zad: miles for connection

Zad is a support framework designed to promote mobility and communication for artists from the Arab region residing in Europe. Its main objective is to develop their artistic and professional path in collaboration with their peers and across various artistic spaces and platforms. Additionally, Zad assists artists in reaching and engaging with different types of audiences, all while enhancing their contributions to public life within the cities and countries in which they reside and work.

Zad embraces the right to freedom of movement and considers it a vital opportunity for a generation of artists who were forced to relocate to Europe, mainly from the Levant region and from conflict-affected countries in the Arab region. It believes that overcoming any obstacles hindering artists’ engagement with the artistic scene in Europe and its audiences, including those who migrated from the Arab region, is essential for preserving the artists’ intellectual and critical presence in the discussions taking place at both artistic and public levels in their new places of residence.

The Arab region has witnessed consecutive waves of migration over the past decade, bringing forth generations of experienced and gifted artists who are now embarking on their creative journeys in their new cities. In most cases, the transition period proved to be challenging. It was marked by feelings of isolation and a scarcity of opportunities, necessitating a prolonged period of time to overcome the challenges and complexities of relocation. Many artists were able to enter the cultural and artistic scene in Europe, yet they found themselves facing complex challenges, including ones related to the mechanisms of production and representation, language, and the location of the Arab arts audiences in Europe.

These artists are currently facing new issues and challenges. Those include the exacerbation of Covid-19 repercussions and its disproportionate impact on them compared to their peers, the decline in interest in the Arab World’s issues amidst the emergence of new priorities in European contexts, the persistent economic recession and rising inflation rates impacting consumer spending and their influence on the prioritization of financing cultural asylum-related projects, the mounting threats to freedom of expression, and the difficulties associated with the artistic platforms that connect them to each other and to communities of Arab origins scattered across Europe. All of the above is accompanied by the rise of right-wing parties and their commitment to exclusionary and expulsive narratives. Under such circumstances, it becomes more and more necessary to create opportunities, foster solidarity, provide critical and open platforms, and create links that bring these artists together with the various societies in Europe, so that they continue to create, innovate, and retain their beliefs within the various societies and audiences they wish to address.

Zad supports the mobility of artists, individuals and artistic groups from the Arab region who are currently residing in Europe, regardless of their ethnicity. This support covers all artistic and literary specializations and is open to individuals of all ages. Some examples of this support include: presenting theatrical works and live artistic performances, concerts at music festivals, streaming films in cities and places where they have not previously been streamed, organizing or joining literary readings, organizing and relocating art exhibitions, and sharing the outcomes of artist residencies.