Ayman AlAzraq

Ayman Alazraq makes films, photos, and mixed media artworks. His short film The Passport was screened at the National Museum of Cinema in Turin (Italy), the Cologne International video art Festival (Germany), among other places. His video and photography installation You From Now On Are Not Yourself was screened in venues in Spain, Norway, Denmark, and the Gaza Strip. In 2015 Alazraq’s short film Oslo Syndrome was presented in the Statens kunstutstilling in Oslo, Dubai International Film Festival, and London Palestinian film festival. In 2017, he produced the interactive installation WALL-1 in collaboration with Emanuel Sviden. WALL has been exhibited in various places, including; Podium Gallery, Oslo, 2017; Tabaklera, Spain; 2 Theaterhaus; Jena, Germany, 2018; Westfalischer Kunstvrein, Munster, Germany, 2019. Public Art Norway (KORO) permanently installed the work at the University College of Western Norway. You're going to miss me when I'm gone, artwork projection on the City Hall wall 2020. The film, Into My lungs was screened at Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo in 2022.

Images 1-4: still images from the film ‘Into my lungs’, 2022.

Motaz Al Habbash

Motaz Al Habbash works as an artist, producer and curator. Born in Palestine, he has been based in Norway since 2014. As an artist he primarily works with video, and aas an organiser he has been involved with large projects such as the mentor program Her og der - which supports newly arrived artists in Norway - and the artistic programme It's hard to be an Arab. In 2021, Al habbash curated the the exhibition Absent Presence at Kunsthall 3,14, Bergen, and his video work “Stolen Well” was shown at Trafo Kunsthall.

Diala Brisley

Diala Brisly is a Syrian artist whose artistic practice spans a variety of media, including animation, painting, conceptual art, illustration, comic books and murals. Social justice and freedom are reoccurring themes in her work which often highlights the educational situation of Syrian children, and refugees in general. Stemming from her own experiences, recent work explores themes of well-being and psychological issues, such as post trauma.

Image 1: It’s a baby girl, Lifejacket series

Image 2: Leave us

Image 3: Integration, Survival mode series

Yamile Calderón

Yamile Calderón is an artist born in Colombia who now lives in Oslo. She studied photography at Bergen National Academy of Arts. She was awarded The Art Photography Prize by The Norwegian Association for Fine Art Photographers for her work Accidentally I got a GoPro. She is currently exhibiting Oslo Stories at Carl Berner Project room. She has recently published her second photo book, Narcos & Homes which documents property of Colombian drug traffickers that has been confiscated by the government.

Calderon's work is inspired by her childhood memories and explores interrelationships between experience, memory, and social and cultural context. By approaching the documentary genre from a subjective perspective, she uses visual and narrative strategies to explore interpretations of reality.

Calderón has participated in various collective exhibitions and has presented her work internationally in Pingyao, Hong Kong, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Kiel and New York. In Oslo her work has been presented at Oslo Kunstforerning, Kunstnernes Hus, Galleri BOA, Noplace, Fotogalleriet, and Galleri Brandstrup.

Tania Cañas

Tania Cañas is an artist-researcher based on unceded Kulin Territory. Her practice looks at the relationship between ‘art making’ and ‘community making’ in the context of community- led methodologies at the intersection of performance, decoloniality, borders and displacement.

Her socially engaged practice creates dynamic community-led creative platforms as sites of collaboration, modalities of resistance as well as ways to rethink processes and re-cast institutions. Tania's unique practice develops creative processes that foreground voices as authors of their collective experience, actively reshaping the conditions of creative possibility within communities-rather than treating communities as sources of data for academic commentary.

She is the artistic director at Arts Gen, a community arts and health organisation, and leads the Performance and Community Engagement as well as the Social Practice courses at the Victoria College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. She received her PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2021.

Image 1: ‘ten things to consider’, 2016.

Image 2 & 3: “Unwelcome Mats”, 2015.

Jad El Khoury

Jad is an architect and visual artist. He holds an MA in architecture from the Lebanese University and a MFA in art and public space from Oslo National Academy of the Arts. His work has been shown internationally and he has received awards including the Institute of Public Art Award and the Arte Laguna Prize for Urban Art and Land art.

Jad writes, ”After studying architecture in Beirut, I have worked with traces of war in Lebanon, where I grew up. I am part of the first post civil war (1975-1990) generation. To me, transforming accidental monuments of bitterness in the city into choreographed installations dancing with the wind was a necessity. It is my method to poetically rebel against religious sectarianism and suffering.

My practice intertwines reality with fiction, facts with uncertainty, architecture with art, memory with forgetfulness. From illustrating repetitive meditative patterns with ink on paper, to temporary installations with architectural materials on contemporary ruins, the methods, research and mediums I work with are constantly being metamorphosed depending on the contexts and situations I encounter.”

Iman Jabrah

Iman Jabrah is a Palestinian American multidisciplinary artist currently located in Cincinnati, OH. She is a recipient of the full scholarship from China Scholarship Council, currently pursuing masters in Fine Art at China Academy of Art with a previous BFA in New Media Art from Northern Kentucky University. In early 2022, Jabrah received the Artswave’s Truth and Reconciliation grant to sponsor Amid exhibition during her curator-in-residence at Wave Pool gallery; Amid exhibition showcases artworks at the Cincinnati Art Museum by ten Palestinian women and queer artists from the West Bank and diaspora. Her latest exhibition was part of Women of Crypto Art in collaboration with DoinGud for the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Most recently, Jabrah is set to exhibit with the Professional Artistic Research (PAR-) Projects at Studeō PAR-, in July 2022 at Cincinnati, OH. Many of Iman’s initiative projects aim toward community; to build collaborative cultures and to continue to increase exposure to displaced Palestinian artists through shared exhibitions, residencies, and collective projects.

Image 1: Protest. Sculpture, 2022.

Image 2: drop. Sculpture, 2022.

Image 3: Woman. Sculpture Photography, 2021.

Image 4: Make America Great Again. Sculpture, photography & digital art, 2021.

Nastassja Nefjodov

Nastassja Nefjodov is a German-Russian lens-based artist living in the Netherlands. She graduated (with honor) from the Fotoacademie Amsterdam in 2021. Currently she is a participant in FOTODOK's Talent Development Program: Lighthouse and  the Graduate Mentoring Scheme 2021 from Redeye: The Photography Network. Nefjodov is also an active member of the online educational community and platform Work Show Grow School.

Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at festival Encontros da Imagem in Braga, Portugal (2021), Neue Schule für Fotografie Gallery in Berlin, Germany (2020) and  Rotterdam Photo, The Netherlands (2019). Her book My grandfathers, the war and I won the EI Photobook Award 2020 and her book Into the blue was shortlisted for EI Photobook Award 2021. She has contributed to publications including Mini Albums East Central (2021), United, Work Show Grow Publication (2021) and home is... of Julia Borissova (2020).

Her practice stems from her family stories which relate to ruptures in European history. She focus on the emotional impact, rather than factual, theoretical, or political aspects. Through her art, she wants to invite people to rethink history from a personal perspective of what it does to a person, to families. Not only in the present but across generations, as a second, often neglected layer of war stories.

The entry point of her projects is often the family archive, her and her family members memories which she then reflects on in combination with her own imagery and words. Another central element of her exploration is the immersion into the places of the past using the camera both to find traces of the stories and documenting emotions and reflections of the now.

The results of her projects often turn into three dimensional objects/installations allowing the viewer to experience the multilayered stories by stepping into, immerse themselves within Nefjodov’s world and therewith feel encouraged to connect to and to tell their own stories.

Image 1: From the book „Meine Großväter der Krieg und ich“ 2020

Image 2: Book: „Meine Großväter der Krieg und ich“ Foto by @the_bookphotographer

Image 3: Untitled, from the work „Ins Blaue hinein“, 2021

Daria Pugachova

Daria Pugachova is an artist, performer and art-activist based in Kyiv, Ukraine. She studied architecture at Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture. From 2013–2019 she played drums in the female trio Panivalkova. After musicians split up Daria dived into a field of contemporary art. 

In her projects, Daria uses participatory practices to unite a community and integrate art into daily life. She works with performance, video and artivism. Her artistic approach lies in the presence of the artist and direct interaction with the audience in public space. Her work explores history of place to awaken memories with the community, and to visualize its possible future. “By performing in public places, I connect with all kinds of people” says Daria, “Some of them may never attend exhibitions. So art should step out of galleries and become a part of everyday life, thereby changing it”.

Daria received the Golden Aesop Grand Prix at Gabrovo Biennial of Contemporary Art for the work ’Stones’ and the project Dasha+Zhanar. In 2022, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Daria left Kyiv and to continue her artistic practice in Europe.

Khalid Shatta

Khalid Shatta’s work is inspired by modernist painting, but also by the art of ancient civilizations and by the culture of his birthplace, Sudan.

Shatta says: “I’m inspired by painters such as Hussein Gamaan, Kerry James Marshall, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Paul Klee and photographers like Malick Sidibé, Seydou Keïta and Gordon Parks. Ancient Sudanese history is another significant inspiration. Being of Nuba descent, I believe in trying to uncover the cultural heritage we lost under Islamic conquest and European colonialism.

I am currently exploring a theme I call the migration of the soul – the sensation of being out of place. We live in a time where many people feel a disconnection from their own bodies and existence. I make use of ancient Kemetic and Cushitic symbols from the historical kingdoms of the Nile valley civilisations. I believe that everything is connected through our shared history, even in this chaotic state of migration.”

Yanina Zaichanka

Yanina Zaichanka is a Belarusian artist, currently studying for a BFA at the Oslo National Academy of Arts. Prior to moving to Oslo, she had been actively involved in the contemporary art scene in Minsk. In 2018-2019, she studied Contemporary Art and Drama at the European College of Liberal Arts, Belarus. Her work has been shown at two solo exhibitions – Freedom (of Speech) from the Unbearable at Pradmova Festival of Intellectual Literature in 2020, and Being a Woman at ECLAB in 2019. She has contributed to group shows, including CIAHLITSY - an exhibition of “queer art” - and Halasy - an exhibition of art de-stigmatizing people with mental health conditions.

Image 1: The Inhuman Face of War, 2022

Image 2: Still Counting, 2021-

Image 3: My Family’s Paths, 2020-

Image 4: Illustration for Paval Lubetsky’s essay Leviathan-2020: When They Are Eager to Make Sacrifice, But Are Sacrificing Others For Some Reason, 2020

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