JCI kicks off “Kounouz” Exhibition in Homs

As part of its Community Impact Sector’s “Believe in Syria” campaign, the Junior Chamber International, in collaboration with the Syndicate of Plastic Artists in Homs, is currently holding the “Treasures Exhibition” at the Sobhi Shuaib Fine Arts Hall.

Some 52 paintings and photographs by 30 young participants are displayed at the two-day exhibition.

Rami Mansour, Vice President of the Chamber for the Community Impact Sector, said, ” By holding this exhibition today, we have concluded our project, which was held under the campaign” Believe in Syria,” aiming to introduce the tangible and intangible heritage of the city of Homs through a series of events that have been held consecutively since May 2023 until now.

 “We also sought to introduce and revive the Spring Festivals that Homs is famous for. After that, in an attempt to complete these events, we held a 3-day training course to introduce people to ancient Syrian writings such as Aramaic and Syriac with Dr. Ali Saqr Ahmed; as the trainees learned a lot about these writings and about the civilizations that produced these languages,” Mansour added.

“Within the framework of this project, we have also prepared brochures for archaeological sites in Homs Governorate, including Churches, Mosques, Kingdoms, Castles, and Houses of influential people in the city of Homs,”Mr. Rami concluded.

Engineer Nahed Farzat, the project manager stressed that the “Treasures” Project is part of a group of projects carried out this year within the “Believe in Syria” campaign, which aims to revive the heritage of the city of Homs.

The head of the campaign, Eng. Rozanna Al-Tarazi, pointed out that campaign is being held at the national level to document the heritage, as we have many forgotten heritage treasures in the city, which we are trying during our campaign to shed light on and introduce the public to by organizing various events, including: Reviving the rituals of Khamisiyat (Thursdays) of Homs and distributing the Homs sweetness, visiting places of worship, castles and popular markets. We are now preparing a tourist brochure for tourist and cultural landmarks of Homs, in addition to the most famous Homsi customs, traditions and proverbs.

Dr. Loujain Musharraf, the local president of the Junior Chamber International for 2023, says, ” the project started in March with the aim of re-highlighting the various rituals of Khamisiyat of Homs, then we moved on to make brochures about the most important archaeological sites in Homs, and the “Treasures exhibition” is the conclusion of our project’s activities.

In this exhibition, which includes paintings and drawings of the most important archaeological sites in Syria, we seek to revive this heritage and highlight the artistic talents of young people, whether they are members of the JCI or not. 

I believe that this exhibition has achieved the goal that we are striving for, as well as other projects that the chamber has established over the past three years, which aim to support the talents of young people and re-highlight heritage such as “Kahraman”, “Legacy”, and the “Antique.” Dr. Musharraf concluded.

The paintings and photographs dealt with various topics in amazing details that express the spirit of heritage. Through the painting by the plastic artist Sahar Al-Gharbi, we got acquainted with Homs and its old clock in the Twenties of the last century, while Sidra Ahmed Dabdoub introduces us to the feminine side of Homs, where she paints a picture of a young man and a girl in front of the new clock in Homs, where the girl dreams of love and a rosy life, we also notice a wound on the neck that takes the form of the word Homs. “We hope that with the coming days the wound will heal and that we will not have to draw it again in our drawings”. Sidra hoped.

Plastic artist Heba al – Ali participated in the exhibition with a painting of oil colors on a canvas depicting Palmyra’s ancient archaeological treasures to match the name of the exhibition “treasures”.

Interviewed by: Amal Farhat