The Hague, July 4 (SANA) Syrian artist and researcher Fouad Hallak, based in the Netherlands, launched his multimedia art project, Incomplete Joy, on Saturday, drawing on the prolonged wait endured by families of missing and forcibly disappeared persons in Syria.
According to a statement Hallak gave to SANA on Saturday, the project aims to transform absence into a space for healing, dialogue, and the preservation of collective memory, while providing a platform for Syrians in the Netherlands to process grief and loss.
The artwork explores three dimensions of absence: the disappearance of the person, the loss of their story, and the denial of their right to justice.
Hallak used doors as symbols of a suspended state, neither fully open nor fully closed, to reflect families holding onto hope. He hand-carved messages written by relatives onto the doors to preserve their emotional weight.
The Artist worked closely with families of victims who learned of their loved ones’ deaths through testimony from former detainees but never recovered their bodies or held funeral ceremonies.
Hallak said the idea for the project emerged during his first visit to Syria following the fall of the deposed regime, after seeing photographs of detainees and missing persons displayed in Damascus’ al-Marjeh Square that had begun to fade because of exposure to the elements.
The project is currently on display at the HKU University of the Arts graduates’ exhibition in Utrecht.
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