Action Group – Damascus

An art exhibition titled “Writings from the Cell Walls” by Syrian artist Saleh al-Hajjar opened at the National Museum in Damascus. The exhibition features works inspired by inscriptions and messages left by detainees on the walls of several Syrian prisons, including Saydnaya Prison.
The exhibition showcases documentary paintings through which the artist reproduced actual texts written inside the cells, attempting to bring them from their closed space into the public sphere as human testimonies reflecting the experiences of imprisonment. According to the artist, the idea for the project dates back several years, when he was inspired by the words of his friend, the poet Muhammad Taha Amer, who disappeared in 1998, before his name was later found inscribed on a prison wall. The exhibition, according to its organizers, aims to preserve these writings from being lost and present them as part of the visual memory associated with the experiences of detention, thus contributing to their documentation and making them accessible to the public within an artistic and cultural context.