Page - 180 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 4/2018

180 Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 4 2o18 Charlotte Bank | Remaking a World the particular kind of art, that audiences and institutions have come to associate with “Syrian art” and thereby neglect exploring new themes and further develop their practice. When the scene becomes saturated with this kind of “war art”, as it inevitably will at some point, these artists risk disappearing from attention. For this reason, it remains vital that artists continue to develop and re-think their practice, while actively engaging with the art scene of their new “home” city and expand their profes- sional networks. As examples from other displaced artists’ communities such as German artists fleeing the Nazi regime have shown, networks have a decisive importance to secure a continued existence as professional artists.24 The Syrian displaced artists who have arrived in Berlin in the past few years have been lucky enough to find a considerable number of artists from other Arab countries who have been able to help during the initial period of getting settled and organized as artists. Staying connected among themselves without neglecting interaction with the wider cultural field can also help Syrian displaced artists to re-gain and keep their voices. Besides the small-scale, temporary projects referred to above, the artist Khaled Barakeh is developing an online platform that will be launched in 2019 and aims to be “website that, on the one hand, functions as a gallery, on the other serves as a creativity hub for opportunities and support. It works as a reference, mapping, sharing and networking platform as well as an event-database, culture indexing archive, an integration and business accelerator”.25 For Syrian artists in Berlin many doors seem open at present, mainly within the alternative scene of non-profit project spaces and initiatives. The larger museums have up till now not hosted an exhibition of works by displaced Syrian artists, however, events involving young art- ists who are continuing their training at the city’s art schools have taken place.26 The coming years will be of crucial importance for these artists to establish themselves with a lasting pres- ence in the city’s art scene. Concluding remarks The Syrian artists who have been forced from their homes by the war and come to Berlin is the most recent group of intellectual exiles in the city. Compared to earlier groups of non-West- ern artists to arrive in the city, they have found a more diverse art scene and one that has proven considerably more open to newcomers. The artists discussed in this article have all found opportunities to present their work and engage with the existing artistic infrastructure in various ways. While this is undoubtedly positive, there is a high risk that these artists will be forgotten, once the excitement over the novelty of their presence in the city is over. The question remains how this can be prevented. How can Syrian artists secure their continued existence as professional artists? Of course, not only Syrian artists struggle to stay afloat and earn their liv- ing as artists. But for non-Western artists, the reductive practice of “labelling” that is common in the international art world is often experienced as particularly stifling. For many Syrian 24 See Dogramaci 2011 for a discussion of the importance of networks for displaced and exiled artists. 25 coculture. Syria Cultural Index. Creative database <http://coculture.de/syria-cultural-index.html> [accessed 10th June 2018]. 26 See e.g. Carpe Diem! 2018. Performance “Revising Revisited” 23.6. 2018 <http://berlin.carpediem.cd/ events/7142675-performance-revising-revisited-at-hamburger-bahnhof-museum-f-r-gegenwart-berlin> [accessed 10th June 2018].