THE SYRIAN REVOLUTION
Despite leaving Syria to pursue a PhD, and eventually settling in France, years before the ‘Arab Spring’, Fares Cachoux felt a deep connection to the Syrian Revolution. Producing some of its most iconic images, his work traces the revolution’s path, from the first cries for freedom to its violence and bloodshed through to its evolution into a multifaceted conflict involving various local, regional and international stakeholders.
As such, Cachoux’s works, with their highly stylized figures, have become visual manifestations of major phases of the Syrian uprising, an artistic creation documenting prominent characters that dominated the collective memory of Syrians for a decade.
Many of these works not only found their way to leading international press, but were produced and recreated on the walls of various Syrian cities and towns, as well as featured on banners in protests across the nation, manifesting the underlying power of art to galvanize people aspiring for freedom and empathy.
In the jails of the Syrian regime
Since the start of the Syrian revolution in 2011, the Assad (meaning lion in Arabic) regime perpetrated merciless executions in hideous prison cells and notorious interrogation centers around Syria. Dozens of thousands have been murdered cold-bloodedly behind bars or died due to torture and then buried in mass graves. Although files and photographs documenting the systematic and industrial-scale killings under arrest - amounting to war crimes - have been leaked, no substantial implications have taken place to bring any sort of justice for the victims.
The People
March 2011 witnessed the start of the biggest mass outcry against the Syrian regime since Bashar al-Assad’s father seized power and ruled the country with an iron-fist in 1971. Public protests soon turned into a multifaceted uprising that took the ruling junta aback and lead to an outright disproportionate confrontation between the merciless regime and increasingly fearless and outspoken Syrians, willing to sacrifice everything in their battle for freedom and dignity.
Disturbing
Al Houla
Hungry for revenge from a village that dared to protest against Bashar al Assad’s rule, pro-government militias committed a massacre in Al Houla north of the city of Homs on 25 May 2012. The UN reported 108 civilian victims (including 49 children and 34 women) either shot from a short distance or murdered by cold weapons. As no action has been taken to avoid such atrocities from happening again nor to bring any sort of justice to victims buried later in mass graves, Al Houla massacre became a symbol of a barbaric regime willing to announce victory over a heap of human remains.
Al Sarout
Hamza is prettier than you
Footage of 13-year-old Hamza Bakkour whose jaw was blown off in February 2012 during the Syrian army’s bombardment of Homs, shocked people worldwide. Despite the horrible pain and severe bleeding, Bakkour remained conscious and well aware of his fatal injury until he passed away hours later. The traumatized Bakkour became a recognisable face of Syrian revolution, the indiscriminate brutality of the Assad regime, and the absence of basic medical services as systematic policies of collective punishment.
Ibrahim Qashoush
An icon in the Syrian Revolution, Ibrahim Qashoush (1977-2011) is immortalised in the minds and hearts of millions for protest anthems attributed to him, and the most famous is “Come on, Bashar, Time to Leave”. Soon after his chants soared over mass crowds in the city of Hama, Qashoush was gruesomely killed, throat cut and vocal cords ripped out, before the body was dumped in the Orontes River. Hailed as the Nightingale of the Revolution, Qashoush paid the ultimate price for simply daring to sing out against the Assad (meaning lion in Arabic) regime. Qashoush legacy is ever-present in the chants of mass protests across the region
Jabhat Al-Nusra
The Al-Nusra Front emerged in 2012 as one of the fighting factions in the armed Syrian opposition, but soon revealed its true face as a representative of al-Qaeda ideology in Syria.
Kabab Halabi (Aleppo's Kabab)
To the delight of Bashar al Assad regime, Aleppo was relatively late to actively join other Syrian cities in the Syrian uprising after its outbreak in the spring of 2011. This, however, lasted only till August 2012 when the battle for Syria’s second-largest city turned into an open war in which government and pro-Assad forces followed their scorched earth policy against the rebellious city. A four-year deadly battle for this ancient metropolis - internationally acclaimed for its cuisine, including the famous Aleppine grills - claimed tens of thousands of lives and left much of Aleppo and its surrounding areas in a state of complete destruction.
Lavrov
Since the beginning of the Syrian revolution, Vladimir Putin’s regime was always very hostile about any initiative calling Bashar Al Assad to step down, using his veto about 7 times in UN meetings through his terrifying foreign affair minister Sergey Lavrov.
The Caliph
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appeared theatrically in 2014, appointing himself commander of ISIS and “Caliph of all Muslims on Earth”.
The Russian Bear
Homs
Homs has never been as rich and well-known as Damascus or Aleppo, but turned in 2011 to be the capital and stronghold of the Syrian revolution shortly after it started in the city of Daraa. The popular uprising escalated in Syria's third largest city quickly from mass anti-government protests that occupied Clock Square into an extremely disproportionate armed conflict in which the Syrian regime injured, tortured and killed hundreds of thousands and then besieged the old city for over 3 years, meanwhile turning widespread areas of the city, its suburbs and surrounding areas into a state of complete destruction and ghost towns. Uplifting the aspirations, sacrifice and agony of a whole nation, Homs, thus, became so symbolic of the hefty price for freedom.
The 5th speech
More than a year after the outbreak of the Syrian revolution, the 70-minute-long fifth speech of the Syrian president made the last glimpse of hope vanish and set the scene for an outright confrontation. Addressing a puppet parliament assembly, Bashar al-Assad showed again a state of complete denial. Using the words terrorist and terrorism 46 times, the Syrian dictator accused his opponents of being shortsighted, criminals, mercenaries and state enemies and showed no interest whatsoever in any meaningful concessions to salvage his own country poised on the verge of descending into a bloody path.
Hafez is cheking your profile
In the kingdom of fear, Hafez Al-Assad never dies. It’s all about the omnipresent nature of his legacy since his death in 2000 after ruling Syria with an iron fist 30 years. Featuring typical sunglasses of heinous Syrian secret service and holding a recent smartphone - nonexistent during his dictatorship - while suspiciously staring at the viewer, the father of the current president continues to have a thick presence in the devastated country, affirming the infamous state-sponsored slogan of an eternal al-Assad rule that haunted Syrian generations.