Creating work about her village in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Syrian artist Randa Maddah works with memory, exile and ideas of homeland, explaining: "Those in search of themselves often cannot remember what was there before their countries were destroyed. All that remains is brittle flakes of debris invading the lacunae of their memory.”
Born in Majdal Shams, Randa Maddah (1983) studied at the Adham Ismail Center and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts Damascus University. She is also one of the founding members of the Fateh Mudarres Centre for Arts and Culture.
Maddah expresses herself through several media, from drawing and painting to film and video, frequently focusing on depictions of bodies and landscapes that have been warped by the weight of experience and are heavy with their psychological burdens. In one of her video works, she uses mirrors as different points of reflection, while in another she focuses on the ruins of homes that cannot become inhabited again – relating back to her overall themes of exile and memory.
Randa Maddah’s solo and group shows have included exhibitions at Europia Gallery, Paris; Gallery One, Ramallah; Espace Commines, Paris; and Faux Mouvement Centre d’art contemporain, Metz. She has participated in Palest’In & Out Festival in Paris and Morocco. Maddah was named one of the A M Qattan Foundation’s 12 Young Artists of the Year and was awarded the Prize for Excellence/International Grand Prize at The International TAKIFUJI Art Award, Tokyo.