{"title":"Syrian Children Find Their Voice in Exile","description":"\u003ch2 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eSyrian Children Find Their Voice in Exile\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"Streetcolours regular participating children with a work they collaborated on in Beirut\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/WhatsApp_Image_2025-08-06_at_13.17.03.jpg?v=1754486893\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 0.9em;\"\u003eStreetcolors Beirut: Karine Wehbé’s project with refugee children in Beirut\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSunend.org\u003c\/i\u003e is proud to present a selection of works from Karine Wehbé’s project Streetcolors Beirut, which are direct, unfiltered expressions by refugee children displaced by war, living in bare-bones social conditions without any means to attend school. They spend most of their time out on the streets as their temporary homes provide little space for growth. Wehbé's social practice informed by her years of psychoanalytical research enables these children, many of whom are so shaken they can't even speak, an alternative way to express their state of mind. She has designed the project over time to focus on fluid, spontaneous gestures\/mark-making in ink on paper without pressure or instruction. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis project encourages self-understanding and empowerment in one's own healing process, thanks to Wehbé's safe, non-interventional structure that has helped many children evolve from expressing themselves in a frozen\/minimal way to complex narratives and shapes, regaining their sense of agency. \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eSome children even evolved from extreme aggression to a more balanced demeanor as the sessions continued.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eIn the following interview, Hero of \u003ci\u003eSunend.org\u003c\/i\u003e explores \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eStreet Colors Beirut in depth with Wehbé and how it extends from her own art practice, which investigates the tensions within the ecology of memory in lives shaped by war. \u003cstrong\u003eThe majority of funds raised from the sale of the select artworks will go directly towards helping \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eStreet Colors Beirut grow and support more refugee children in Beirut.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.sunend.org\/products\/untitled-041a7721\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/041A7721.jpg?v=1754493556\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine Wehbé\u003c\/b\u003e: We’re speaking on 13 April (2025). Until 13 April of 1975 Lebanon was described as heaven. At the time, I was just a child and at St Georges, a famous beach resort; in the 1930s, movie stars would come there from the region and abroad. My family was there that day, and news came that something had happened in Ain El Remmaneh, a popular district, and we had to leave. And from this moment, my life was completely usurped by war, entering permanent conflict.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eAs a child, it became the new norm. I thought that life was like this. It was normal to feel fear, to be anxious, to not know what was going on. And today, with my maturity reflecting back, I realise all the consequences of going through war as a child. Not that as adults you don’t have consequences. My parents were around 30 when the war entered our lives. But as a child, the consequences are structural; they really shape you from the inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/WhatsApp_Image_2025-08-06_at_13.13.59.jpg?v=1754492920\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 0.9em;\"\u003eKarine Wehbé and her brother's picture from her childhood before the chaos that disrupted her idyllic life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eIt makes a big difference today when I work with children. I know that they understand very well what’s going on with them. So I absolutely do not minimise their feelings or their emotions, and this marks a huge shift from all those decades back when I was growing up in exile, the perception of the consequences of war on structural psychology.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e Thank you so much for sharing your story, this helps us understand the project with better context. It’s clearly not just a project for you, it’s your story, it’s almost as if you, in a way, see yourself in these children, and you’re seeing their potential. So this complicates the dynamic of you working with the children as an adult as a teacher, because in a way, you’re working with yourself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e Exactly. The real beginning was in August 2020. I witnessed again a new violence from the blast at the port, which again touched me directly. Before, there were things going on, like some political assassinations here and there since 2004. But this time, it opened something like a Pandora’s box. Because you set things aside and try to move on, like \u003ci\u003e“Khallas, it’s the past, it’s old,”\u003c\/i\u003e and you don’t want to wallow in it. And then suddenly something happens, and it again brings everything out. And this is what happened in August 2020.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/hp-beirut-promo-still-threeByTwoSmallAt2X.jpg?v=1754492813\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 0.9em;\"\u003eThe port blast in Beirut in August 2020. From The New York Times and photo by Ágoston Németh.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eThere was a Syrian refugee family, and I used to go to their place and try to be helpful with their children. But I didn’t have any idea of where it would lead. It was also to see how I would interact with children who escaped from war. There were three children in this family, and they had been traumatised by the war in Syria \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eliving under Daesh's (ISIS) rule. It was hard for me to spend time with them because the little girl, who was five at the time, had tragically lost an eye. And when this blast occurred in August 2020, it was too much for me. They finally left for Canada to obtain citizenship and reconstruct their lives. But Ali the fist child I worked with contacted me 5 years later when he was 17 saying how much he missed the sessions, and the time we spent together!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e Yes, because now you can see the madness for what it is. It comes with the consciousness and the feelings in a powerful way.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e And In parallel to my personal therapy, as I was going round the neighbourhood and seeing everything destroyed, I used to see these children, who gave me a sense of hope, in a very simple way. So this is why, in August 2023, I decided to start \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eStreet Colors Beirut, not knowing where it would go. But I knew that for me, it would definitely heal me and help me understand what a child goes through living with the trauma of war.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e Thank you for that. I’m really lucky to be contributing, being part of this somehow. Shall we get started with the questions?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e Yes, of course.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.sunend.org\/products\/untitled-041a7714\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/041A7714.jpg?v=1754493540\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e Memory shaped by trauma… Your practice has always dealt with fragmented memory and emotional atmospheres. But working with children from conflict zones, some of whom may have been separated from their families, or even lost members demands a special attentiveness. In the context of \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eStreet Colors Beirut, memory is raw and often too painful to speak about directly. But instead, they could express themselves through gesture and mark-making. So memory might emerge in the movements of their hands, the way they choose their colours or materials. Could you speak to how you approach memory with these very vulnerable children, and what you feel that brings out in your practice?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e This takes shape very naturally. I was working a lot with memory in my practice. I was very interested in the idea of how memory is reinterpreted by your perception. Sometimes the story is not really \u003ci\u003ethe\u003c\/i\u003e story, but what you keep from the story. So when we started working on 4 August 2023, the first thing I asked these children, who came very spontaneously, was to draw the port of Beirut, because they were playing in front of it. But for them, it wasn’t a memory, because many of them weren’t there when this blast happened. They started painting something else. So what I was saying didn’t really impact their gesture, because they already had a lot to say just by taking this paper and the ink. So I realised I shouldn’t intervene with ideas like those used in art therapy. But I knew there was something in the experience of their automatic creation. And we just created this safe space to allow this expression in a very instantaneous way.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" height=\"728\" width=\"546\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/WhatsApp_Image_2025-08-06_at_13.17.01.jpg?v=1754492976\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 0.9em;\"\u003eAn image of the participants and a volunteer during a painting session.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e In terms of the freedom to construct their own structure, as you’re saying, there’s no memory per se to recall or reflect on, but that they already have everything to say. You have long resisted rigid forms in favour of letting stories unfold through atmosphere and tautology. So with these children, who have endured displacement and violence similar to yourself, this becomes not just an aesthetic decision but an ethical one. So how does working with these children shape or challenge your approach?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e I’ll give you a concrete example. In the first year, I was working mainly with two families of five members. And these children especially were very unstructured. They had no sense of limits, because they weren’t going to school. The parents were absent. Sometimes we had to deal with the projection of their violence, like a child who was very aggressive, and felt he had to project his aggression in a particular session, and I remember I had to be very calm, and I had to receive this violence from him and others without any judgement. This boy, whose name is Hamoudi, little by little calmed down. At the beginning, he would take a few colours and just violently throw them. And over time, by receiving him as he was, he started to make shapes and expressions, and eventually, he started to create some amazing work. It was some of the best work we have. In the evolution I saw in his work, I saw that he was really going through a lot, and he found himself; he stabilised.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.sunend.org\/products\/untitled-041a7859\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/041A7859.jpg?v=1754493558\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eThis experience I saw in other children of the group as well. Some of them came from Khiam, which is a village in the south that was heavily bombarded, and it was a Syrian family living there. They had already left Syria due to the war, and then faced the war in the South. So it was a double trauma they were dealing with. These children, in the first session, wouldn’t even look at you, let alone talk. They were practically frozen. One of them, interestingly, had just started making little lines and points. And I would always come next to her, Zainab, and encourage her. Today, her formulations include shapes, people, animals, and more. So she evolved in a very fast way, now she looks at me, speaks a little, she still goes through a lot though. But she has started telling stories.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eSometimes things pop up and elicit things that cannot be controlled, leading to fights among the children. And most of the time they don’t want to tell what they are drawing, they want that to remain their personal secret, and they don’t even add their names. They’re not at all attached to what they’re doing. However, there are instances such as when one child made a dinosaur and left it with me, and from time to time, he asks me if he can see it. He just wants to keep it with me. If they want to take the artworks, they can take them, because I don’t want to just keep them. I ask them for authorisation before we exhibit or give away any works.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.sunend.org\/products\/untitled-041a7712\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/041A7712.jpg?v=1754493560\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e And that is why the children trust you and feel safe to create their art with you; because you listen to and respect their wishes, and they don’t feel threatened in any shape or form.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e And the trust is very important and can be very overwhelming, as it is a responsibility: I could influence them. I am very cognisant of this, so I am always taking this into consideration. Which is why the volunteers are important, so that they’re not all relying on me and potentially being influenced by me. Now there is Rita (Hadoub--\u003cem\u003eSunend.org\u003c\/em\u003e artist), and my cousin, who comes regularly. So the exchange is flexible and loose, allowing the children to decide who to trust and engage with.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e Amazing. And you use simple tactile materials here, right?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e Initially, I used to bring pencils and other materials, but what I realised is interesting is the fluidity of the ink. So through the ink on the paper, gesture is much easier than with any other tools. Ink brings this fluidity and can also give them relaxation because they move more easily. But when I bring pencils, it’s much more tense, I feel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.sunend.org\/products\/untitled-041a7622-copy\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/041A7706.jpg?v=1754493557\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e So that’s an aesthetic choice, but it’s underpinned by a genuine regard for how the children respond in being able to create and feel free and relaxed and comfortable. But obviously, this is not therapy per se, although it can be therapeutic. So as you were saying with Zainab, from drawing simple points and lines when she was non-communicative, to drawing more complex forms of figures as she also began to communicate more, shows a symbiotic relationship between the art-making and the person making it, and vice versa, which points us to the psychological state and where an artist’s scope of making emerges from their scope of thinking and being.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e In each series of drawings, you can see the evolution of the child. You can almost know about the personality of the child, because it’s really representative of their state of mind during the session. Sometimes they are in an excited state, from which they make big movements, and sometimes they do a few things and want to stop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eI also want to point out that I insisted on going into their space, the public space where they spend most of the day playing and being free. At the beginning, I thought that I should bring them to my cousin's space for art therapy and I realised, in fact, it would be wrong to constrain them in a space that is not their environment. I felt there is already the idea that we go to them and we don’t bring them to us. So we go and visit them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/WhatsApp_Image_2025-08-06_at_13.17.02_1.jpg?v=1754493034\" width=\"540\" height=\"720\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 0.9em;\"\u003eThe public area where the children play and paint.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e Could you explain more about the difference between the two models?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e Yeah, so when we are outside in their play environment, we are really in tune with what they are going through. Even if the space is very raw, with garbage, broken glass, and unfinished buildings, it's \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003etheir safe space. And they can just take the painting and throw it, they can spoil it and do whatever they want. Such things would be impossible in a space that is meant to be an art space. And We are there in \u003cem\u003eany\u003c\/em\u003e weather, I like the idea that in any weather, they can trust that we will be there. OK, when it rains, it’s difficult, but if it’s cold or it’s hot, whatever it is, we are there. And it really mixes with the perception of the elements. So it’s also an experience, which I think is very important.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eAlso because the children are always outside. They live in small spaces, so they are barely there. But because I don’t like it to be too much play and dirty, I do ask that when they come to the session, there should be, you know, a bit of order. So now, after a year and a half, they know the protocol, and they prepare by themselves. I bring the materials, and they put out the paper, the ink, the water. So this is really important, and this makes a huge difference also in the way they grow. When they are in a space they don’t know, they are much more shy, non-expressive, it’s completely different.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eAnd most of them started living there only recently. It’s also a way to teach them to be ok with their environment, to not feel threatened by it. To face it, and to have a positive experience with this environment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.sunend.org\/products\/untitled-041a7770?pr_prod_strat=collection_fallback\u0026amp;pr_rec_id=16a6ca69d\u0026amp;pr_rec_pid=9682906972377\u0026amp;pr_ref_pid=9682910970073\u0026amp;pr_seq=uniform\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/041A7770.jpg?v=1754493557\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e That’s beautiful. I also want to think about displacement, like you were saying, about what you yourself faced being in exile and constantly moving. And the direct trauma from an incident, or multiple incidents, and things that happen around them. And as you said, people dismiss children’s trauma, thinking they don’t understand and will accept whatever happens to them as normal. So in terms of the sense of time, already being displaced, art-making perhaps lets them rearrange it? By recreating their territory?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eIn conflict settings, time is not linear, there is a before, and then an after. Something happens that you don’t see, and the whole reality has changed. Even with the blast, I remember Rita telling me she was in the café working on her laptop, and the next thing she knew, everything had changed, and it’s a whole different world. There’s no bridge in between. It’s not like she saw and felt the shaking of the port and then the rupture that then reached her and threw her and so on. All she knows is that suddenly she’s on the floor with a broken arm in the cafe’s detritus and chaos all around. So that non-linearity breaks the expectations of those who have not experienced such collapse, right? There is a disorientation, and a reorientation, and that reorientation is perhaps what you’re saying, for the children to recreate their own territory. They have been disoriented and now they have to reorient, and making art enables that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eSo how do you navigate the balance between their present tense experience and your own research in the layered temporality of memory? Because that’s what your art practice deals with.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.sunend.org\/products\/untitled-041a7764\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/041A7764.jpg?v=1754493560\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e As a child, I was, in a way, understanding what was going on, but I didn’t have the tools to formulate and to express them. But I used tools to draw, to record sounds, to shoot images, etc. So I already had the idea that I was going through something that is not common, even thinking that it’s normal, because all of us were going through it. But when I arrived in Paris when I was twelve, it was the third time I was going into exile, I had to write an essay. And I remember I wrote in a precise way an event of the night under bombs, etc… with this pride of like \u003ci\u003e“Oh, I am strong, I don’t care… it’s not important, I’m much stronger than that.”\u003c\/i\u003e And the teacher took it and read it, and she started to cry. And when she cried, I didn’t understand that because I had the attitude of \u003ci\u003e“It’s not a big deal.”\u003c\/i\u003e Now, of course, with time and the work I did and the understanding, when I see these children, I feel sometimes that they have the same attitude. So this parallel is very interesting, because it took me a long time to acknowledge the fact that these are not minor things in your life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eBut because the narrative of this region is always considering this, I’m happy that people talk more these days. Today, I was seeing a friend of mine who is a cinematographer, whose father disappeared in the civil war, when seventeen thousand people disappeared without any information given by the state because of the politics. So for forty years, their families lived in the mystery of \u003ci\u003e“Are they alive or dead?”\u003c\/i\u003e I remember when I came back to Lebanon in 1998, people didn’t want to hear you talking about the war. They would say, \u003ci\u003e“Why are you talking about that? You have to forget about it.”\u003c\/i\u003e So now, after a while, after what we went through in the last five years, people started to say it’s important to talk. Because we recognise that not talking is creating a very dysfunctional state. Because no one is able to move the society forward in terms of all the allegations of the crimes. And these things need to be accounted for in a way.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.sunend.org\/products\/untitled-041a7854?pr_prod_strat=collection_fallback\u0026amp;pr_rec_id=16a6ca69d\u0026amp;pr_rec_pid=9682915066073\u0026amp;pr_ref_pid=9682910970073\u0026amp;pr_seq=uniform\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/041A7854.jpg?v=1754493555\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eI don’t like to talk too much about social background, but it’s true that Street Colors Beirut is really aimed at street children who don’t really have the possibility to go to school here, because their families need money for that. Some went to school but were interrupted because they didn’t have the funds to finish the school year. So really, it deepens the struggle inside, not being able to live like other 'normal' children. And they know they’re not like other children, because they ask \u003ci\u003e“Why don’t we go to school?”\u003c\/i\u003e So it creates also another reality that they have to understand and deal with.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.sunend.org\/products\/untitled-041a7608-copy\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/041A7622.jpg?v=1754493557\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e That’s a lot for them to deal with…I just have two more points and we can wrap it up with the last one. Your practice with these children seems to be about restoring their agency. Is there anything you’d like to add regarding this?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e An interesting point when I did the exhibition with their work, someone who knows me a bit told me that the work of the children looks a bit like mine. So I can agree that the moment you are an artist and you create with a group of children, you end up putting something of you in the creation. And this, I think, is automatic, though influenced not only by what I am, but by the energy I present. Because I go through a lot too, and I cannot show up in the same way every time. So sometimes I can be a bit, not very calm, or a bit stressed, sometimes very stressed. This kind of energy can influence what they are going to do, because they feel it a lot. Sometimes when I arrive and I feel distracted, I can see that the sessions are not that good, because they can feel my state of mind. But they also have to accept that I am not always the same. And it works. It’s also about life, things change, so the result of the work is like this, it reflects life, the movements that we internally go through.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e And you touched upon this as well now that you have the volunteers like Rita and your cousin who come with their own respective energies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e Yeah, I can see that. With Rita, I feel that some of them take something from her. In a few sessions she draws too, and it creates interest in the space.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e That’s fascinating. I would not even have considered. It sounds a bit mystical with your energy affecting them and the fact that their work feels a bit like your work, as your friend observed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.sunend.org\/products\/untitled-041a7752?pr_prod_strat=collection_fallback\u0026amp;pr_rec_id=16a6ca69d\u0026amp;pr_rec_pid=9682913951961\u0026amp;pr_ref_pid=9682910970073\u0026amp;pr_seq=uniform\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/041A7752.jpg?v=1754493557\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e To talk about mystical it’s interesting to talk about this because one of the last group members, before going back to Syria, showed how you hold your own history at a very subconscious level. This girl, one day, took our hands and started doing amazing henna designs\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e, she had never learned to do this! It opened up her story. From one session to the next, she really started to articulate shapes and forms that were amazing. And I felt they came from her old ancestral past that she carried. It was truly unbelievable, especially when you see the level of detail within those designs, in which you could identify faces and other figures. So you can see in the artworks the ancestral culture they carry with them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e It’s interesting you mention this story because C.G. Jung, the psychoanalyst, analysed children’s dreams in which there would be elements they never could have possibly seen in their limited years of life. There was one girl whose father was collecting all of her dream drawings and in them there were animals, creatures, human figures in costumes engaged in various activities, doing things that actually did exist in earlier periods of history, but in no way the young girl could have ever been exposed to in her life with her family.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e Exactly. And it was the same with this girl, she had lots of stories about what she was drawing. She had a narrative element to what she was always creating. Very fascinating, this one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" height=\"464\" width=\"619\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/Rita_with_streetcolours_children.jpg?v=1754494313\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 0.9em;\"\u003eRita Hadoub with the children\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHero:\u003c\/b\u003e That’s powerful. So final question, Karine. You work with children who have already experienced displacement and trauma, and it’s not only meaningful but it’s also deeply instructive for other mature artists. I think there is a reason why Rita is in this space. Because obviously, she wants to be a part of this but surely she must be getting something in return. Right? In terms of how the energy of the children is impacting her, how the energy of the space is impacting her. How her helping out is helping her within. But not only energy, also in a more literal sense certain artistic insights in terms of aesthetics. As adults, we often search for clarity and legibility in the stories we tell. We want closure. And you were saying how, for a long time, the attitude in Lebanon has been to just forget about what happened and to move on. Could you speak more broadly, how to restore dignity and agency when someone faces a similar kind of collapse as in a war situation?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.sunend.org\/products\/untitled-041a7859-copy\"\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 7px;\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/041A7608.jpg?v=1754493557\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKarine:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI’ll come back to my own experience. When the blast happened at my previous place, where I had stored many archives, they were organised neatly on shelves. As you know, I work a lot with archives. All the things I had organised over several years were ruined. But then, when my friends came to help me rearrange them, I felt as though my intimacy was being invaded. Even though the objects were completely destroyed, they were my intimate belongings. I thought that these archives were finally dying, in fact, and now they had a new life. At that moment, I took them out of the boxes and started working with them in a totally different way. Before, I wasn’t even working with them; they were just there on the shelves.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eSo my answer is: when you go through catastrophic events, when you go through hard experiences, I think the way is to recreate with this element (of violation), and you invent something new, in fact. When something explodes, you need to reassemble things. From this reassembly, this is why my work links to fragments and wounds, for example, what this explosion produced could give a new life. So it's not only negative, is what I mean.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e“You shall not be built\u003cbr\u003eUntil you are in ruins.”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;\"\u003e- Yunus Emré, sufi poet\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"\u003eWhen something happens, people want to change place, they want to move, and have nothing to do with what happened. For me, it was the contrary. In fact, for the first time, I wanted to face it (the trauma invoked by the port blast in 2020). And in this way, maybe I will be able to heal properly, not in a denying way. Of course, this needs lots of courage. And these children are very courageous too, because they are giving something really intimate of their own de-structuration. It contains them. It creates containment. At the moment, when you are in countries like this, you need to create a space for containment.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"untitled-041a7859","title":"Untitled (041A7859)","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eOmar was seven when he made the work, and Streetcolors as an organisation started with him. Born in Lebanon to a Syrian refugee family, he was living with his family of five in a very small room next to a parking lot. He was the first to interact whenever Karine Wehbé, the founder of Streetcolors, used to go there. He was always playing, energetic, and a dynamic kid.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eWhen Wehbé did her first activities, trying out painting with him and the other children, Omar would come to her afterwards and ask when she would come back, and when she would start a school for him and his friends. She said he is the reason why Streetcolors officially came to be. He liked the other children and would encourage them to participate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eLater, he left for Syria with his family, even though he didn't want to leave. But he returned a few days later having fled alone from Damascus and crossed over the border and landed at the exact location his family had stayed at.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sunend","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48464348971225,"sku":null,"price":150.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/1_855046b3-929d-412d-b925-dc7e0663a8c0.png?v=1774626982"},{"product_id":"untitled-041a7859-copy","title":"Untitled (041A7608)","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eHatim came to Lebanon from Syria with his family about a year or so after Omar, and became part of Streetcolors through the painting activities. He made this painting when he was eight, with at the Streetcolors exhibition his works drew attention beyond expectations, according to Karine Wehbé, the founder of the organisation. She was happy to see him find real pleasure in painting, demonstrating a facility to paint, draw, and control shapes. Initially when she started working with him, he was very sensitive, and reserved before gradually expressing himself more and through bigger and bigger paintings\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sunend","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48464427876569,"sku":null,"price":150.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/9_4137b218-3d32-4c8b-b5fe-d34355a894e5.png?v=1774630378"},{"product_id":"untitled-041a7608-copy","title":"Untitled (041A7622)","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThis work is by Mohammad, one of the more complicated children Karine Wehbé, the founder of the organisation Streetcolors, has worked with. He took Hatim’s place when he left with his family for Syria, in their room in the apartment block near the parking lot. Mohammad’s family experienced life under Daesh (ISIS), then fled to Lebanon, lived in a camp, moving a lot, and finally getting there temporarily. He was 10 and was already working with his father and also got a job at a hairdresser’s, working every day to help his family, who came to depend on him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eSo when he created this work, he took the image from a picture he saw on a phone, Wehbé feels psychological state of mind that he expressed, something very dark. All the drawings he did are very, very dark. He loves using black a lot. It could be an image of himself, she feels, emerging from the darkness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIn summer 2025, he did a shockingly courageous act. Mohammad left with his family for Syria even though he wanted to stay with his father, who was going to remain in Beirut for work, but in the end he joined the others. After a few days away, he showed up alone. He had left from a suburb in Damascus, went through the frontiers, swam across the sea, and got back to their exact location in Beirut over two days of journey. One can witness his wild and independent spirit in this work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sunend","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48464434168025,"sku":null,"price":150.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/17_778d7fba-74df-4275-bc50-489dbb39bb81.png?v=1774631169"},{"product_id":"untitled-041a7622-copy","title":"Untitled (041A7706)","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThis work is by Mohammad, one of the more complicated children Karine Wehbé, the founder of the organisation Streetcolors, has worked with. He took Hatim’s place when he left with his family for Syria, in their room in the apartment block near the parking lot. Mohammad’s family experienced life under Daesh (ISIS), then fled to Lebanon, lived in a camp, moving a lot, and finally getting there temporarily. He was 10 and was already working with his father and also got a job at a hairdresser’s, working every day to help his family, who came to depend on him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eSimilar to the other work in this publication that was based on an image he saw on a phone, Wehbé feels that it is his psychological state of mind that he expresses here, “as if something or someone is hidden, like he’s hiding and watching.” All the drawings he did are very, very dark. He loves using black a lot. It could be an image of himself, she feels, emerging from the darkness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIn summer 2025, he did a shockingly courageous act. Mohammad left with his family for Syria even though he wanted to stay with his father, who was going to remain in Beirut for work, but in the end he joined the others. After a few days away, he showed up alone. He had left from a suburb in Damascus, went through the frontiers, swam across the sea, and got back to their exact location in Beirut over two days of journey. One can witness his wild and independent spirit in this work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sunend","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48464442589401,"sku":null,"price":150.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/25_feef5748-f3d7-4c60-bc5c-e82d4f656e8e.png?v=1774631936"},{"product_id":"untitled-041a7721","title":"Untitled (041A7721)","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eWalid is one of Mohammad’s younger brothers. He was four when he started painting with Streetcolors. He had an issue with elocution and could not speak, and he had to undergo several operations. Even so, he had an intensity that was rarely seen in a child, says Karine Wehbé, founder of Streetcolors.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eWehbé describes how on his first day with them, he picked up the paper and threw lots of paint onto it, and over time he developed a swinging gesture that was amazing to watch. He would sometimes scream while using brushes in a crazy way. He was intense and many times he would paint and then scream because he could not speak.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sunend","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48464447701209,"sku":null,"price":150.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/33_d537149c-fd79-4705-b394-350291b749c0.png?v=1774632429"},{"product_id":"untitled-041a7712","title":"Untitled (041A7712)","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIbrahim made this painting when he was seven, and he is the oldest of five children, all of whom visit Streetcolors. At the beginning, there were a lot of difficulties in exchanges with him and his siblings as they hadn’t been to school and had barely had any structure in their lives, having fled from Syria. However, gradually their talents bloomed, according to Karine Wehbé, founder of Streetcolors. There is another artwork by him kept at home, and many visitors who saw it were amazed by its strength.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThis painting comes from his second phase. Here one can see how he controls the colours, something very , and he has a big thing with colour in the way he uses it. He never mixes them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sunend","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48464449798361,"sku":null,"price":150.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/41_f59abf58-7eb1-4c15-b0bd-f2476b965615.png?v=1774632796"},{"product_id":"untitled-041a7764","title":"Untitled (041A7764)","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThis work is by Salha, 16, who often works with Aisha, 13 and Nadia, 14, together as a team at Streetcolors. They did a workshop with a photographer friend of Karine Wehbé’s, the founder of Streetcolors, where they had to photograph their environment, create an album, and do some printing. Wehbé points out that you can see the result of that workshop in their paintings because, since then, they had started making patterns that are almost like textiles, working with shapes and stamps, and creating a whole universe each time. They’re reserved and structured, and they never missed a single session with Streetcolors. They created and played together a lot, and were very happy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sunend","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48464455467225,"sku":null,"price":150.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/49_28b2a3a2-0819-4a63-b085-f2bdca84dce8.png?v=1774633225"},{"product_id":"untitled-041a7770","title":"Untitled (041A7770)","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThis work is by Salha, 16, who often works with Aisha, 13 and Nadia, 14, together as a team at Streetcolors. They did a workshop with a photographer friend of Karine Wehbé’s, the founder of Streetcolors, where they had to photograph their environment, create an album, and do some printing. Wehbé points out that you can see the result of that workshop in their paintings because, since then, they had started making patterns that are almost like textiles, working with shapes and stamps, and creating a whole universe each time. They’re reserved and structured, and they never missed a single session with Streetcolors. They created and played together a lot, and were very happy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sunend","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48464460546265,"sku":null,"price":150.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/59.png?v=1774633775"},{"product_id":"untitled-041a7714","title":"Untitled (041A7714)","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThis work is by Aisha, 13 who often works with Salha, 16, and Nadia, 14, who often work together as a team at Streetcolors. They did a workshop with a photographer friend of Karine Wehbé’s, the founder of Streetcolors, where they had to photograph their environment, create an album, and do some printing. Wehbé points out that you can see the result of that workshop in their paintings because, since then, they had started making patterns that are almost like textiles, working with shapes and stamps, and creating a whole universe each time. They’re reserved and structured, and they never missed a single session with Streetcolors. They created and played together a lot, and were very happy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sunend","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48464477880537,"sku":null,"price":150.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/65_1d9493cd-285b-4eaa-8d1c-b9677f72a163.png?v=1774634524"},{"product_id":"untitled-041a7752","title":"Untitled (041A7752)","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eWalid is one of Mohammad’s younger brothers. He was four when he started painting with Streetcolors. He had an issue with elocution and could not speak, and he had to undergo several operations. Even so, he had an intensity that was rarely seen in a child, says Karine Wehbé, founder of Streetcolors.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eWehbé describes how on his first day with them, he picked up the paper and threw lots of paint onto it, and over time he developed a swinging gesture that was amazing to watch. He would sometimes scream while using brushes in a crazy way and then again upon completion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eThis is Walid’s second painting in this selection and also reflects his problem with elocution and not being able to speak. He makes his paintings very quickly, and he seems to know exactly what he is doing, exactly which colours he intends to use, and exactly what movement he will make.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sunend","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48464493674713,"sku":null,"price":150.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/73_c9ed2cb5-fbd6-424e-ad6b-88eaf3179d3d.png?v=1774634847"},{"product_id":"untitled-041a7854","title":"Untitled (041A7854)","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eWalid is one of Mohammad’s younger brothers. He was four when he started painting with Streetcolors. He had an issue with elocution and could not speak, and he had to undergo several operations. Even so, he had an intensity that was rarely seen in a child, says Karine Wehbé, founder of Streetcolors.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eWehbé describes how on his first day with them, he picked up the paper and threw lots of paint onto it, and over time he developed a swinging gesture that was amazing to watch. He would sometimes scream while using brushes in a crazy way. He was intense and many times he would paint and then scream because he could not speak.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sunend","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48464497049817,"sku":null,"price":150.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/files\/81_becc493e-ad0c-411e-b7aa-e87dac17d77d.png?v=1774635275"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0628\/0672\/0729\/collections\/5_42f8cd3d-bfb6-4350-ab59-1a1dce1b3485.png?v=1774636506","url":"https:\/\/www.sunend.org\/collections\/displacement-children-find-a-voice.oembed?page=2","provider":"Sunend","version":"1.0","type":"link"}