“Message of peace”,  an exhibition on effects of cyber-bullying

Cyber-bullying and its negative effects on the individual and society formed the focus of the art exhibition organized by the Junior Chamber International (JCI) in Al-Suwayda under the title “A message of peace that transcends all languages.”

The exhibition, in which talented people in addition to a number of students of the Second College of Fine Arts in Al-Suwayda participated in drawing, included 31 paintings. The participants expressed, through their paintings, their feelings about the phenomenon of “cyber- bullying”, trying to convey awareness messages to society through plastic art.

The exhibition’s supervisor, the plastic artist Essam Al-Shater, noted that the exhibition highlights the negative effects of cyber-bullying, as each of the participants presented an awareness message with an intellectual vision and an artistic level with free techniques without any restrictions, using charcoal, oil and watercolors and inks in methods belonging to the realistic and expressive school.

Al-Shater underlined the importance of the role of art in dealing with the  society’s issues and raising awareness about the phenomena it suffers from, including “bullying” and addressing it in an artistic way that is capable of conveying more profound and influential messages, especially in light of the spread of so-called electronic bullying on social media and the state of irresponsibility by many of users and the great pain they pose to others without regard for any social or moral standards.

In turn, the Vice President of the International Sector of the Junior Chamber in Al-Suwayda, William Hatoum, indicated that the exhibition is the culmination of a project launched by the JCI in Al-Suwayda about two months ago, in partnership with the JCI in Damascus, with the aim of exchanging experiences among members and sharing the experiences of others on cyber-bullying.

He pointed out that the exhibition provides awareness messages about this negative phenomenon and its effects on society in an uncommon way through the use of art as it is more capable of conveying the idea in the correct manner.

Director of the Project for Exchange of Experiences on “Cyber-bullying” at the JCI in Al-Suwayda, Mila Younis, noted that the artworks were completed over a whole month with the aim of conveying a message of peace that transcends time and space and is able to express our feelings about the phenomenon of cyber-bullying in a deeper way. This phenomenon has spread on a large scale with the development of Digital technologies, which cause great harm to the bullied person and have significant effects on the individual and society.

The two-day exhibition, hosted by Al Dar Restaurant, is accompanied by awareness sessions on the phenomenon of cyber-bullying and dealing with it.

Inas Abdulkareem