“In wake of the Syrian revolution, I was forced to leave my country and travel to Germany, which created a distance between me, my real world and all my feelings and emotions I carry within [me] towards Syria,” Hiba Alansari reflects. “Maybe the exile helped me reproduce and describe the pictures in my imagination.”
Born in Bani Walid, Libya, Hiba Alansari (1983) attended the Walid Ezzat Institute and Adham Ismail Center for Fine Arts and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Damascus University. In 2017, she received a Master’s degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.
A multidisciplinary artist, Alansari addresses the violence of the Syrian war and her memories of trauma. After witnessing the devastation of explosions, she created various series; on coffins and corpses; performances and installations of the bombings; and mixed media works that ironically decorate the executioner-style masks worn by ISIS men. Created to mourn the dead while memorializing their lives, these works also convey her hope of finding a solution to the perpetual injustices of war.
Alansari has exhibited her work widely in the Middle East and Europe with solo and group exhibitions at venues such as Shedhalle, Rote Fabrik, Zurich; Ashkal Alwan, Beirut; Einstein Kultur, Munich; CAA Berlin; Salon Dahlmann, Berlin; Altes Gefängnis in Freising, Munich; Gut Altenkamp Museum, Papenburg; SMAC Gallery, Berlin; and Imago Mundi, La Biennale di Venezia, Italy. She has been awarded grants for her work from Ettijahat, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture - AFAC, The Goethe Institut, The German Academic Exchange Service - DAAD and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.