Haawriya is an artistic reproduction reflecting a form of cultural resistance and the Sudanese people’s right of expression. Using visual and audio tools of expression, it explores the phenomenon of blocking bridges with metal shipping containers, revealing the tension between hope and disappointment felt by protesters.
Haawriya
Haawriya is an installation composed of a shipping container painted with various colors and symbols. Hidden loudspeakers reveal different sounds of protests reproduced to form a kind of cultural resistance. The term ‘Haawriya’ derives from two Arabic words meaning “container” and “freedom”. They are combined here into one word to reveal the tense relationship between the two extremes — container as a means of oppression, and freedom as a demand of the Sudanese Revolution.
Photo: Said Ahmed
Photo: Said Ahmed
Photo: Said Ahmed
The container was used as a mortuary where hundreds of unidentified dead bodies were stuffed. It was used to block bridges to prevent non-violent protesters from gathering at different places, restraining their freedom of movement and expression. This installation depicts how Sudanese people view the metal shipping container in this new context: from being a useful container carrying goods around the world, it has turned into a block employed to kill their dreams of freedom, peace and justice.
Bio
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Said Ahmed Mohamed Alhassan
SD
Said Ahmed Mohamed Alhassan is a visual artist who studied both engineering and fine arts, pursuing the latter as a career. He graduated with a first-class degree and was awarded the prize for the best graduation project at the College of Fine Arts, Sudan University in 2016. His artworks explore societal transformations from a new visual perspective. He contributed to several exhibitions and mosaic murals in Sudan, Egypt, and Tunisia. He recently displayed his artwork at the 2024 Venice Biennale in the Artists At Risk Pavilion.
Credits
Project supported by Goethe-Institut, Khartoum and funded by the German Federal Foreign Office. Installed and displayed at Al Malaz Exhibition NEXT LEVEL within the ART MEETS CULTURAL POLICIES project at Omdurman Cultural Center 2022.
The presentation of the work is funded by State of the ART(ist), a collaboration between the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ars Electronica.
