experiences of our world. In Imago Mundi, each country is represented by the works of established artists and new talents, commissioned with the maximum freedom of expression, whose only constraint is the 10x12 cm format.

 www.imagomundiart.com is the web platform of the entire project.