Updates
Photos by children from Syria, Iraq and Turkey
The Washington Post - The concept of teaching children to make photographs in a workshop or some other place isn’t a new one (I’m thinking of “Born into Brothels” and “Kids with Cameras,” for example). But at least from what I have seen over the years, it always seems to be a fruitful one. The younger we are, the fewer preconceived notions we have. That makes for what I think is probably a more honest and free approach to creation.
A child’s-eye view of Turkey’s refugee communities
The Independent - Photographer Serbest Salih was in his early 20s when he fled an Isis offensive in his home country of Syria for a new life in Turkey. In 2017, after working as a humanitarian photographer, he began running Sirkhane Darkroom with Turkish photographer, Emel Ernalbant. The project runs analogue photography workshops for children, often refugees, living in and around Mardin, southestern Turkey. “Analogue photography is a universal language: no matter where a child comes from, they are able to express themselves,” says Salih.
Less than 30km north of the Syrian border, and not far from Iraq, Mardin has seen an influx of refugees fleeing instability and persecution in the region. The refugees are often placed among low-income Turkish communities in the far-flung suburbs of the historic city. Conditions can be harsh, and children find themselves growing up around violence and poverty.
Salih, who is now 28, hopes his photography workshops will provide a safe space for refugee and disadvantaged children to explore, learn and tell their own stories through photography. They also foster communication and tolerance between Mardin’s varied cultures, which include Assyrians, Iraqis, Kurds and Turks.
‘Something magical happens’: the cameras helping refugee children to heal
Serbest Salih studied photography at college in Aleppo, before fleeing Syria with his family in 2014 as Islamic State fighters advanced on his home town of Kobani. He is now one of an estimated 100,000 refugees living in the historic city of Mardin in south-eastern Turkey, just a few miles from the Syrian border. Having initially found work as a photographer for a German NGO, Salih’s life changed dramatically in 2017 when, while wandering with a friend through the city, he discovered a sprawling refugee community living in a group of abandoned government buildings in the working-class Kurdish district of Istayson.
“It was a place where Turkish Kurds and Syrian Kurds lived as neighbours, but did not communicate,” he says, “They were strangers who spoke the same language. It was at that moment that I thought to use analogue photography as a means to integrate the different communities.”
KADIN SÖYLEŞİLERİ: Pınar Demiral
Pınar Demiral - Sirk Eğitmeni
A Balancing Act: Confronting Trauma and Conflict Through Circus
Harvard International Review - The Syrian civil war is a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and displaced millionsmore. Of those affected, over half are children. The majority of Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring countries, such as Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. Increasing a nation’s population by millions, seemingly overnight, places a tremendous strain on national resources. Turkey has bills in the billions for the expenditures necessary to support such a large refugee community. In The New Middle East, James Gelvin emphasizes that host countries do not just face the problem of finding a place for refugees to live; they also shoulder the costly burden of providing food, shelter, education, healthcare, protection, and municipal services. As a result of these social, economic, and infrastructural challenges, Saymaz’s stance is not an uncommon one. However, the argument that Syrian refugees have made Turkey a figurative “circus” is an opinion; that they have made it a literal circus is a fact.
On the Flying Carpet
Politico - A night at the annual festival that brings music, circus, light and truth to children in socially neglected regions of Turkey
By Eleni Papadopoulou / Photography Eleni Papadopoulou, Pinar Demiral
Sirkhane DARKROOM
ARTE TV - Sirkhane DARKROOM @sirkhanedarkroom is a project under Sirkhane Social Circus Schoolrun by incredible artist Serbest Salih. It’s a photography darkroom on Turkish / Syrian border, which teaches children how to take photos, develop and print their own analog photography. This pedagogic method helps children to discover themselves and teaches them new ways of thinking, creativity and playing while expanding their artistic skills. While learning analog photography disciplines children and young people also have opportunity to develop social skills such as being part of group dynamics, adopting universal values, improving coordination, concentration, and developing a healthy personality. We are more than happy to inform you that we are opening an analog photography workshop in #Nusaybin, a city affected by war and violence and home to thousands of Syrian Refugees. We are always in need of photography developing material!
Sahba Aminikia's Flying Carpet Festival Brings Music to Refugee Children in Turkey
KQED/NPR - Sahba Aminikia hadn’t planned on dancing when he stopped by Club Deluxe in the Haight to unwind and hear a little jazz three years ago. But the band was swinging, and before long, he found himself boogieing with a young Italian woman. The Iranian-born composer was in a very good place in his career, teaching at the Academy of Art University while writing music performed by top-flight ensembles around the world, including Kronos Quartet.
During a break in the music, the woman related a fantastical story about an organization teaching circus arts to children who’d fled war and repression in Syria, Iraq and Turkey. Forcefully struck by the unlikely vision, Aminikia set out on a quest that ultimately led him to give up his secure academic day job in San Francisco in order to establish the 2018 Flying Carpet Festival in the remote southeastern corner of Turkey.
Sirkhane Circus: Come One, Come All!
Is it possible to help vulnerable children deal with their struggles in a creative way? Can their trauma be transformed into something positive? Pinar has found a way... and it's inspired by the circus.
Her Yerde Sanat Derneği (Sirkhane) | 9. Sezon | Fark Yaratanlar
Art Anywhere Association Art Anywhere Association was founded in 2012 by Pınar Demiral and her friends that firstly initiated a one-time festival in Mardin. Sirkhane Social Circus and Art School within the Association provides a life space which brings together Turkish and refugee children where the only common language is art. Trainers of Sirkhane use social circus as a pedagogical tool. With the trainings they provide, they help children with less opportunities to overcome negative effects of war and to develop their imagination. There are a wide range of training opportunities in Sirkhane from juggling, acrobatics and stilt to painting and photography. Young people that are trained in Sirkhane become Circus Heroes and start guiding new trainees called Circus Habibi. To date, Art Anywhere Association touched the lives of 300 thousand children with trainings and festivals. Art Anywhere Association enabled children to come together in a place free from discrimination through art. It helped them to improve their self-confidence with physical and mental activities. It created an unforgettable difference both in their future and their imaginary world.
Çocuklu harikalar Sirkhane’si
Gönüllülük esasıyla projeler yürüten Her Yerde Sanat Derneği, Mardin’de yaşayan farklı dil, din ve kültürden çocukları sirk okulunda buluşturuyor.
SOCIAL CIRCUS BRINGS JOY TO CHILDREN IN NEED
Nothing brings a smile to a child’s face more quickly than watching the circus. Except, perhaps, being able to perform the feats themselves.
Sirkhane Social Circus School in Turkey trains refugee children from Syria in the art of circus performance as a way of bringing joy into a very difficult situation. A typical day of classes consists of children juggling, spinning multicolored plates, doing tricks on a trapeze and walking on stilts.
But the school is dedicated to more than just teaching practical skills. For the Syrian refugee children, circus arts have become a way of dealing with the trauma they have witnessed. They practice peace and harmony in a safe environment.
Located in an old house in Mardin, a city on the Turkish-Syrian border, the school serves students from Turkey, Afghanistan and Iraq as well as refugees from Syria. The children learn teamwork and form friendships with children from different backgrounds.
Turkey: Circus skills help Syrian refugee children overcome trauma
Al Jazeera - It is not uncommon for youngsters to dream of running away to join the circus. For Syrian refugee children in Turkey, they didn’t escape to the big top, but ran away from conflict. The Sirkhane Social Circus School offers circus and music workshops for children and young people, including refugees, to help them overcome trauma. Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom reports from Mardin in Turkey
Değer Katan Kadınlar - Pınar Demiral
Mardin'de açtığı sosyal sirkle bölge çocuklarının pedagojik gelişimlerini destekleyici eğitimler veren Pınar Demiral'ın hikayesini mutlaka izleyin. #HayataDeğerKat
Circus skills help Syrian refugee children to settle in Turkey
ReliefWeb - Laughter rings out and there is an atmosphere of excitement and joyful chaos. Children are perched on stilts, others spin plates or happily perform aerial dances.
This is not a big top circus in a major city but a house in southeastern Turkey, where Syrian refugee children learn circus tricks in an innovative programme to help integrate into their foreign host country.
The Her Yerde Sanat association (Turkish for "Art Anywhere") works with 120 young people aged three to 20.
Just north of the Syrian border, at the house in Mardin province, there is a beautiful view over the Mesopotamian plain to Syria, which 80 of the youngsters once called home. The other children are Turkish.
Art therapy for children affected by war...
VATAN - 012’den itibaren Mardin’de faaliyet gösteren “Her Yerde Sanat Derneği”, düzenlediği etkinliklerle savaştan kaçan çocukları hayata döndürüyor... Dernek, Sirkhane ve Uçan Kütüphane gibi projelerle bugüne dek 60 bin çocuğa ulaştı...
The Int'l Social Circus comes to Mardin province
Daily Sabah - Social Circus is described as "a growing movement toward the use of circus arts as a medium for social justice and social good."
It uses alternative pedagogical tools to work with youth who are marginalized or at social or personal risk. Sirkhane, the Social Circus School run by the Art Anywhere Association, is devoted to offering workshops on circus arts, painting and music to the war-affected children in Mardin. The fourth IM International Social Circus Festival, which will be held from Sept. 10-20, will bear the fruits of their labor as local, Syrian, Afghan and Yazidi refugee children will perform the skills they have acquired along with their trainers. Since 2011, Art Anywhere has organized a number of events, projects and workshops in and around Mardin, with the aim of benefitting the local community and especially its youth and children and providing them with the chance to gain skills while also socializing. Art Anywhere's events are held outside, are open to everyone and include parades, live music and circus acts in which loc a l crowds gather, creating a sense of community.