Echoes of Alpha

Echoes of Alpha is an interdisciplinary audiovisual exhibition combining live music, visual art, and video performances to create a powerful, multi-sensory experience.

Inspired by the legacy of AlphaArt, an art gallery once run by the Arsheed family in Swaida, Syria, before it was destroyed by the war in 2011, Echoes of Alpha takes audiences on an immersive journey. At its heart is a 50-minute soundscape, musically narrating the story behind each painting and bringing the artworks to life through sound and live visuals.

The exhibition explores themes of separation from the land of childhood and the transformation of pain into creative metamorphosis. A female protagonist, embodying a modern-day Harmonia from Ovid’s mythology, narrates the inner turmoil of leaving AlphaArt and her homeland behind. Scarred by the suffering endured by their people, Harmonia and her companion Cadmus question the heavens, the earth, and themselves about the human condition in the face of such pain. Their choice to transform pain into artistic creation and embrace metamorphosis leads to radical renewal, breaking the cycle of violence and paving the way for rebirth.

With the resilient brushstrokes of Syrian painters Fouad Boutraba and Aiman Fudda, Echoes of Alpha seeks a reconnection with the primordial force of life.

In the happy places, the caresses float down from the mountains carried by the wind, and the brown earth warms them. The clouds stretch like washing lines where dreams can be hung to let them swell in the air, fresh every day. And life feels like a walk barefoot on the grass.

In the happy places, life is as fresh as it was at the origin of the world. A-l-p-h-a. The beginning. The origin. The creation.