‘Imagine leaving your home on a moment’s notice with some clothes, a few sketches and a cd filled with a handful of the 20,000 political cartoons you had drawn over the past 50 years. In 2011, the Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat left Damascus under similar circumstances. after he recuperated from being badly attacked and having his hands broken, his family felt his life was in danger and urged him to flee. Ferzat, a 2002 Prince Claus Fund Laureate, joined the thousands of other Syrians who could no longer remain in their country due to the violence of the regime. the more than yearlong uprising against the dictatorship of Bashar al Assad has left countless people homeless either as refugees or political exiles.

For those of us who have had the opportunity of working, researching or spending time in Syria, and getting to know the people there, the current situation remains untenable. The exhibition Culture in Defiance: Continuing Traditions of Satire, Art and the Struggle for Freedom in Syria reveals an incredible outburst of creative dissent under extreme duress. Some like Ferzat, started working during the long years of Hafez Assad; others like Masasit Mati, the group who produces the cyber puppet plays Top Goon: Diaries of a Little Dictator, only last year. The exhibition features a wealth of short films, animations, popular songs, graffiti, art, posters, and wise words from inspirational Syrians.’ 

From the introduction to the publication by Malu Halasa.