We leave Syria accidentally, I call my friend Ahmad, whom I shared with my studio in 2019. He told me he learnt to play ” Oud” by himself after he settled in Turkey along with his father, he was in Jordan before and they left the country in a legal way.
Ahmad is still the same, his only concern is the painting, almost all the time, and then came a few additions, paper, flutes, Oud…
There is something delicate and very elegantly Syrian surrounding this artist, even the instruments he chose to use imply that. Loneliness also surrounds him, us, once we leave the country.
This is a complaint about the inevitable price we pay either way, whether we stay or leave. this is a complaint that is so close to my heart because it sounds like my country from far away and also from the inside.
My name is Rand Ibrahim (b. 1993), and I am an interdisciplinary artist based in Weimar, Germany. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in
Drawing and Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus, Syria, under the supervision of Prof. Nizar Sabour, 2015. Additionally, I earned an M.F.A. in "Public Art and New Artistic Strategies" from Bauhaus-Universität
Weimar in Weimar, Germany, 2024, studying under Prof. Danica Dakić, Prof. Birte Kleine Benne, Prof. Ina Weise, and Prof. Alexandra Toland.
My artistic practice involves performance, sculpture, painting, video art, and site-specific installation. My work explores themes of oppression, its dynamics and intersectionality, as well as dimensions of holistic justice. I pose questions about the realities overlooked in the accelerating capitalist age, by using critical narratives, engaging the public and connecting diverse geographical, political, and cognitive spaces.
Personal and collective stories, memories, and factual data are transformed into symbolic, representative, or abstract objects, interactions and scenes, anything to serve deliver the feeling of an observer of our current day.