A Poem by Maria Grazia Calandrone inspires Syrian artist Roua Jafar. It is called In front of Death.

The artists refers to poetry in her art work. In her interpretation of Maria Grazia Calandrone she finds a language of her own:

“Talking with the dead, the wounds, the vulnerable bodies around us, or in us, but with a different language. A language full of hope and color, and tiny happieness moments hidden in our resistance to loss.”

The Syrian artist participated in peaceful demonstrations in Damascus in 2012 as a student of Fine Arts and spend months in prison in the aftermath. She immigrated first to İstanbul and then to the Netherlands by chosing the dangerous journey over the mediterraanean sea by boat as an illegal immigrant in 2015.

After seven years she traveled the first time to Istanbul with a passport of the Kingdon of the Netherlands to participate at the Mahalla Festival. The Installation in a Classroom of the Greek Primary School in Kurtuluş consist of a Video shot close to Amsterdam, a black coat, she wore during the performance, and a clay mask the artists manifactured using motives of Shamans from Alaska.